i have 00 si front suspension and i put tractions bars on my car in 05. i quickly found that they had seriously hurt my turning radius. as well as scuffed up the inner lip of my wheels whenever they contacted. i also didn't like they way they mounted to the shock bushing/fork on the SI LCAs. i would up having to put 5mm spacers on my wheels to get some of my turning radius back, and to try to cut back on the horrible grinding noise whenever i turned.
i aquired a 2nd set of SI lcas and welded tabs to them. i just got them back from the powder coater today. i also got a HardRace bushing set to go with it. so far i have only been able to get the upper control arm bushings in. i will get the LCA bushings pressed in hopefully tomorrow. i'll try to do a review comparing them to my old Energy Suspension set up by the weekend if all goes well.


i was hoping to see if anyone else has done the same thing to their 99-00 SI LCAs to accommodate traction bars and how theirs worked out
full race bushings in the UCAs

the full race kit is nice. it has replacement bushings for everything on the car. the only down side is they aren't in any kind of marked bags and there are no instructions. you have to figure out what goes where on your own.

 

what it is buddy... I think you'll find the HardRace rubber bushings to be a big improvement over crap polyurethane.

Will you be using the same traction bar, just with the mount points on the LCA's moved inward slightly?


Modified by PatrickGSR94 at 4:05 PM 12/4/2007

 

get the right offset on the wheels and they wont rub.

 

yea, same traction bars. we'll see.. i really want to see if there is any improvement after i swap out the rear trailing arm bushings for the hard race

and what offset should i have used? hayabusa160 i currently have the old flik blast, the slipstream knockoffs, wheels, not sure of the offset of them though

 

from my experience anything over 40offset will rub on the inner fender when lowered a decent amount.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hayabusa160 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">get the right offset on the wheels and they wont rub.

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With traction bars attached to the lower shock fork bolts, he would have to go with lower offset wheels to push the wheel farther out from the hub and also the traction bars when turning. This would likely result in scraping the edge of the fender with the outer tire sidewall.

FWIW, I fit those exact wheels onto my car (we swapped wheels one day) and on my Integra, the rear tires were less than 1/4" from clearing my rear wheel arches, 205/50-15 I believe.

What trailing arm bushings are you using now? If poly, then yeah they're probably binding up like a b*tch right now. I saw a thread on the road race forum where a guy switched from poly RTA bushings to Mugen rubber bushings on (I think) an Integra Type R, and he saw a huge improvement in grip around a track, and was able to push the car harder without the rear end breaking loose so easily.

 

oh yea, i forgot we swapped wheels once. the tires are 195 avs1000s now, i think when you used them they were the 205s kuhmos.
Pat, you weren't kidding these tires get LOAD as the wear down!!!
yea i read that thread too Pat. that's why i mentioned it. wanna come down here and help me change them?!

as for the wheels, they are rubbing on the traction bars not on the fender liners. these wheels have never contacted anything but the traction bars since i put them on. they come close to scraping the edge of my fenders with the 5mm spacers in.

 

heh, I'm running Kumho Ecsta SPT's on the 16's now and just got a set of the same in 195/55-15 for the stockies.

They're still kinda noisy but not quite as bad as the ES100's, and the tread and sidewalls seems a bit more broad-shouldered than the ES100's.

 

a quick update, the install went smoothly. The ES bushing make removing and reinstalling the shock forks a bit difficult. The hard race once were just like having the OEMs back in in that regard. So far i have heard no squeaking from the front, but then it only squeaked when it got really cold. i will know for sure when it gets cold again. i want to say it rides smoother but i honestly can't make that call since i haven't driven the car in almost a month. One thing is for sure, i have my turning radius back and man does it make getting into and out of tight spots so much easier!
In that time i kinda forgot what it was like to drive that car! i guess we will really find out when i hit the next autoX

 

your using the traction bars during auto-x? i had traction bars before and found that they made my car handle like ****, just very finicky/twitchy in corners.

 

which ones did you have?
and did you put any preload on them.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jeffy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">your using the traction bars during auto-x? i had traction bars before and found that they made my car handle like ****, just very finicky/twitchy in corners. </TD></TR></TABLE>

You probably had poorly-designed ones that would bind up as the suspension moved up and down.

 

no its more just a simple fact of forward and backward movement. during cornering the wheels actually need to move a little or it has negative effects on camber especially when turning

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jeffy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">no its more just a simple fact of forward and backward movement. during cornering the wheels actually need to move a little or it has negative effects on camber especially when turning </TD></TR></TABLE>

Say what? Wheels should NOT be moving forward or backward.

I've heard plenty of reports from people using traction bars and they say it improves handling in all conditions - drag racing, autocross, road course, even street highway driving.

 

I woould also like to know about ride quality? Would you say that the Hard Race bushings could be used on a dd?

 

i used the ES units as daily drivers. so my opinion is obviously going to be yes.
I like the hard race better in that they are lower maintance. i would take apart my ES units clean them and relube them every so often. plus when it got cold the ES squeak.
i want to say its not quite as harsh with the hardrace bushings but 1) i haven't driven the car in about a month 2) i found out my tire pressure was a lot lower than it should have been. so i can't give you a true honest answer to the ride quality, sorry

 

I know its not going to be a soft ride but would like something solid but don't and won't just put the factory bushings back for i see that being kind of pointless.

 

so any input on using these on a dd. I understand things might be stiff and what not but does it make the ride jarring or anything? Im on sloppy *** suspension that needs some help and don't want to just use oem

 

For a daily driver, replacing the old worn OEM rubber bushings with brand new OEM rubber bushings will probably be a noticeable handling improvement, and also help maintain alignment settings for a longer period of time. You probably don't really need anything more than that for a DD.

 

also curious i was reading another thread and you mentioned about resetting your bushings? i think that was it so everything is in alignment, are there any other post about doing that?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PatrickGSR94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Say what? Wheels should NOT be moving forward or backward.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

correct, the DC, EK and EG all have a bit of movement because of how it is designed.


The EF and DA have less of this issue because they have "traction bars" but it is still there because there is rubber in the front suspension.

 

where can u get the master bushing set from hard race? Their website doesn't have the full sets anymore im not sure whats going on?!!

never mind i had to refresh it like 10 times but finally found everything!


Modified by pumafeet10 at 7:44 PM 12/27/2007

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slammed_93_hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The EF and DA have less of this issue because they have "traction bars" but it is still there because there is rubber in the front suspension.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Spherical radius rod bearings FTW