After having not logged in for 2 years, I searched for over an hour on here (like the new vbull theme btw) and was looking at springs.

I am considering ebay springs. I used to have my car lowered but brought it back to stock height because I thought I was going to daily drive it for 4 more years, but I bought a new car (99 legacy GT) about 2 months later and I already gave away the springs. They were no name lowering springs.

I want to lower the car again. I rarely drive it (maybe like once every 2-3 weeks, or for a week straight then not for a while again, aka NEVER) but it is definitely not fun to drive anymore at stock height so I rarely drive it. My car is worth $1000 on a good day, so getting a $1000 suspension set up makes no sense. I don't autocross, although I might maybe once a year.

Through my searches I saw the most unintelligent people sharing stories about their ebay springs, but all of their problems were caused by them being total idiots:

1. "well i hit a pothole and put hole in oil pan" (car too low, jackass)
2. "I blew my struts" (his car was lowered 5 inches, once again jackass)
3. "Ride quality was horrible" (well my ride still sucks with brand new struts and stock springs, it's not a damn cadillac)
4. "It doesn't handle like my friend's [insert $800 setup]" (obviously)
5. "well my axles went bad" (well that's because your car was scraping as it was lowered 6 inches, dumbass)

Crap like that. I plan on lowering it so that the tires are about at fender line, not like it is now:



compared to how it used to look:



I only have pics of what my old ones used to look like, next to stock ones:



Now to the question: Are there any safety reasons for not getting ebay coils? Do they snap? Do they break? I don't drive the car often and I don't drive like a moron all the time. Can I get a set of no name springs like I used to have? Where? I can't find them on Ebay. I don't want to go over $100 with shipping.

Finally, I know you get what you pay for but I rarely drive the car

 

i wouldnt trust ebay springs cause i would be scraed of them breaking, or bowing, or some other defect do to horrible build. I would find some skunk2's. i got mine with tokico blues for 200 used and have been on my dd for 2+ years.

 

eBay coilovers are pretty much hit or miss, some people get great sets and some people get crappy sets. Like you pointed out the dumb people who think eBay coils can take the maximum amount of drop.... even if the springs can take it your stock struts can't. If you plan on only dropping a max of around 2-2.75" then i'd say go ahead and buy them.

 

im getting some sprint drop springs for about 200 shipped. they are a 3"f & 3 1/2"r drop. i dont dd mine either and i plan to auto cross and a little road racing in it as well. i had some ebay coilovers and the seized on me. i hated that and they were at the same height for about 2 1/2 years on some tociko blues. my word of advice. if you want some suspension travel and adjust ability, stay away from ebay or dont drive in the rain/snow and they wont seize like mine.

 

what do you mean by seized, and why rain or snow? The reason I ask is because even though I have the AWD equipped with snow tires it still snows 9 months out of the year here so guarantees can never be made that the car stays home.

and hm i found some sprint springs on ebay but the drop is 3.25". I would have to go measure my car but that seems extreme.

 

also, would keeping my car stored on jackstands prevent strut damage?

 

I have a set of DZ coilovers with 500f/450r rates and had them on my old coupe and pretty low. I had AGX shocks and it rode great compared to my ksport full coilovers (garbage). In a few weeks ill be reinstalling these on my hatch and hopefully with some agx shocks or tokico blues. I had them on for over a year before i picked up some ground controls for cheap. never one problem with them.

 

when i mean seized i was talking about the adjusters to raise or lower the car on coilovers. and yes rain and snow will cake on them as well as dirt, salt, and what ever you can think of...

and yes 3+ inches is one hell of a drop. currently my car has a 1 3/4" fender to tire gap on my 18's. im dropping mine real low and cutting and re-welding my fenders to the needed flare. as for storing the car on jack stands, i think it would get annoying after so long to continuously put the car up and down on stands lol.

 

Why are you calling them eBay coil overs? eBay doesnt manufacture Civic suspension.


Anyways, ignore those idiots that compare the coil over sleeves you buy on eBay to Tein, Progress, etc. If you just want to lower your car and wouldnt mind forfeiting ride quality. I say get them. They are great for the price and do EXACTLY what you want them to do.

I have these on my EF and they are great. My ride sucks, but thats because I have OEM shocks which I will soon replace. As long as you pair them with a good shock combo, you will be fine bro.


So to END the discussion, as long as you dont compare these sets to $800 sets, they are great for the price.

 

hm ok. I just got in with the tape measure and fender level on both front and rear is about 3", and I know it's extreme, but I found a set of sprint springs on ebay for $95 and the drop is 3.25. I might just do ebay. If they seize, I don't care because I am ordering these and taking my car to schwab to get alignment and a balljoint replaced because I'm going on my 3rd set of tires in as many years, and I don't drive the car.

everyone pretty much is on a consensus that ebay refers to the $40-60 (shipping and price) springs that a million companies offer


I don't mind rougher ride. I kinda like it actually because it's just a better down home feel.

Ebay (kind of) springs it is!

 

sounds good mang. i thought ebays were great as well when i first got them. now im going with springs this time around. since the car is getting revamped for double duty. i didnt want the suspension so stiff with the coilovers.

 

just got these

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=320321699348

should be here soon, then I can get alignment, ball joint and new tires and be back on the road shortly.

 

so dude had those on craiglist in my area for 10 bux i bought a hood from him and asked him how they were and he said he never installed them well write on how they worked out for u

 

I had them and got rid of them because they were too stiff for me. Bought eibach pro-kit springs on tokico illumina struts and they sat like this:


Car rode 100x better and handled better.

If you absolutely don't care about ride or handling, you're looking at the right product. If you care about either, look elsewhere.

 

agreed

Those ebay coilovers are definitely cheap. Their spring rates are super high and they overpower OEM-quality dampers. If you are going to use them, you might want to consider performance struts to keep things under control.

 

when I was using the no names back in the day my rear struts were blown completely and the fronts were on their way out and I really didn't mind the ride quality. The stock springs sure don't take the bumps any better than the lowering springs did, but now that I have new struts the rear doesn't bounce out of control anymore.

I'll make sure to report back when installed.

 

ill give my input on this, when i had my 91 civic 4dr dx, i got the ebay coilovers and paired them up with some kyb gr2 struts and of coarse i dropped them all the way down, looked real good but ride was horrible i would litterally bounce down the road and get headaches, but i daily drove this car everyday so i would say there not very daily driver friendly if you wanna ride slammed. There only $50 and well if you like them good and if you hate them well your only out $50.

 

just buy the skunk2 lowering springs, they are inexpensive and they have good ride

 

best price I could find was around $160 shipped. Not prepared to spend that kind of money on this car when I still need alignment, ball joint, and 2 new tires.

 

I'll try these out anyways and if they really blow I can just get those skunk2 springs next year. This is a time where I really don't care if I have to do it over instead of doing it right the first time.

 

I agree with this. The main reason why the ride sucks is because the companies that make these cheap springs do not make them at any specific spring rate or test them at all. They just make them super stiff so that they will hold your car up without breaking.

My brother has some of these on his EG hatch and the ride sucks money *****. I feel like my wind gets knocked out of me when I hit bumps, and that's on the street. I gave my little sister and her friend a ride on it once, on the freeway, and her friend was bouncing all over the back seats. His car isn't "slammed" either.

I've also known guys that had accidents because of no name springs. In the most recent one, the guy was making a quick turn and the car jumped a bit and he lost grip of the steering wheel and hit a parked car. Of course, this might not happen if you drive slow.

I personally would look for a used/cheap set of name brand springs and go with those. I see Eibach's, Tein, Sprint, H&R Etc., sometimes go for about $50 for a used set.

 

just a little input on the Seizing part, Any coil overs driven in the salt belt will do this, my $900 Teins seized up last year, and i've heard of a few guys at school complaining of the same thing, so price really seems not to be a factor in that.

 

Agreed. I got my EG slammed on Maxspeed springs and stock shocks in the back. The ride was absolutely horrible, to the point where no one wanted to ride in my car or go anywhere. I can't believe anyone would set their car up like that.

I can agree with this too. I ended up flipping my friend's EF because I took a nasty bump at speed and the shocks couldn't dampen it, so I lost control.


I've rolled on eBay springs and I've rolled on Tein full coilovers and GC/Illuminas. There is no comparison between the former and the latter, the difference is night and day. Given that I only paid $325 for nearly new Ground Controls/Tokico Illuminas for my EF and the ride is excellent, I can't see why I'd spend any less to get something shitty.

Of course, that's if you actually drive the car. Since the OP apparently doesn't...maybe he should just cut his springs, ha.

 

if u hit a bump on the freeway, with passenger in the rear, ask them how does their head feel?

 

well I put them on and it's not too bad. The car rides alot better lowered than it did raised up like 5"

Top of the tires pretty much line up to the fender line. I've been driving around on it for about 2 weeks now and the ride doesn't suck horribly or anything. It's still a little rough but I kinda like it. I got up to 120 coming off the onramp to the interstate to test the ride and it was rock solid, unlike when the car was on stock springs and I felt like I was going to spin out and die at anything above 55.

The car felt absolutely horrible at stock height with stock springs. At stock height I took it on the interstate and I had problems staying in my lane because the suspension was bouncing around and the car felt like it was leaning. Lowered it was amazing.

Took a canyon run for 3 miles beating the **** out of my car and it handled it beautifully. That road really sucked too and the car did okay over the various bumps and dips.

Verdict: You definitely get what you pay for, I mean I've ridden in a Civic with a $1000 suspension setup and it's obviously nothing near that. The ride's nowhere near as horrible as everyone was saying though.