I have a '94 Civic coupe. I noticed that the rear end of the car feels "loose" when I hit a bump or am really taking corners a little too harsh. What is the best way to tighten this down? Sway bars? Strut bars? I'm a newbie to this part so thanks for any advice.

 

what shape are the trail arm bushings in? Has it had an alignment? struts blown?
or air pressure in your tires.All have made my car feel sloppy.Just things you can check if you haven't already.

 

Trail arm bushings are in good repair. Recently aligned, struts are good, tire air pressure is good.

 

By recently aligned do you mean a front-end alignment or 4-wheel? Do you have a printout of the alignment? Sometimes it can be a little off without any way to adjust it and they will just leave it that way, but they're supposed to tell you. Jack the rear up and have a strong person try to wiggle each rear wheel top to bottom and side to side. If anything is loose, watch under the car while the wheel is wiggled and see where the problem is. Crappy tires with weak sidewalls can give similar problems as well.

 

What size tires are you using for front and rear?

 

4-wheel alignment done within the past 5 weeks. I'm currently running 205/45/16 tires all around.

 

are the rear struts in good condition? try pushing down on the back of the car and bouncing on it, does it bounce easily? when you hit speedbumps does the back of the car keep bouncing like a pogo stick for another 20 feet after the bump? this means the dampers are blown.

what do you mean "loose"? plz be more specific, you mean the back end bounces and jumps around? could just be really lightweight in the rear... or you mean loose like something is rattling and doesn't feel solid, like odd shifting of the rear under cornering load? Or loose like body roll (back of the car acts like it's going to roll the car?)

I would prescribe a rear sway bar, a tie bar for the top of the struts, and maybe a lower tie bar for the insides of the control arms tied together. They should stiffen up the rear, but there are different kinds of stiff needed to fix different kinds of loose.

 

The shocks are good. The car does little bouncing after a speed bump. No sounds like anything is rattling but it just feels very loose in the rear end. lol It's mainly under hard driving conditions like hard corners, etc.

 

This is off of Ebay.com, but nevertheless... It's only about $55 shipped.

I'm not so sure if it matters with these type of parts if it is "no name" off of ebay or a well-known brand for things like this. Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

How is Ebay for suspension parts? Other than coilover setups, obviously...