Thought I ask a debatable question to see wether I should run front lower extended ball joints or just replace the old bust ball joints with oe spec ball joints. I am aiming for a nice fun dd with functional ride height being able to take the sol to the curvy mountainous roads. Set up consist of Koni yellow and gc coilovers, stock del sol front sway bar, 23mm rear sway bar with necessary parts. Thanks in advance.

 

suspension guru's?

 

No.

 

Thanks for the input.

 

Just sayin. If you knew what extended ball joints actually did then you would know if you needed them or not. The answer is no.

 

I say Yes. I believe you are talking about roll center adjusters, ball joints. Many people used these in Track/Race cars. If you google Roll Center Adjusters, you can make up your own mind.

 

No, you don't need them. If this is just a street car and you're setting your ride height at a reasonable height, you don't need them.

 

No, not on a street car.

 

i do have extended ball join on my civic it is functional for me. thou it is a expensive part. :D

 

And you have them on there why? Just to say to everyone that you have them. Kinda like what you're doing right now.

 

it centers yours cars gravity to the proper alignment of the control arms(bc they are being pointed down when lowered

have em on one of my cars, felt like one of the best suspension mods in a long time

 

This post sounds just like the non-specific commercial for these parts. Lots of words, but none of them REALLY make sense.

Raising the roll center will increase front roll stiffness, similar to adding a larger front sway bar. Yes you will have faster turn-in response. But alone they will reduce front traction and increase understeer. The proper way to use them would be to switch to softer front springs at the same time to take advantage of the increased roll stiffness. In RC car racing, we always raise roll center to reduce grip at that end of the car. It's usually raised in the rear to help make the car more tail-happy. You would only raise it in the front if the car was too tail-happy and you were out of other options.

Funny thing is, Spoon calls this same part bump-steer correction because they also help to reduce bump-steer at a given ride height. Main problem is that this specific ride height is not given. lol Also, each brand probably alters your RC a different amount, so your just shooting in the dark at a problem you may or may not have.

No "specific" tuning info is given about these parts, so your better off saving your money until you can crunch the numbers yourself.

PS: These have interference issues with 11" rotors on 4x100 hubs.

 

not necessarily, depends on the specific setup. Im fine with 12" rotors on 4X100 hubs, although it is very close. what issue are you referring to?

 

As in one part of the car can interfere with another. Kinda like in that thread that I linked to.

 

When running the common Type-R front calipers and redrilled prelude rotors. These rotors sit 5-7mm further in toward the knuckle. The extended ball joints cause the LCA to press the dust shield into the back of the rotor. This happens at some odd point in the suspension stroke. I don't know how common it is, but some people have taken to shaving down the LCA where it hits the rotor.

 

Just to get back to the original question, I have a lowered 1991 CRX with manual steering, and the steering improvement alone makes Roll Center Adjusters (RCAs) worth getting. I’ve got the J’s Racing RCAs for the EF civic installed. Lighter steering with less bump-steer helps a lot if you’re into taking corners. I’m now able to steer into corners and not have to muscle (fight) the CRX like I used to. Also, if your driving style is to make lots of steering corrections while cornering(mine), RCAs will allow you to make them faster with less effort.

If you find the front end has gotten stiffer, you could adjust your front dampers to a softer setting or get a set of softer front springs. I’m tuning my CRX suspension for this part because it was never design for the lowered suspension geometry to begin with.

To see if you need RCAs, just look at the angle of the front lower arms (from the front of the car). If both arms are pointed like this \ /, then RCA’s should help you get them closer to the stock geometry like this / \.

Found out about RCAs after running them on my AE86.

 

Oh ya i forgot about that issue, i got lucky with my setup and everything cleared. The height and travel of your shock/spring will also play a role in whether or not there is a clearance problem.

 

I would wager the decreased steering effort is a direct result from the loss of front grip. But what do I know.

 

I've decided to go with OE replacement ball joints. Thanks for the inputs. Money will go to something else need.