Just bought the car last night. It's a daily driver/commuter. Pretty high mileage, but still seems to go just fine and needs nothing. It's an automatic with nearly 435k kms on the car, 200k on a rebuilt engine.

I was thinking if she's still running strong in a couple months that I'll stiffen up the suspension a little just for the fun factor.

Any recommendations? Any must-do mods? Not particularly interested in engine mods/swaps etc unless it's something super simple, inexpensive, ultra low risk & well worth doing. More interested in just stiffening it up a little for the gokart fun factor.

I was thinking maybe something like this:
..unless it's total junk & there's something better for the $ that I should consider.

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

I put some Megan coilovers on my 91 hatch and love the ride. Way worth it to go full coilovers. Sway bars also are fairly cheap and stiffen it too. Get some strut tower bars and all that will be nice and stiff.

 

How much are you willing to spend?

For suspension the Koni/GC combo can not be beat really but it's not the cheapest way. You can pick your spring rates and the yellow's shock dyno's are going to support how quality a damper they are.

The tie bars i'd not bother with, sway bars will do you much more. Being a CX you won't have an OEM sway at all, a oem front and 24mm rear is a great combo. It's a little quick you may want to just find some used SI's sways for a low cost upgrade.

But search around and see what you want to do and how much you are willing to spend.

Also as much as you are not looking into much more power an MPFI swap (use the search) is great incase you down the line want to swap and will both make more power and have possibly more milage depending on driving style.

If you can weld, a good stitch welding job in the hatch itself is always nice and free.

 

Assuming it runs perfect, the FIRST thing you should do that will have the biggest impact is going through the cars suspension components and replacing anything with play in it (upper/lower ball joints, inner/outer tie rod ends, and wheel bearings especially). You'd be surprised what a bit of play in these parts will do to the handling characteristics of your old car. Do this before putting any money into aftermarket parts.

THEN a simple setup to my taste, without adding power would be something like this:

15" wheels/tires to your taste, a set of good quality shocks/struts like tokico or koni, some adjustable coilover sleeves to drop the car down (preferably a known brand with a proper spring rate- ground control is popular), a quiet axleback or catback exhaust for a deep low hum, and a nice (TASTEFUL) steering wheel and shift ****.

These will make the car no faster in a straight line, but much much more fun when driving spiritedly (eg. ricing around town or the back twisties). But, like ***$nyper suggested, I'd strongly recommend the MPFI conversion. It's relatively painless if you can run a couple wires, and pretty cheap. It will pick up a noticeable amount of power and COULD make the car more responsive and better on fuel. Plus if you ever decide to do more, performance wise, this is almost a complete prerequisite.

 

Do you mean a 1990 DX hatchback? There is no CX model that year.

 

In Canada land the STD was called CX up there.
@ Speed of Smell good point, always a tune up and or getting it to 100% working order before play!

 

I'm not looking to spend much $ at this point. This is a A-B commuter. I bought the car for $700 & have no intentions of using it as a place to make money magically disappear. lol The whole point of this car for me is to have something super cheap to own/insure/fuel to get from home to work to play while I continue to save money for other priorities.

Don't get me wrong, I LIKE cars - even this one - it's just that I like money and my plans for it in the future more.

A few days after I bought it it started squeaking pretty good when turning. Sounded like a bushing to me. Friend diagnosed it and we went and got a used ds lower control arm from a wrecker and he put it in. It was fine for a couple days and then started squeaking again and is getting worse. Either the used part (which was in great condition) failed, or another one has gone. Waiting for a friend to be available to diagnose it w/ me and then buy used/order online whatever parts I need to get it back into decent shape.

After things like that are sorted out I may do what someone above suggested and get some OEM sways for the front and aftermarket for the rear - time will tell, and depends on how well the car holds up.. But if I can get it into very decent reliable daily driver shape for pretty cheap, then make it a little more fun for a hundred bucks or two, then why not?

And yes, it's a 1990 CX & I'm in Canada. Good to know it was called a STD (standard? ie basic?) in the USA should I need to source parts from American websites. I usually buy things online from the USA and have them shipped to an address just South of the border and then go across and pick them up - so much cheaper than buying almost anything in Canada.