Ok I'm new here I have been on another site since I bought my car car in January. I have a 2000 civic ex clover green. So far I have swapped my interior for si grey added black leather arm rest, console cover, ebrake, shift boot. I put in sound deadening at that time peal and stick with carpet padding. I installed a double din touch screen and speakers. I threw on 17's and am knee Deep in my power heated acura cl front seat install. Hopefully will be done by Monday. So far out of pocket expenses 1500$ for the car and 200$ out of pocket for parts.

That being said I'm looking forward to my next project I would like to tighten up the handling. I don't think I will lower the car ever. It is a daily driver/commuter car. My goal is to make it the best civic it can be on a zero budget. I would like to buy a quality subframe bar and would like to install sway bars. Also any info on strut tower braces. Are these things I can find used. And what is an ideal setup. I live in the mountains of ne pa. Want it to corner well but I don't want to sacrifice drivability. Any parts I need to source for this project would be a huge help bushings idk...

I regularly have four people in the car so it runs heavy. I am considering a long block swap down the road as well. So I don't want to go too cheap and have to replace later. As far as budget if I could find used I'm hoping the parts for the rear would come in under 100$ And I can't justify spending more than 500$ for a top quality setup front and rear.

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

I will be adding integra rear brakes at some point also to get four wheel discs if that changes answers.

 

lose the 17's. that is step 1.

 

You can upgrade to a 94-01 Integra LS/GSR without using a brace

http://www.jdmuniverse.com/forums/view_ekswaybars.html

 

Yea no interest in ditching the wheels until winter. With the wheels I saved weight over steelies and I like the look so again until winter they stay. Not sure what they have to do with body role, buying a good stabilizer set up or really any aspect of my question. I'm not lowering the car and the wheels and tires look good to me.

 

Thanks parts hero. I'll look into that. Anything else constructive would be awesome Ht.

What an awesome write up ^^
It doesn't seem like the other oem sway bars that bolt up to to ex lca's give much advantage. Is 1mm worth the upgrade or should I just look to the aftermarket?

I've been looking at subframes as well. I can find subframes ranging from 35$ out to nearly 200$ as I understand it the subframe is needed to reinforce the relatively thin frame or body so the larger rear sway bar doesn't rip out. I know people love to say "you get what you pay for" but in this case what does extra money get you buying name brand vs made in China?

 

Uh...you didn't save weight over the steelies. Not with 17" wheels. It's not about the actual weight of the wheel, it's about the placement of that weight. The heaviest section of any wheel is the drum. You moved your drum an extra 3" outwards, increasing the affect of the drum weight.

Sway bars are all good and dandy, but you aren't planning on lowering the car? The biggest part of body roll is in the softness of the spring and shock assembly. You want less body roll, you need a stiffer assembly, and stiffer assemblies will be lower.

 

Absolutely, totally unrealistic. I see cheap knock-off parts in your future.

 

The roads out here are not well paved or smooth I need the ride height to remain relatively the same. As for cheap knock offs maybe after all it is just steel or aluminum bars some hollow some not? Not very many moving parts? And I have yet to hear a competitive advantage to using name brand. As far as unrealalistic I'm not so sure you are right. I've set a budget and want to know what is possible for that budget. You are saying what's impossible. But that really isn't much help. I'm asking what's the best I can do with in my limitations.

If you would like to pass along knowledge regarding subframes sway and strut bars price and quality experiences great! If you want to criticize my build or just flame for flames sake me and my ignorance you may start new thread. I'm looking for your experience if you think that sway bars and strut bars won't improve my set up that I have now that is interesting but most of you are taking the time to think about what u think I did stupid or wrong just to make yourself feel smart and really have given little or no insight into the question I brought to you.

 

Why knockoff parts are bad is common knowledge in every "scene", whether it's car building (domestic, import, or euro, everyone knows it), computer building, cell phones,or anything else you might want to do. Knockoff stuff is always poorly made, constructed of cheap materials, less effective than the "real thing", and will always fail well before the real thing will. Also, don't just say "it isn't a moving part, so it doesn't matter". Even if it isn't moving, it still has directional forces being applied to it. Sway bars, and sway bar reinforcements, constantly have pressure on them. Cheap parts will bend, break, and fail a lot faster than quality, name-branded parts will.

It's all summed up in one basic phrase. "Spend the right money now, or spend the wrong money now and again later."

If you want quality, reliable suspension parts for cheap, go to a few local scrap yards and try to pull OEM parts off of wrecked cars.

 

Yes not of course you are correct what I am saying or asking is what are the disadvantages and advantages. I don't think I stated that because it isn't a moving part it doesn't matter I think I was asking what they do differently. Isn't the subframe just to prevent tear out to reinforce the frame increase the over all thickness of the mounting points? If that's the case I do not understand why I needs to pay literally 10 times more for a name. The subframe seams like something I can possibly fabricate. Again I don't know I'm just asking questions. Looking for open minded creative thinking I could just throw top dollar at it but that isn't a challenge.

I like the scrap yard idea my first thought for this was to source used parts but again I don't know how to distinguish quality used from made in China..... Also what oem gives me a real advantage. It seems like the oem gsr parts are only one mm larger is one mm going to be that much better than what I currently have? Are there other factors I'm not aware of?

 

lol how is 500$ a lot for suspension components ? ASR sway bar/brace/endlinks will run you just around 500$ pretty cheap if you think about it. if you're not going to lower it/upgrade the rest forget the swaybar/brace and get some decent tires... AD08's are amazing street-ish tires($800).

 

Did I say 500$ was a lot? I think I said that was my budget... You said upgrade the other stuff? What other stuff would you recommend to improve handling? I see an asr set up for 370$ subframe, rear sway and end link. But it's only 24mm my stock ex sway bar is 22mm. Is the subframe and sway going to be noticeably better?

Also I'm running Bridgestone potenza's they seem adequate so far, run well in the rain and take the abuse of my poorly paved roads.

 

By other things I'm referring to things like bushings/engine mounts/shocks and tires etc. your ex sway bar is NOT 22mm that's the stock ITR size, as for "feel" yes over the 12mm stock ex one. AD08's are basically a track tire and are **** in the rain but grip amazingly without going to an R compound tire.

 

ASR subframe brace and the ASR 24mm sway bar is a huge handling difference. This is part of my setup and many others run the same because these are quality parts. I found after installing the rear sway bar there was some wheel jerking under hard braking so I installed a Neuspeed front strut bar like the one you see there and it fixed that right up.

As everyone is saying you want to buy quality parts so you don't have to buy them again for a long time. Also this is your suspension, not a head unit or HID's..do you really want to risk breaking a cheap knock off suspension part while driving/cornering?

This is honda-tech after all, if you want a forum that will tell you it is O.K to cheap out and it is alright to spend $500 on an entire suspension build then you should check another forum lol.

 

But 370$ for the asr setup 127$ is 500! So it seams I'm on budget and buying the products you guys are suggesting. So I'm not sure why I'm catching flack for my post. Now I did ask about buying these parts used.... Because they take on so much load I am wondering if it makes sense to buy them used due to metal fatigue? I ask what are advantages of one type verse others?

I said $500 for strut sway bars sub frames and end links. You guys seams to not be reading what I'm asking?.?

 

judging by what info you've given about what you plan on using the car for, it's better to spend it on tires or a coilover system first.

 

We understand completely what you are asking, and what you are asking is not feasible on a $500 budget, unless you buy everything cheap on eBay, which is unsafe, or buy everything cheap and very used somewhere like craigslist, and even used quality parts will run you more than $500 for everything. Even shitty function and form coil overs are like $600. You need to seriously either up your budget, or stop modifying your car. Quality and cheap don't belong in the same sentence. My suspension is worth about $3500 and my car is 95% daily driver. You don't like the answers you are getting? Do it right or don't do it at all, and stop asking questions over and over in hopes of getting an answer to justify being cheap. However, if you want to be unsafe though and use knock off parts, that's your prerogative.

 

Replace bushings, they can be bought for 250 from either Suja1 or HardRace. Rear 13mm swaybar will probably run you somewhere around 100 if you can find the integra rear swaybar and buy the proper brackets and endlinks for the ej. And thats it for a 500 dollar budget, what you do with the rest is up to you

 

My 2000 ex runs a 22mm rear sway bar I believe how is 13mm an upgrade?

 

 

YOU NEED STIFFER SPRING RATES AND STRUTS PERIOD, THE END. You can lower your car a small amount (1.5") and reap handling benefits. Sell those goofy 17's, and pick up a set of nice tires for your stock wheels. You keep saying you cant go low because of your crappy roads, how in the hell can you drive on 17's with rubberband tires? http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....omCompare1=yes

 

Lol@stock wheels they're thin as ****

 

theyre also steel. if by thin you mean the width of them, then sure theyre not very wide. however, running a nice set of 195/60/14's on them is WAY better than crap tires on 17's, for ride quality and handling. to lower his car, he will need to ditch the 17's, and with his very low budget in mind, my advice is pretty solid.

 

Someone correct me but the 96-00 Civic (excluding Si) didn't come with a rear bar at all.

 

No they didn't.

Forgive me if someone already said it, I skimmed the thread pretty quick as soon as I read the first post.

ITR or CTR springs & bars with reinforcement of some kind at the rear, Konis. Non-**** tires. Freshen up the bushings for phase two. Done.