first things first is I'm looking for someone to say to me "I know what you mean"

tomorrow morning before I leave for work I'm gonna throw a 50 pound sand bag on the passenger side to balance out the weight distribution

I'm prolly wasting gas but lately I haven't been using 5th gear while going 70-90 mph on interstate. it seems to help stabilize the vehicle to drive straight at 4500-6000 rpm

I'm gonna go to a pick n pull junkyard soon to get the plastic engine bay splash shield. mine broke off some 30k miles ago

I want to get coilovers and fully build the suspension. but coilovers are out of my budget right now. I assume lowering it about 2-3 inches will help A LOT

I don't care how rough or hard the ride is. my upmost priority is to have it drive perfectly straight down the center of the lane at 100 mph

I don't have a problem with a bouncy suspension, but rather drifting to left and right. its worse when its windy

I haven't had an alignment in a long time. I know I have bad negative camber in rear and slight front left. dunno if toe is bad or not. can't tell. I think my rear camber issue is because of the trailer arm bushing. they're completely shot

the reason I haven't gotten an alignment yet is cus I want to replace all the bushings first

once suspension is built and aligned perfectly I want a bran-new set of 4 tires. I've just been buying 1 at a time used for the past 4 years

so give me some suggestions on what to do to achieve my goal of:
one more thing: going 45 mph I can let go of the steering wheel and it'll drive straight. so I think front toe is decent

 

Why not bring the car back to stock height and do some basic suspension maintenance (struts, ball joints,bushings, tires), and also replace damaged parts?

 

drive perfectly straight at 100mph, but you don't care how bouncy it is?


Wait until it starts to bounce at 100mph.......

 

Lowering it is only going to make the ride harder to handle. Fix your bushings and suspension before trying to lower it. And get an alignment!!!

Cheapest way to lower your car is start hanging out with fat chicks!!!

 

it is at stock height now, and it's too high. but yeah i do need to work on bushings and joints. but i also need stabilizer bars. when i go to the pick n pull this weekend im gonna hope to find the rear brackets and bar from some civic or integra. but i don't think i should install a rear bar without getting an asr subframe brace

haha, i meant my car doesn't bounce. i hate bouncy suspensions

i find it hard to believe that a mild lowering will make it worse. unless of course all the suspension components need replacing/maintenance

as for the engine bay splash shield... i'm sure most of the problem i am having is due to wind getting under the car and into the engine bay. i'm under the assumption that the splash shield help tons. what about a front lip/splitter?

i think i'm about to buy this: http://www.jhpusa.com/store/pc/viewP...idproduct=8602

i really want the pillow ball/spherical ones but that's a lot more expensive...

 

 

Well im not here to lecture you about who,what,when... But im here to answer you.

If you wanna go cheap an lower you car. Buy a ebay coil over set up an pull your top hats off your stock struts an disassemble the shock from the spring. Pull the top strut cover off. Install the coil overs reassemble. Install set height an such.

I dont recommend this way an is not the best way to go about it expecially with needing rear trailing arm bushings an other components. But if you want a quick drop an decent ride for a short period of time as this will severely shorten the life of the stock shocks. An without the top shock cap will not be protected from water/eliments of weather an road...

Good luck with the project.

 

Is this for real

 

This is indeed an inexperience member.

Repair your wandering issue and go from there.

 

As others have said replace worn components and fix the wandering issue which is completely unrelated to your ride height. A sway bar isn't going to help with that either. All cars that came with an OEM rear sway did not have a subframe brace so if you are running an OEM sway bar you don't need one.

 

Sounds like you shouldn't touch coilovers or lowering anything until you solve your bushing issues, that'll improve ride quality and reliability 1000x fold vs throwing money into a deep deep pit.

 

x10 for getting your wandering fixed! Check and replace bushings and get an alignment and you will be good... then save up for and buy a set of coilovers or good replacement shocks/struts.

 

i know for sure i'm gonna replace the trailing arm bushings with the hardrace set soon (unless someone suggests a better brand of rta bushings for about the same price). most likely gonna have to loan that tool from autozone to press in new ones

after i replace trailing arm bushings im gonna check camber and if it's still bad i'm gonna get adjustable upper arms (prolly hardrace ones)

i'm not a fan of the adjustable upper control arms for the front. and based on what i've read, they're not necessary

as for rear toe, the bushings in my compensator arms need replacing as well. looking at the hardrace ones: Hardrace Rear Toe Arm Bushings (Harden Rubber) 92-00 Civic / 94-01 Integra - 6105 - BuyHardRace.com

i've read that getting an adjustable compensator arm is pointless cus you should have the same length compensator arms on both sides and only loosen the single bolt that connects to the chassis. rear toe is already adjustable on stock civics

after i take care of these things i'll get an alignment and hopefully the wandering will be non-existent. may need to replace the strut fork bushings and balljoints though. i want to do all four front balljoints but that's a big chunk of money i don't wanna dish out right now. gonna take care of rear suspension first and go from there

 

 

https://honda-tech.com/honda-civic-d...tions-1998336/

 

been thru it tons

 

Pillow ball are not meant for a street car. They wear quickly. Yes bushings will cause the issues described and lowering will make it worse. Wind getting under your car is not affecting a thing. If that was the case, trucks couldn't drive on the highway.

If you don't use oem, def use hard race. I would recommend replacing all bushings at once so you don't have to continue taking apart and replacing. If one is shot, the rest are or close to being shot.

 

Either you're lying and you haven't, or you're a lazy ****. You know how I know? Because if you had been through it, you would have found Libertariat's great thread on different suspension setups, their reliability, and their costs.

https://honda-tech.com/suspension-br...ility-2967499/

You aren't a special snowflake. There's nothing you're asking that hasn't been covered literally a hundred times before.

 

k i just read libertariat's thread. every word. and i'm pretty sure i've at least looked at that thread years ago because i recognize lib's civic.

you don't have to be an automatic *** because you're frustrated with all the kids who come here asking for help. i'm not one of them. sure i'm not as experienced as most of you but i haven't been in the honda game as long as you. i'm class of 2012

i could spend an entire day doing nothing but searching google and reading threads/posts from every forum related to hondas. and i do just that some days. i read a ton, but you have to realize that you can only learn so much from reading. and sometimes you need to expose your weakness (in this case my noobyness) so others can nudge you in the right direction. just as you have done by giving me the link to lib's thread

you should give me a break and think that hey maybe this guy isn't a total idiot because he wants to take care of his suspension before "slapping a turbo on it"

my plan is suspension -> trans -> engine. most people usually start with rims and other various rice

i shouldn't have made the title of this thread "cheapest way to lower 98 civic", i wrote the title before everything else and was gonna change it but decided to leave it so you all knew what was on my mind. was just trying to spark some interest

the past 3 days i've been driving interstate (70-90 mph) with a 50 pound bag on the passenger side to help with weight distribution and i honestly think it helped

thank you for telling me that. i'm glad there is at least some con to using those. i thought they were the ultimate

i'm starting to realize this

those trucks also weigh a lot more... but i know for a fact that wind is causing /some/ of my problem because i can hear the gusts of wind as it forces the wandering

once i figure out how confidant i am at doing this without a press, i'm going to buy this soon: http://www.buyhardrace.com/product/h...-lx-ex_52.html

thanks for the help

i have a pretty decent job and can afford this hobby. but i'm starting to think i need to get another dd so i can tare the civic down

 

No , it is the slop in your suspension you are feeling when the wind hits your car.

Your going to need a press. I got mine from harbor freight

 

i know everybody either loves them or hates them but I bought some raceland coilovers for my civic. They were relatively cheap and they lowered the car alot. It looks good and so far they havent given me any trouble. I wasnt trying to spend several hundreds of dollars on a lowering kit bc this is just a daily that I use for mpg and for me the racelands were the most budget friendly choice for me.

 

Please don't spread bad advice just because you approve of your choice in being a cheap skate!! You need to go ride in a civic with quality suspension and you will then understand why I have said what I have

 

Bushings and alignment are what's causing your issues. I've driven 120mph on stock suspension and tires for years without any weird drifting issues. I've also driven for years with no splash shield. Replace any worn bushings, especially the rear trailing arm bushings. If you have worn ball joints it will also cause drifting and instability.

The cheapest smart/safe way of lowering the car is with a set of Tein S-Techs and a set of decent OEM replacement shocks like KYB Excel-Gs (formerly GR-2s) or Tokico HP (Tokico blues) but again this isn't your issue.

 

I have decided that I want to get a press

I want to replace every bushing and ball joint at the same time

I am looking forward to driving my car with all new hard bushings

I'm looking for used presses on craigslist but I also might go to harborfreight

I just texted this guy from cl about a 12 ton. but some quick googling suggests it may not be enough for getting out old seized bushings