The year 2000 Honda Accord sedan isn't well known for its handling. What kind of parts are available to reduce body roll in higher speed turns? I'm thinking lowering the car on springs with original suspension would help with handling but it would sacrifice ride quality. I'm open to suggestions so please give me your opinions.

 

If you do get lowering springs, you will want to upgrade the shocks at the same time. Your OEM shocks are not meant to handle being lowered, as well as the stiffer spring rate the lowering springs have. Plus they are most likely high in miles anyways. All this will lead to the blowing very quickly.

As far as suspension goes....as long as you stick with a good brand, it doesn't matter what you get. Eibach, H&R, Tein, Neuspeed, Tanabe all make good springs. Some make multiple models with different drops. Do some research into what drop you want, and choose the springs that closest match. Most lowering springs when equipped with quality shocks will ride nice. Granted it will be stiffer than OEM, but should not be bone jarring.

The shocks are where most of the ride quality will come from. The higher quality shocks you buy, the better the car will ride generally. Stay away from OEM replacement shocks like Tokico Blues, KYB GR2, Monroe, Gabriel, etc....you want a shock that is capable of being paired with a lowering spring. Your cheapest decent option is going to be Koni STR.Ts. They are around $300 a set, and while not amazing, are a good entry level shock capable of being paired with a lowering spring. After that come the KYB AGX and Tokico Illuminas. But if you are going to spend the money for either of those, you might as well spend a few more dollars and get the good stuff.....Koni Sports (Yellows) or Bilstein HDs. Both of those are great quality.
Me personally if you wanted something good, I'd run Eibach Sportline springs with Koni Yellows. Will give about a 2in drop....which is good for daily driving, and will make the car look much better, but not too low that the car will scrape or rub. Overall a quality dail driveable setup. You could also look into Tein Street Basis coilovers. They are very comfortable for daily driving, and are height adjustable to suit your preference. Either way, you're looking to spend about $500 on a good setup. Any less, and you will have to buy crappy products that won't ride as good.

As far as other mods to improve handling.....look into sway bars. Eibach, Tanabe, Suspension Techniques, and Progress. I'm not sure exactly who makes stuff for the 6th Gen, but sway bars make a great improvement in the overall handling dynamic of the car.

And most important actually......your wheel/tire setup. Small OEM wheels with large donut tires only help make the car drive like a fat pig. If its in your budget, switch to a larger wheels diameter....for 6th Gens, 17s will fit great with a mild drop. You don't need anything crazy....something 17x8 would fit great. The real difference will be the tires.....most tires for your OEM wheels are meant for economy.....they last forever, but grip is severly lacking. Upgrading to something like a high performance summer tire, will significantly increase the overall responsiveness and driver feel of the car.

 

Damn thanks. That's all the info I need.

 

Great post! For the most part you've also answered questions I have. I have a 99 sedan with a j30. I wanted to get enkei rpf1's but didn't know is I should go with a 16/7 or a 16/8 wheel. Upon reading what you posted I'm now leaning towards the 16/8. But what I don't understand is offsets. I'm just going for a clean cruiser so a squared stance is what would be going for. I don't want the tires to poke out or anything like that. And I'm also not familiar with tires sizes for that size wheel. So my question(s) are...any reccamendations on offsets?what tire size? And definetly wanna get rid of wheel gap so with that rim and tire size,and wanting to get rid of wheel gap how low would you reccamend
Thanks in advance

 

Offset simply makes the wheel fit the car. Plus moves it out and Negative moves it in. The higher the number the more it moves. I think your car has a +55 offset, so you probably should look for something, say, +40 or higher. No way to tell until you try it, but look around at what other people are using and see what fits your needs. I have a 94 and use +45 on the front and +40 on the rear because of my tire and brake choices. Others use different offset.

 

I'd highly recommend going with 17s. The Accord is a large car, and 16s are still small for the car....plus 16in tire sizing is harder to match perfectly than 17s. 17s let you run big enough tire to not damage wheels super easy, but small enough you aren't on donut tires with no handling feel. Go with 17x8 +45. Should fit with no work. I'd personally roll your fenders up front to be safe, but it is not necessary. With the 17x8s, pair them with either a 215/45/17 tire or 235/40/17 tire. Both fit. Its just preference if you want something a little beefier (235s) over the 215s.


And as far as suspension....just to eliminate wheel gap, something around 2in or so of a drop. I'd recommend a basic coilover setup like Tein Street Basis or Street Advance. The Street Basis can be had for the same price as buying a shock/spring setup. And you have height adjustability. They are stiffer than your OEM suspension, but still very comfortable. Probably the most comfortable entry level coilover out there. You can't go super low on them, but that doesn't seem like you would need that any ways.

 

Perfect!! You've answered everything. Appreciate it. So when I looked for eibach Springs I only seen lowering 1.5" front and back and that was for all years 1999-2002. Will that rid of wheel gap

 

Perfect!! You've answered everything. Appreciate it. So when I looked for eibach Springs I only seen lowering 1.5" front and back and that was for all years 1999-2002. Will that rid of wheel gap

 

I did some digging, and I found this photo. Based on the 1.5in drop, it doesn't quite get rid of all the gap. A good amount yes, but not all of it.






That's why I recommended the Tein Street Basis coilovers. They will run you about the same price as springs and shocks, and give you the ability to adjust the height to your liking.

You can get them here for $520 shipped.

http://www.tunersports.com/tein-stre...ss2_p4635.html

 

I was hoping to keep the OEM wheels. I actually really like how they look. I was planning to polish them to mirror finish and mount a tire with smaller sidewall, but bigger wheels just seem better. I want more contact than the OEM width gives me.

Here's my beater as she lays. I'll upload a tech thread for her soon. Pretty roughed up on the outside, but it's what's inside that counts. I just bought her for $2500 December 2015... The biggest gripes are the handling and the rough idle I'm getting. It is high mileage so these things are normal age-wear, but they still need to be addressed.

 

You'll definitely want bigger wheels. You don't want to just reduce the sidewall size of the tires with your OEM wheels, because then the overall tire circumference is off from what the car is calibrated for.

If you go with an aftermarket wheel, something 17x7 to 8 with a conservative offset should fit with no issues. It won't poke or anything either. Throw on some decent 215/45/17 tires and you'll have a lot more grip to play with.

You can always keep your OEM wheels too....when I got my first set of wheels I kept the stock for winter/wet driving.