Morning folks.

I have a 94 wagon with rear disks (ABS) and am looking to replace my struts and springs. I don't want to lower it at all but I am looking for harder springs. I'm a carpenter so my car is usually loaded down with tons of tools and I think it's causing the camber to be off resulting in inner tire ware. Also who doesn't like tighter suspension? The car is a little boaty as is so I'm due for new struts any way. Any recommendations?

Thanks!

 

I actually have a spare suspension setup I'd be willing to sell. Koni Sport (Yellow) shocks, and Neuspeed Race springs. Its a great daily driver suspension setup, and one of the best non coilover ones you can get. The springs offer a 2in drop, and are stiffer than stock. But because they are paired with the Koni shocks, they are still extremely comfortable, and not bouncy or jarring like if you ran a lowering spring with stock shocks. You actually used to be able to order these two together in a combo back in the day, so they are pretty much meant for each other. The Koni Yellow shocks are the best off the shelf ones you can get for our cars. I actually have another set on my car currently, that's how good they are. I was keeping this setup in case I bought another Accord to daily, but I wouldn't mind the cash to help fund my motor swap.

Retail on the shocks are about $600-650, and the springs are $250-300 new. SO about $900 or so, plus tax, etc. If you're interested in mine, I'll let them go for $400 plus shipping. I recently bought replacement hardware for them too, since I lost a few pieces over time. I ran these shocks on my car for the last 5 years, so I can tell you they are not blown or damaged at all.I purchased them with 3k miles on them, and over the last 5 years they only have 30k total miles total. Plenty of life left (Koni's when taken care of last 100k+) I just decided to buy an all new suspension setup for my car since I am completely rebuilding it. here is a picture of them (minus the front shocks which I hadn't taken off my car yet. I even have spare top hats laying around I can put on, so its a complete suspension assembly, and you can just unbolt the stock ones, and drop these in.


This pic is these same springs on a wagon so you can see how much they drop the car. Enough to close the wheel gap without being ridiculously low.

Shoot me a message if you're interested, I'd be glad to answer any questions you have.

 

While that sounds great I'm not looking to lower. I live in New England and lowering a car turns it into a snow plow. Also like I mentioned I'm routinely loading my wagon up pretty heavily so that's an other check in the "don't lower it" box.

 

Ah. Unfortunately, you really won't find stiffer springs that don't also lower the car. You're best option in that case may be Ground Control coilover sleeves paired with Koni Yellow shocks. You can crank the coilovers all the way to their max height setting. Will lower .5" at most. That is really the only way to get a stiffer spring, without sacrificing ride height.

 

OK. I think that 1/2" should be acceptable.

So I'm looking at these springs: https://groundcontrolstore.com/colle...7-honda-accord

And these struts: https://www.koni-na.com/en-US/NorthA...156&mk=18&mt=1

?


Is there anything else recommended that I get to compliment these? Do I reuse the bearings on the top? I hate working with springs (when you have them compressed with those threaded rod jobs the springs are little ***** of nuclear fusion and I imagine these would be worse) so I guess I'm going to have to take these to a shop with one of those wall mounted spring compressors. There's no pre-built package that will get me stiffer spring and struts and no lower than 1/2"?

Thanks for the input. It's appreciated.

 

Did some searching and I found the Konis cheap for you. $525 shipped.
https://www.tunersports.com/koni-spo...-2_p19682.html

Also, for the Ground Controls, you actually need the specific kit to pair with Koni shocks. It mounts a bit different than on regular shocks, but its a much better design.
Ground Control Coilover Sleeve Kit - Honda Accord (4 cyl.) 90-97 (Koni) | Evasive Motorsports

As far as anything else, you should be good. The shocks will come with all the needed hardware to use on the OEM top hats, and instructions on how to install everything. The only things that may be worth changing would be the rubber bushings in the top hats, but they usually don't wear out much on Accords.

 

Nice!

Might the SRT.Ts be a better fit for me? Roads where I live are NOT smooth and honestly I don't drive very hard. I imagine the yellow ones would put a hurting on my other suspension components as well. And they're about $200 cheaper.

 

No. The STR.T are not valved to handle much stiffer springs. Meaning they can potentially blow much faster, and will ride terrible. Everyone I know who has used STR.T with stiffer springs has not been super impressed with them....they are not made in the Netherlands like Koni Yellows.
The Yellows will actually do less damage to suspension parts because they are valved to handle stiffer springs, and thus have the damping power to correctly control the stiffer springs. Which in turn is what will keep the suspension smooth and comfortable, while improving handling.

 

Gotcha. I'm going to push the button on these then. What can I expect the change in ride to be?

Also, the bushing on the top: can I get a urethane replacement?

Also, is nobody driving these Accords any more? I haven't been on the forum much in recent years but back in the day a thread like this would have gotten to several pages by now. I'm grateful for all of your input but am also a little dismayed that no one else has weighed in.

 

It will be noticeably firmer, but without being bouncy, or jarring. The shocks do have adjustable rebound damping, so you can mess with that to see what feels best on the car. Just don't ever run the shocks at full stiff. If you want a stiffer ride, go to full stiff, then back 1/3 a turn. But you shouldn't need that much with the standard Ground Control rates you'll be using.

You should be able to order replacement bushings from either Prothane or Energy Suspension. They should be called strut rod bushings.

And forums in generally are just dead now....Facebook groups are where everyone has migrated to in recent years. It good because its convenient, but for technical info they are terrible to search and find....so forums still have some life in them due to that.

 

1996accordlx,

I've noticed discussion forums for Honda's being rather "dead." It's why I joined this one because the other one I was on had maybe three guys that would post. I won't use FB though, far too controversial for me and it seems to be getting worse.

 

How would all the way down on the struts be compared to stock? Like I've said, I'm not looking for a rock hard ride. Just something that corners a little better and that doesn't sag under the weight of my tools.

The Energy kit does have "strut rod bushings" but the entire kit only does the front suspension. WTF? Are the bushings the same for the front and rear struts? Could I just order a second set for the back? Thanks for the tip on Prothane. I'll look into them.

EDIT: By all the way down I meant lest resistance. Lowest setting. Just for clarity.

 

Yeah. Major drag. This forum used to be jumping. Though admittedly in those days I drove a Civic so maybe that part of the board is still busy. And I hear you about facebook. I'd personally rather go bungee jumping with the cord tied to my nuts than use facebook.

 

You hate FB? You and I can be friends.

*I haven't deleted my FB account yet but I have not logged back onto it for over a year. I still have a few friends on FB I contact from time-to-time but I have my GF do it for me since I had the setting that allowed friends to contact my friends on my friends list.

I did that last summer when I was abroad and needed an address to send a post card to.

 

UPDATE:

I just got around to installing these. I installed the fronts and when I lowered the car it was close to 2" lower than previously with the coilover set to maximum. I checked with Koni and I have the correct struts. Cround Control also tells me everything is installed properly and a 1/2" drop is to be expected. I can live with 1/2". I can't live with 2". When I lower the car I can't even get my floor jack out from under it. Ground Control offered to sell me longer threaded tubes for $22 a piece or longer springs for $75 each. They're not calling me back. Just an email. I'm pissed. Since I already installed the fronts I imagine I can't return them. $400 completely wasted. I guess I'll just put my stock springs on the Konis and live with having to replace my rear tires once a year.

Screw Ground control.

 

UPDATE PART 2:

I installed the rear kit and with the spring perch all the way up it lowered the can none at all. I called Ground Control back. They agreed to sell me two longer threaded tubes for the front at $22 a piece. They covered shipping and tossed in a wrench for no extra cost. It got here (MA) from California in two days.

So in the end I'm happy with how everything turned out. I'm completely confused about why the front kit is so low though. I haven't installed the new tubes yet and with the existing ones up at max I'm bottoming out in front all the time. Weird.

 

Can you post some pictures of your coil over system as is and measurements of the springs and what the spring rates are.

 

I can't measure the spring as I have them installed with the longer tubes now and I'm not going to take them out. It was a bitch compressing them with the coilover wrench. My hand is bruised from the process. They are constant rate springs. I can provide an Eibach part number but I'm not sure that will help. I haven't tried to Google Eibach part numbers yet..... Attached are picture of the low clearance with the 4" threaded tubes.

EDIT: The front springs are 8 1/4" 380 Lbs. The tubes they shipped were 4".






Part number GC200.64.67.

This was 5 inches before the install. Here it reads just over 3. 3 1/4 to be exact to the 16th.

Spring perch all the way up/

 

Glad you got it figured out. Definitely seemed kind of odd how the front sat. On my setup I'm running 6" springs and have the coilover close to as high as I can get and still dropped about 2in. And you were sitting the same with an 8in spring. Makes me wonder if they updated the collars at some point to shorter ones (my setup is from like 2012). Because the complaint I've seen a lot of people have over the years is the front not going low enough with the long springs. So by shortening the sleeve, the car will be lower without needing shorter springs. What you wanted to do (stiffer ride with minimal to no lowering) is probably the rare exception to what people buy the coilovers for.

If you still have issues with hitting the bump stops (you shouldn't now at stock like height), you can trim a bit off your bumpstops. I believe the Koni instructions mention it. If you want to further improve your handling, grab a set of sway bars next. Tanabe and Suspension Techniques (ST) make full setups, and Progress makes a rear bar. Tanabe is great because it uses the stock mounting points on the rear way bar (the others use their own brackets and mounts).

 

I was only able to compress the springs in the front with the coilover wrench to just about 3/4" below stock. I guess I'm OK with that. The rear at the max was a 1/16" drop which is completely fine. I have the rear totally loaded with tools and it still rides higher than it did previously.

I did trim the bump stops and dust boots per the instructions. But the problem wasn't hitting the bump stops. It was me hitting things in the road. The tow hitch in the front was scraping. I can't imagine what it would have been like in the snow. Toward the end of the winter here the pot holes can get pretty nasty. You can hear Chinese coming from some of them. I'd probably rip my oil pan out come April driving like a grandmother.

As my car is an LX it doesn't have a rear sway bar. Is a Tanabe bar going to bolt with in? This is what I'm looking for? https://frsport.com/tanabe-tsb009r-s...r-4dr-cd-94-97 Do I need bushings as well? I already installed the Energy front swaybar end links.


Thanks for all the help! It's much appreciated. The car handles like a dream.

EDIT:
Does anyone also have a tire recommendation? In the spring I want to get a rim and tire package. I want something lower profile and sticky but not over the top that will cost a fortune to replace every few years. I also don't want the car to stand out too much. I'm a fan of sleepers.

 

I also had an LX. You basically need to get an EX rear subframe and the sway bar endlinks from the junkyard. Its a super easy swap. 4 bolts holding the subframe to the chassis, and 2 bolts to remove the lower control and toe arms. Swap in the subframe, and bolt back up. The Tanabe sway bar will install right in, and will include the larger diameter D bushings. When I did mine, it was like a 30min job.


For the tires do you plan on using them mostly in spring/summer, and have dedicated winter wheels/tires to use? Because that will obviously limit how sticky you want to go if not.
If you want something that has a good amount of grip, but isn't super sticky with limited life, take a look at Continental Extremecontact Sports. I have their predecessor the ExtremeContact DW and they have been my favorite daily driver tires. Good tread life, good dry grip, and their wet grip is easily one of the best from a performance tire. The new Sports are supposed to be even better. Other similar tires will be Michelin Pilot Super Sports, Hankook Ventus V12 Evo2s, and Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Positions.

This article is a few years old now, but is what I used when deciding on tires a while back. In most cases there are newer/updated versions of these tires available.

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...omparison-test

 

I'm glad you got your issues sorted. Sometimes custom suspension setups can be like that. I have been in the same situation in previous cars where I don't want to compromise height for stiffness and it's difficult with some cars' aftermarket support.

Anyways, when it comes to tires it (almost) all boils down to treadwear. The higher it is the more it lasts but the less grip you have. You have the stock tire on one of these 20 year old cars which is like a 500 treadwear (40k-50k mile tire) and you have something sporty like what I run on my 350z which is a 200 treadwear tire (10k mile tire if that). I autocross this car heavily and I have two sets of wheels/tire. However, if I had to have ONE set of wheels/tires i would pick something in the 300-350 treadwear range. Good performance but also meets longevity in the middle (maybe 20k miles). Other factors are if it rains where you live (look at the grooves on the tire), snow? etc...

Another idea is what some people do which is to go wide, like a 225 or 245, and get a 400 treadwear tire on it. It would be cheaper in the long run, specially if you pick a popular size (like a 245-40) with huge selection.

Just something to think about.