Hey guys. I got coilovers on my 91 civic i find it looks best when the fronts are coiled all the way down. But the ride is terrible. If I coil them up the ride is a bit better but has more bounce in it. What do i do?? I also notice that when i jack the car up the springs sit loose and I can freely move them. Is that normal???? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

First off what kind of springs do you have, that could be part of the problem right there. Yes when you jack it up its okay for the spring to move freely, its a shorter spring then stock and thats why your car will sit lower. What you need to do is get some aftermarket strusts, like Koni's or something to that afect. That will help smooth out the ride a tone.

 

We need more info, bud.

What brand are the coilovers?

Were they made for your particular model of car?

What shocks do you have them on?

Did you put them on backwards?

Most coilovers, if you have them set up so the car is severely dropped, will be loose when they car is jacked. Yes, that is somewhat normal.

How low is the car when "you find it looks best"? Is this when you have an inch of tire tucking into the fender?

Alex

 

chances are your stock shocks are wore out/busted. Get some new ones and it should ride fine.

 

Its your struts man....they are blown. If your car bounces lots after hitting a bump, then the struts are gone...dead....fucked...etc.

I should know. My CRX is like that now...but my Konis go on this saturday...

 

i dunno what brand they are they came with the car when i bought it, and im ridin on factory struts, how do i know if there on backwards??? And it looks nice with the tires tucked in the front

 

Giving us info about what color the springs and sleeves are might help us identify them. Blue sleeves are Maxspeed, I think...(not the greatest). You would be lucky if you had red springs and red sleeves with a goldish perch. That would be a Ground Control coilover right there.


About getting new shocks, you should consider getting 3g (86-89) accord struts as they fit, but you will have more travel before you hit the bumpstops. Here is some info on the subject...
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=399992

Last of all, tucked tires probably don't offer the best performance. If you are going for looks because you only drive on the street, do whatever you want. After you decide exactly where you want to be (height-wise), go get an alignment because you will definatly need one. One additional piece you will need if you are lowering a significant amount is a camber kit. This will correct your camber (keeps your wheels from leaning in like this /---\) and give you tire wear closer to stock. Otherwise, your tires will be eaten alive.

Get back to us.

 

Get aftermarket shocks either from tokico or kyb. Its definitely your shocks, there no good.

 

thanx everyone BIG help!!!

 

Does is matter if your spring is upside down? I have ground controls and somehow during the install both springs got flipped.

 

coilvers are supposed to have a gap when u jap them up mine does. just realing right before the spring hits the top when lowering the car

 

beta13, both ends of your springs are the same, correct? (I would think this is the way it would be since they are coilover springs)
It shouldn't matter if springs are upside down, but I'd like to hear if other people's opinions differ.

 

tommotorsports.com



not GC


[Modified by shorti, 2:41 AM 3/29/2003]

 

You can't go by just colour to identify them...my R1 coilovers look exactly like the Ground Controls, same colours , same perch....

 

Its not the spring kit its your shocks...raise the car up and change your shocks.

 

oooook, Thanks for giving him some info so he has a better chance of correctly identifying his coilovers. I would have told him to go see if there was any printing on the springs or sleves, but I figured color was something any monkey could remember day to day. ...at least for starters on the process...

So Mister, if you still want to know the brand of your coilovers, post up as much as you can about them including any colors and printing on them. There seem to be plenty of people that have added to what I said to contradict it, so you can be sure I won't be the only one looking.

BTW shorti, the tomsmotorsports.com site you posted about dosen't work, at least for me. Maybe it is a site of the past. Anyway, are those R1 coilovers? If anybody has tried GCs and R1s, how do they compare. I guess a more interesting thing would be if you had the choices of spring rates when you ordered, or if not, what the spring rate you got was. (I'd be interested in getting a set of realitivly cheap coilovers with good sleeves and perches so I could upgrade the springs at a later date.)

Kevin

 

What kind of coilovers did you get? If you got cheap ones, you get what you pay for. The lower your car, the harsher it will ride.

 

oooook yourself

You guys are making this more complicated then it needs to be

He told you what the problem was...the ride is rough

He told you he slammed the car..." i find it looks best when the fronts are coiled all the way down/And it looks nice with the tires tucked in the front"

Any kit slammed on stock shocks will kill all travel

therefore can you have a nice ride with no travel...NO

He said he raised up the kit and it was bouncy...of course its bouncy because he has stock shocks..."and im ridin on factory struts"

well if he put neuspeed race springs on stock shocks it would be bouncy

if he put eibach prokit on stock shocks it would be bouncy

if he put a ractive kit on it would be bouncy!

So what does it matter what kind of springs he has r1 weaponR ractive or GC...it doesn't!

The solution is to raise the car up for some travel and replace the shocks.

Like what are you guys going to tell him if he comes back and says that he has GC's with a 450/500 rate uuhhhhh you will say to get some shocks!

At this point it doesn't matter what color the springs are red/blue/green/grey or orange with pink dots the fact is he has stock shocks and he likes his car "tucked".

 

Sorry 89civicdx, I wasn't "oooooking" you...you just happened to have the last post. The comment was directed more toward shorti and 90ef, but at no point did I mean it to be negative. You are correct that his problem is a result of being so low and having stock struts. If his springs did happen to have a higher spring rate, I would suggest higher quality struts, not KYBs which have a record of not lasting extremely long under tough conditions. Their limit to the amount of lowering which can exist to still be applicable for their warranty suggests that they are aware of the fact. Some manufactures probably have a better reputation and higher quality.

One item that Sir. alicedout may have to take care of is the issue of having his upper control arm hit his inner fender. To resolve this issue, you would need to cut a hole as in this picture.


89civicdx, the fact remains that I did suggest new shocks as a part of my first post in this thread, and the interest in the coilover brand was in my own interest, but I would certainly let alicedout in on any conclusions I made with his info.
My suggestion was to look at 86-89 Accord shocks as he could obtain more travel with them than stock sized replacements (even if they are performance orianted shocks).

The ride height in the following picture is a result of using the mentioned shocks in combination with skunkworks (skunk2) coilovers, and as 89civicdx said, (to a point) the springs don't matter, just the shocks, when trying to fix your problem.
Skunkworks coilovers + 86-89 accord struts = the above ride height
I urge you to read the wonderful post including pictures and descriptions of Ham'd Hatch's suspension.
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=399992
One last note about the accord struts, the fronts are the only ones that make the difference, the rears are exactly the same. Sorry for any confusion.

Thanks to Ham'd Hatch for all the pictures in this current post.

 

ok no problem

 

Just trying to help

Another method that I forgot to mention is knocking off the brake line bracket. This will let the shock sit down in the fork more. You will want to check clearance with the axle, I guess. You will also have to make a new dent for the fork bolt to hold...or so I read.

 

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=378981




[Modified by 89civicdx, 11:25 AM 3/29/2003]

 

http://www.tommotorsport.com/

there, that should work
i got my springs for $240 CDN, it's $150 US posted on the site
spring rates are 500 front and 400 rear

i don't mind if they're cheap......i'm putting them on today, i'll post pics and comments soon

 

so it is okay to put it together WITHOUT the brake line bracket? Won't this cause damage to the brake line?

 

use zipties