Well, since the Ep3 has retired to the woman's car since I opted for a tow vehicle and trailer, I took the Tein Type Flex off the car and put some H&R Sport lowering springs on it.

First impressions:

Not bad for a set of springs on stock shocks, but honestly--they don't hold a candle to the way the Ep3 handled with the flex's on there. This is why I urge anyone who wants to seriously track or autox this car that you need a serious suspension to make the chassis work. It's a good chassis--it just needs stiff suspension to take advantage of the ridigity that Honda gave us.

The H&R sports lower the car pretty nice. Not as low as I had it with the flex's, but not too bad for a set of springs. They went on the stock struts easily and since I've done ep3 suspension before, I took special care to not let the axle pop out of the tranny.

Ride is oem like, something that will work ok for her. It would drive me nuts, but again--for just lowering springs I wasn't expecting much. Now she can go over railroad tracks at a faster clip than 10mph

Overall, for lowering springs I give them a They lowered the car about 2", like promised. A good compromise for a street car. And with the rates they are, I don't think the oem shocks will die as soon as some think.

But again, they don't hold a candle to the Type Flex or another good coilover system. But, this pretty much goes for any spring vs full coilover replacement.

 

Solid review - good to have someone like you around, Todd.

 

did you use any camber kits? How bad is the camber on the rear? Is it even worth it for users of other aftermarket springs to swap theirs to H&R? Or is it just better to save for a real coilover setup?

Pics?

 

nice review... i wish i had money to buy your teins... but im so broke

 

i didn't think tein actually made springs made directly for the ep3, just civic's and general and i heard the spring rate is lower than stock. if so why would people put then on their ep3? just curious and looking for some info.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 03 civic si hb &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i didn't think tein actually made springs made directly for the ep3, just civic's and general and i heard the spring rate is lower than stock. if so why would people put then on their ep3? just curious and looking for some info. </TD></TR></TABLE>

dude he is selling tein "type flex" coilovers.. not the tein s tech springs

 

my bad, i didn't see that he stated flex in the above post but what about the tein s springs?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by anjapower &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">did you use any camber kits? How bad is the camber on the rear? Is it even worth it for users of other aftermarket springs to swap theirs to H&R? Or is it just better to save for a real coilover setup?

Pics?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes, I am using a camber kit on the back. Ingalls. I don't know if you'd need one otherwise, but the kit was on there and I didn't feel like taking it off.

I don't know if other Ep3 springs are better or worse from first-hand experience, but all of the research that I did pointed me toward the H&R's. I wanted the Spoon Ep3 springs, but that was more than I wanted to spend on a car that I wasn't going to be driving daily. H&R was cheaper and readily available and the rates and drop were right.

Personally, save the $$ for an aftermarket coilover kit unless you would be satisfied with a little lower drop and a decent gain in handling performance. But, if you want a big leap, full kit is the only way to go. The cars handle great.

 

When I went from OEM to the H&R, I noticed a large increase in stiffness. not so much over bumps, but as far as body roll was concerned, and transitions.

But you are right, they're not nearly stiff enough to extract maximum performance from this chassis. What i really really want is a strut/shock that replaces the front struts completely. With new shocks, I think I could be competitive locally in STS with the h&r springs.

But as you said, they are a compromise. I like that I don't scrape over most speedbumps & steep driveways, but I really wish I could go stiffer at the same ride hieght.