Ok, i wanna put 17's on my civic. Fine. That's easy. If i wanna get rid of wheel gap i can buy lowering springs, but do i have to get the lowering shocks along with them? What happens if i don't get shocks with the springs? Curious me

Later 8

 

you can get them...but while you are in there you might as well do the shocks. Stock shocks work fine though

 

depends on how much you lower it. If you drop it too far you risk bottoming out your shocks, which basically destroys them. If you drop it more than about, I would say 2 or so inches (might be wrong on this), then I would suggest getting shocks that have a shortened rod.

 

springs and shocks compliment each other might as well get them both unless you want to get hit in the wallet to get them installed seperately

 

I only wanna drop it about 1.5 inches to get rid of wheel gap for 17" rims. I just don't wanna cough up the extra $450 for shocks. Wanted to know if stock shocks on a '99 SI were sufficent with a 1.5 drop. Thanks.

 

With a 1.5" drop the stock shocks will be ok...for a little while. I wouldn't ever do it to my car, but it will work for a few miles. Expect your shocks to wear out much more quickly. ot understand why, just think about the relationship between a shock and a spring. A spring holds up the weight of the car, but the shock controls the movements of the spring. Therefore, if you put a stiff spring that has a rate of 300# on a shock that was specifically designed to control the movements of a 200# spring, the shock is not going to be able to do it, the exra strength of the new spring is going to overpower the shock. Honda spent thousands of dollars testing exactly what shock valveing to go with the stock spring rates. When you change springs, you get way away from that optimum balance and bounciness, excessive shock wear, and sloppy handeling WILL result

As an example, a friend of mine put Neuspeed SofSports on his 99 Si with stock shocks. After 30k miles the stocks were starting to show alot of wear, so we put in Konis. He can't believe the difference in the way that the car handles and now wishes that he had put the shocks in from day one...I can't even begin to tell you how happy he was with the difference.

 

I had H&R OEs (.75" drop) and it worked fine BUT the rebound stroke was quite harsh. I replaced them with Konis and it was a big difference. The stockers were starting to get bouncy.

Since you are lowering even more (and likely to have higher spring rates than 270) your shocks may feel like they "work fine" though it is not the optimal configuration. All too often people say something "works fine" merely because their car hasn't broken yet In a way, it will "work fine" but your handling will be a little funny and you will get bouncier as the days go on.

 

yep it totally changes how ur stock shocks rebound...i saw it in SCC mag.....