stang99x

Hi all. I've been on some other forums, they are a little slow in responding so I thought I'd pose my questions here. (2005 Accord EX-L 4 Door V6)

First, I'm by no means a car rookie. I' ve been working on cars for the better part of 20 years. However, I've always been into American and V8's, which while the basic principles are the same, the goal here is different. I'm a private investigator and the car has to remain as bone stock unassuming as possible on the exterior. That being said, this thing handles like a bag of @$$. I'm looking for suggestions on ways to just tighten it up a bit, get better handling at higher speeds etc. I cannot lower this car. I've noticed at 80mph or so it seems that this car wants to wander around the road a bit. I've read others saying similar things, so I figure perhaps this is a common issue. This car I have now has 225,000 miles on it. It needs some new bushings, joints, etc. Before I go to buying and replacing all these parts, I wanted to see what upgrades you guys would suggest in order to maintain the stock look, but enhance the performance of the cars suspension. I've already ordered a strut tower brace. I've read quite a few threads saying that swapping Acura TL front and rear sway bars is a pretty decent upgrade to the factory Honda ones. My thing is, i'm used to using sway bars that were like 1 5/8" thick, and the ones on this car look like the size of a #2 pencil to me. So, any suggestions or ideas are appreciated. Just remember, the exterior look cannot be changed in order to remain as "normal" as possible.

Thanks

TunerN00b

1) Tires
2) Replace worn / damaged bushings and tie rod ends
3) LSD
4) Swaybars
5) Spring rubbers
6) Upgraded shocks

Everything other than tires is an order of magnitude less important, in terms of actual handling, but #2 should be done no matter what with that many miles on the car.

Strut tower bars / braces are (close enough to) useless (to ignore).

1996accordlx

- Better tires (non-passenger car tires, get something with better grip).
- New bushings. OEM are rubber, but you could upgrade to polyurethane if you want something stiffer.
- Larger sway bars.

You could also look into a suspension setup that won't lower lower the car, but will upgrade the handling. Koni Yellow shocks and Ground Control coilover sleeves would be a good choice. At maximum height, they would only lower the car .5 inches. With stock wheels and tire size, this 1/2" drop would not even be noticeable. The Koni/GCs are an excellent quality setup that improves handling, but also keeps the ride quality very comfortable. Its what I am on, and I absolutely love it.