I have a 2000 4-door civic with 215/35/18's on it and i need to lower it, does anybody now whats the most i can lower it without having problems(does anybody have a civic with 18's on it), like would 1.5 front,1 inch rear drop be ok???thanks

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HTechBB &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Go with the 1 inch drop, and to keep those expensive tires cool. Get yourself a camber kit. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I guess I'll disagree from experience from doing over a hundred of lowered Integra and Civic alignments.

Do NOT get a camber kit if your drop is not over 1.8 inches - it will be a waste of money. Also correcting camber with 18'' tires will more than lilely cause a lot of scrubbing - you don't want that do you?

Toe kills tires so much worse than camber, so drop the car about 1.5 inches and get a 4-wheel toe alignment done and call it a day. Your car is allowed a full -1 degree of camber up front and a full -2.0 degrees of camber in the rear with factory specs. This is with stock soft suspension, so a little more negative camber won't hurt with stiffer springs and in fact a little negative camber helps handling.

Lowering your car will probably get the front camber around -1.5 degrees, which is perfectly fine for daily driving. I personally run -1.8 degrees of camber up front on my 1990 hatch, -1.5 degrees of camber up front on my 92 B18C5 hatch, and -1.5 degrees of camber up front on my 92 B16A2 hatchback and not one of them wears tires unevenly even after years of driving like this on soft compund tires because the TOE is perfect.

BTW:

No matter what you choose to do, I'd probably look into buying some struts too. Lowering springs are stiffer than stock, and running them on stock struts, especially old ones, will cause the car to ride like ****. Regardless of what people say it's not the springs or coil-overs themselves that ruin the ride, it's the lack of matching struts.

 

I dropped my civic around 2 inches it is to my understanding that the negative camber that I have actually makes my car handle better than it would without. The only problem is my tires will go bad quicker

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B18C5-EH2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Do NOT get a camber kit if your drop is not over 1.8 inches - it will be a waste of money. Also correcting camber with 18'' tires will more than lilely cause a lot of scrubbing - you don't want that do you?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Very, very true. This man knows what he's talking about.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bgoetz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I dropped my civic around 2 inches it is to my understanding that the negative camber that I have actually makes my car handle better than it would without. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes, camber helps cornering performance.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bgoetz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The only problem is my tires will go bad quicker </TD></TR></TABLE>

See previous post.

 

the setup I have on my car is tokico gas shock and pro-kit springs and I don't rub and I have a lot of room to increase wheel size. handling and ride isn't great, but not bad. I have 17'

 

You have 14" wheels Shane, not 17". Your car rides just like it did when it was stock. My CTR shock/spring combo rides worse than yours.