Hi,

I'm new here. Joined to get some help finding parts.

Background: I'm a chick, who's not mechanically inclined.. but learning.. bought "the black rat" off a roomate couples years ago.. 93 lowered flat black dx, metal mullisha skull etc etc lol it was cheap and damn good on gas...


Problem: It appears that the rear struts are blown. I was told the car is lowered 3 inches.. so I'm assuming I'd need shorter than stock struts. However, no parts stores can seem to either a. tell me how tall a stock strut is; b. find me some that are shorter c. tell me WHERE I can even purchase them; however they were kind/competent enough to tell me that if I did try putting stock struts on that it'd probably ride worse than it does now..

Was also told by a friend that since the springs are aftermarket (they're blue?) that I will only need the struts.. as I do have access to one of those machines that supresses the spring.

Any help, suggestions or info? I'm not looking to spend a fortune or supe it up.. just trying to fix the small things.. thanks..

 

First problem is your car is probably way lower than it should or needs to be. 3" is quite a bit. Next, you need to find out what kind of springs you have on the car. I'm assuming that if it's that low you either has coilover sleeves(this means your suspension is ride height adjustable), or, you have really crappy springs(possibly ebay and/or cut junk springs). I've never come across a good brand name spring that lowers a car more than 2.75", just doesn't work well... If you can't find a name or any info on the spring, take some pictures of it and maybe we can figure it out. I'm going to bet it's some cheap junk though. For what it's worth, you may be better off buying new springs, it could save you a lot of money in the long run...

As for your luck with the parts stores, I'm not at all surprised. First, the shocks themselves are not shorter, some aftermarket shocks only have shorter shafts which works well for lowered cars. So, of course the parts store people wont know. Second, they only deal with OE replacement parts and don't specialize in anything but that.. They wont be of much help for this situation, which is why they can't even tell you where to purchase something. They are not entirely correct saying the ride will be worse, it'll more than likely be better, however if you replace your current shocks with OE shocks, they will blow out again quickly. Which is part of the reason why I said it is probably worth buying new springs AND new shocks all at the same time. It WILL be cheaper in the long run, trust me.

Your friend is most likely partially right. You would technically only need the shocks, however, I'm betting these are no name springs, and they lower the car too much. Again, look into getting new springs.

What year civic do you have? Do you still want your car lowered? If so, how low(where it is now, higher, lower...)? What is your budget? How important is ride comfort?

Answer these questions and I can help you get pointed in the right direction..

 

Hey,

Thanks for replying.. I'll give you what I was *told about the car.. not sure if any of it's true... but here goes...

Its a 1993, was originally modified to be used in slalom racing (sp?). Told it was lowered 3 in. A friend got it of a friend who got it off a friend type deal.. Someone said the "lowering kit" (I know absolutely nothing about how you'd even lower something.. only had lifted vehicles before...) was probably worth more than the car itself (said something about 1500 bucks?) suspension and bla bla bla.

They pulled pretty much all of the good aftermarket parts out before selling it, and also replaced the motor with one from a junkyard which was then supposedly rebuilt about 60,000 miles ago.. Not sure how much is true of this story, but the car does run excellent.. especailly for having 216,000.. I've lucked out and haven't had to put any money into it besides tires and oil changes.. and fixing my exhaust repeatedly.

I'd rather NOT have a lowered vehicle due to my location.. frost heaves are rediculous, I've lost my exhaust 4 times now.. My skid plate is rubbed smooth at this point.. the only other things left on it is a "strut support bar" and a radiator thats half the size of a normal one..

and then the springs... the coils are bright blue but I can't get any sort of name off of them... and again I don't have a clue HOW it's lowered.. I just know that it's got about 3-4 inches of ground clearance and that's it.. I can't even hit a speed bump without bottoming out..

does any of this help??

Thanks again...

 

Oh and ride comfort... hitting a minor pothole feels like getting slammed on pavement.. not fun. If you're driving on flat, nicely paved road it's perfectly fine.. Budget.. is minimal at best..and I'll see if I can get pics..

 

I probably wouldn't believe the whole "slalom racing" thing and $1500 suspension and w/e. 3" is way too low for any form of racing, you run into suspension geometry problems... but that's not important here lol.

My best guess is they are either coilovers(you can see threads and an adjustable perch if they are) or crappy lowering springs/cut springs. I can almost bet that with how low your car is, whenever you hit a speed bump, the car slams down and hits the bump stops(if it has them at all..). This abruptly stops the suspension from traveling, hitting very hard like you mentioned, and can cause the shocks to blow out, like you said. As mentioned before, for what it's worth, you'd probably be much better off spending ~$150-170 on some good springs. Raising the car from where it is now with good springs will not only ride smoother, possibly save your tires, it'll keep from you scraping everything and save you money in the long run because you wont have to keep buying shocks.

Tein S.Techs are a very popular lowering spring. They don't lower the car a whole lot, but they do give the car a nice stance. They will raise your car about 1.25" from where it is now. You'll have plenty of ground clearance, the ride will be very smooth and you won't have to worry about shocks as these work well with OE shocks(obviously replace the ones that are currently blown though..).
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Tein-...Q5fAccessories
$155shipped. I know it's probably more money than you'd like spend, but thinking in the long run, you'll be saving a lot of money.