Civic Si Lowering
 

Whats up forum,
First let me start by saying that this site rocks.
With that being said, I own a 99 si that I love and its bone stock, so im looking to get it fixed up. I like the stock rims so i'd like to keep them for a little while but i hate that gap. so Im looking to lower it but i cant stand when i see civics or civic hatch driving by and they look like they are sailing at see bouncing up and down for a small rock.
I would like to get advice from you to see what you have used and how you liked it or still like it. I want something to drop about 1.5 to 2 inches just to take care of that gap. SO i want something that wont be bumpy just a nice strong spring that wont shake me when i hit a small bump. Now i know that this all has to do with the spring rate, i think..... and i read the sticky thread about this, and im not asking the functions, im asking what have you used and liked.
please help me out and yes its obvious im a newbie.
Thanks

'94 EX, so not a 6th gen, but here was my setup:

Ground Control coilovers
KYB AGX struts

The drop would have been hard to measure given that they're coilovers, but I'd estimate it was between 3" and 3.5" in front and somewhere between 3.5" and 4" in back. The ride wasn't the greatest (it softened up a lot once I went back to the steelies), but it wasn't bouncy, either. Granted, my suspension needed to be pretty stiff to support the drop I had, but still.

Pics:
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If you're looking at around a 2" drop, try checking out Tokico HP "Blue" struts and Tein S-Tech springs. I don't have first-hand experience, but I've heard very good things. I believe it's around a 1.7" drop up front and a 1.9" drop out back and I know for a fact that the spring rates are barely stiffer than factory springs, so the ride quality should be outstanding.

(Oh, and the bouncy ride will always be from improperly dampened suspension (ie, the shock absorbers don't match the springs properly), which can be caused from not having stiff enough struts or having worn shocks/struts). If you'd like (for the purpose of learning), I can go into detail as to why... if not, we can leave it at this :D


And if anyone hasn't greeted you yet, welcome to the forum :D

Thanks alot for the welcome and the info i really appreciate it. I would also like to learn more about it, but no hurry if you want to take your time to reply its cool, I know it can be annoying trying to teach a newbie haha but thanks for the reply.

All righty, here it goes:

When you hit a bump/dip on the road, the springs compress and expand. After the bump/dip in the road, the springs will want to keep compressing and rebounding in smaller and smaller amounts until the oscillations eventually stop. The job of a shock absorber (technically different than a strut but I'll get into that later) is to dampen these oscillations. If the shock absorber is too soft (think 150,000-mile shocks with lowering springs) for the spring, it won't be able to properly dampen the oscillations, causing the spring to keep compressing and rebounding, causing the "bouncy" ride you referred to.

If the shock absorber is too stiff, you're looking at pretty much a more uncomfortable ride. It gets more complicated than that, but that pretty much covers what you need to know about too-stiff shocks. As far as a street car goes, your springs and shocks don't need to be perfectly matched like they should be on a race car; if you choose one of the more popular setups, you'll get a fairly well matched setup.

Oh, and a shock absorber is the gas/liquid filled device designed to dampen spring oscillations. A strut is technically a (usually) weight-bearing assembly in a MacPherson, Modified MacPherson, or MacPherson Design suspension setup.

If you want to know anything else, feel free to ask :D
(and sorry if this is confusing or in a confusing order... ADD and trying to explain something technical so it can be understood don't really mix lol)

What size tires are on there?

On where?

stock rims, with i think 195/65 i think 15 or 16 i cant remember

Stock EM1 (99/00 Si) wheels are 15's if I'm not mistaken.

CivicChick, if you were asking about the tires on my old civic, they were 205/40-17s (3.22" sidewall) with about 0.5" tucked up front and about 1.5" tucked in back.