gonna buy wheels / suspension - opinions?
 

hey guys... wow this new layout is weird... anyway, I'm gonna be buying wheels / suspension for my silver 96 civic si (canada w00t). For tires and rims I have decided to go for Toyo Proxes 4, 205/45R/16's (high performance all seasons), and gunmetal Motegi Racing FF7 16x7's. Gonna be ordering them from tiretrends.com for about $1,230 for 4 rims and 4 tires after taxes and shipping to British Columbia (stupid extra BC taxes). Now I've done some work to the engine and of course taken care of the sound system and exterior of the car. The last thing is suspension (should have been the first, i know). What I'm going for is a smooth ride, and only lowered about 2", as the car is my Daily driver. I just want it to look good and handle / perform better. I've done my homework on most things but the suspension I'm still having trouble with. What would be a good setup for what I am looking for? I hear lots about ground control + koni yellows, but What about the Tein full coilovers from procivic.com? Any help would be much appreciated. And from what I've read a camber kit isn't necessary? I hope this is not too much to ask. Thanks in advance!

-CrIyVaInC

I have KYB AGXs and H&R Sport Springs. That's my recommendation.
Camber kit isn't necessary for a 2" drop.

Yeah those seem pretty nice. Tirerack.com has them for a good price, but for the H&R sport springs it says avg low 1.75"F and 1.5"R.... that's just the average right? I could lower it more if i wanted to as they are adjustable?

Also, if camber kit isn't necessary, do I need anything else besides the shocks and springs to have a good suspension setup?

thx

the shocks are only adjustable in stiffness.
the springs aren't height adjustable.
it says 1.75" but i sware they lowered my car like 2" or maybe a little more
with 2 people in the car the tires almost tuck in the fenders

you might invest in some cheap ebay front and rear upper strut bars. they'll help some. you're already going to notice the suspension get wayyyyyyyy better once you do shocks/struts. plus, strut bars are really easy to install so you could do it now or later. it probably takes 5 minutes to install the front strut bar. 10 minute max on the rear strut bar, only reason i say more time is because you have to cut holes in the carpet around the shock towers, and there's less room to work in the trunk than under the hood.

yeah i already installed front and rear upper strut bars, it was a noticable difference but still cornering is sloppy with all of that body roll.

i've done all the work on my car so far but i have little knowledge with the suspension, so I;m gonna take it to a shop or find someone who can do it. The only thing I'd be worried about is obviously labour cost, and also i've heard that some bumpers or stoppers for the shocks may need to be cut when installing new suspension? and that they are only replacable by honda or something... I'm just worried that when i get it installed I'm going to get a phonecall from the mechanic telling me they need these parts :s did you install yours?

it's not really that difficult. i did mine myself.
it's the dust boots that would need to be cut. what i did is i bought KYB dust boots from tirerack.com they don't have to be cut because they compress with the spring

its pretty simple to do it yourself if you rent the spring compressors from an auto parts store. get some PB blaster (WD-40 on steroids basically) for the seized bolts. allow yourself a weekend for the install just incase you run into trouble. it took me 8 hours my first time but i didn't run into any seized bolts.
get a haynes manual or something, it should make the install easy... just time consuming. it's basically the same procedure on each shock/strut so after the 1st or 2nd one you should know what you're doing pretty well.

a 2 inch drop and a comfortable ride are usually not that great of friends together.

and for a 2 inch drop, a set of camber adjustment plates or kits are always recommended, but not necessarily crucial with a good alignment.

trustdestruction - by dust boots do you mean these? strut boots = same thing?

http://www.tirerack.com/suspension/s...del=Strut+Boot

^ yes

ahhh ok. thanks for the help and opinions guys. Gonna be ordering these pretty soon ;)