i plan to lower my car...?

Question

i have a 98 civic 4dr and i have 17's and i would like to lower it but i have no clue on suspension systems. i would be using the car for daily driving. i would like coil overs cause u could adjust the height. i plan to lower the front like .5" to 1" and the back like .3" , the back would have to be stiff cause whenever i carry ppl in the back the wheel well would rub the side of the tires. thanks

Answer 1

In my opinion you should think long and hard before you do the change over to lowering springs. Let's discuss the popular Eibach spring kit. The springs are shorter, larger wire diameter and less total wire length.
A coil spring is nothing more than a straight torsion bar coiled up.
If you had a length of 3/4 garden hose in your hand and stood 3 feet away form another person the hose would be easy to twist. Now stand one foot away from the other person. The hose becomes harder to twist. You haven't changed the diameter of the hose it's only become shorter.
The spring kits will be much stiffer and very prone to a rough bouncy ride. If you chose to do the chance over it's imperative to switch out the struts also to a brand such as KYB that has a higher dampening rate to control the new stiffer spring harmonics.
Young people seem to want to try this total deal once in their lives. I'll bet it will be the last time you'll ever do it. These kits in the end will make you mad as he*l. You'll need a strut tower brace to keep the chassis from flexing do to the higher spring rates. Your car will need to be re-aligned and most likely camber plates installed to allow the front end to be adjusted back to factory specification.
What really concerns me is these companies will not tell you what spring rates your getting so that you can do some comparison shopping.

Answer 2

Rather than coil-overs you may want to consider just a simple lowering spring kit like the H&R Sport Spring set which the company claims lowers the car 3/4" front and rear - relatively mild for Honda aftermarket springs.

I would highly recommend though replacing the struts at the same time. 8 year old factory struts can not keep up with aftermarket springs. Worn out struts could be contributing to your rubbing problem - or you may just need lighter friends. That and given your rubbing problems an externally adjustable set would be in order so you can increase the damping rate to suit your load with the turn of a knob. The KYB AGX is quite popular.

Also keep in mind that lowered Honda's frequently have camber issues and you may need to by a camber adjuster kit to get the alignment back to spec.

Lastly, what size 17's are you running and at what tire pressure? The correct tire size for this application is a 205/40R17XL with a load index of 84 at 40 psi front, 39 psi rear. If the load index is 80 instead of 84, replace the tires. They are severely overloaded for this application. If you have a larger tire size than that, then there is your rub.

Answer 3

go with a stillen coilovers and make sure u get an alinment right after ur camber will be jacked up