vlad7095

Greetings, everybody!
Just got 2001 Civic DX with over 200K km (I'm in Canada) and a few problems.
The main one is the suspension. It was lowered and now I can hear very hard noise (impact) when front wheel meets a whole on the road. In case of regular bumps everything goes as expected. I lifted the car and noticed that yellow springs could be easily moved by hand. It feels like I even could rotate them! Sounds like nothing keeps them in place on the top. And on the bottom it also is moving though not so freely...
Is that normal behavior?
Would appreciate any help!
Thanks.

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

First off welcome.

Second off, O_o.. The springs should most definitely not be freely moving, much less to the point where you believe you can rotate them by hand.

Just to try and gauge what suspension setup you have.. What color are the shocks themselves (as well as any brand markings) and are there any brand markings on the springs?

If they're the springs I'm thinking of, they should have red lettering on them (I'm thinking they're neuspeed race springs). If they're mounted on the OEM shocks (black with no markings), then you're gonna wanna swap those out with shocks that can handle a drop. The neuspeed race springs lower the car ~2-2.25 inches (5-6 cm), and the stock shocks can really only handle a drop of about 1 inch (2.54cm), even then not for very long.

Any pics would be helpful, too.

vlad7095

Thanks a lot, xRiceBoyx!
On the front (where the problem is) the shocks indeed just black. The springs are yellow and I didn't notice any marks on them. However I'll see more carefully tomorrow. The rear shocks are red and the springs are also yellow. The guy I bought the car from dropped me 2 blue springs for the front with black shocks (with also blue springs already mounted) inserted inside the front springs. I didn't realize that the shocks are for the rear and the blue front springs have no shocks. I also didn't notice any brand on the blue springs.
The guy said that if I don't like his setup I can go back to stock with those blue springs. So I'm scratching my head now: was the front shocks blown up or I can still use them with the blue springs? Unfortunately I don't know if the blue springs has stock parameters or they are also for lower setup. ... I'll try to take pictures tomorrow.
Many thanks again!

Hondi

Welcome!

vlad7095

Yeah! I found red text on the yellow springs: It was indeed "neuspeed race" ! But the shocks were stock. I got stock springs and restored the stock setup... First they tried my blue springs and rejected them
But I still have doubts: in the garage they said that rear stock shocks with blue (unbranded) springs are fine and they replaced the red shocks with yellow springs with stock shocks with blue springs. I drove problem free but it seems the rear is still lower than the front. Perhaps I will have to change rear blue springs (on stock shocks) with black (stock) ones.
xRiceBoyX - thanks again: you were right and if I wold continue to drive that setup I'd probably blow the shocks. So far they are OK! So it was relatively cheap to change the setup.

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

Good to hear. If you wanna lower the car in the future, be sure to hit us up for recommendations or search the vast archive of posts lingering around this forum.

You may want to look into replacement shocks for the future. Who knows how long they've been ridden lowered like that. Also, if you have a sedan, I think they sag a bit in the back compared to coupes. That's the common theme I've seen on lowering springs for sedans, at least, that they appear lower in the rear, regardless of which springs were chosen.