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Progress Front Sway Bar On a Civic HX, Updated::: NOW WITH DIY!!!
As I found out today, the 2003 HX has no factory front sway bar, but it does have the mounting holes, the only problem is that there's the pesky catalytic converter so you're going to have to take it off temproarly to put it in, I took some real quick pictures of what the 03 hx's underside looks like. I still think it will work, but if you want a front sway bar for an 03 or 04 hx you're going to have to get a set of endlinks, I'm personally going to go with Greys endlinks. I'll hopefully be ordering me a set of those in about a week.
Here's a shot of the catalytic converter, is this what it looks like for those of you with an EX?
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Here's everything that came with my kit, LOOK GREY... GREASE....
I also got the 61.1006 which is the one ment for the EX. I hope it works, but I need end links dammit...
I think the control arms have the mounting points for the endlinks, I'll figure out tomorrow, and take some more pictures of it, since right now it's too dark out. Also, does anyone have a set of stock front endlinks they'd be willing to send me... cause... It'd be nice to make sure this will work before I spend more money on something I might not be able to use. I'd have no problem paying for shipping, and I'd return them to you one I get a set of my own....
Okay Renamazazo, here's the pics I promised. I needed to rotate the tires anyway, so I shot some pics while I was at it. Hopefully they'll help when you start installing that front bar.
I'll be including them when I format the DIY Front Sway Bar pdf that Grey wrote. I may do that tonight..stay tuned! Click here for the DX-R site.
First pic is the driver's side endlink.
#2 is the driver's side underside, showing where it mounts to the frame.
#3 is a closeup of #2
#4 is the passenger side frame point, shot from the driver side.
#5 is the passenger side endlink.
#6 is the pass. side frame point, shot from the pass. side
OK, installed the front sway bar, tooke me about an hour and a half, to finish everything, I even rotated my bald ass front tires to the rear...
I've never written a DIY before, so... forgive my ghettoniss...
Anyway, there's not that much of a difference in procedure except that with the HX, it's much harder to get the bar up in there without disconnecting part of the exaust.
Step 1, Grab Your breaker bar, and loosen the 4 lugnuts on each of the front wheels, JUST loosen them.
Step 2, Jack the car up.
Be sure to place your car jack on the re-enforced part of the chassis, that has an arrow pointing to it.
step 3
Remove the 2 Nuts holding the main exaust to the header. For my car, these nuts weren't actually on there very tight, but be careful, when they break loose lots of sharp painfull stuff around there....
Step 4
Apply a liberal amount of grease to the inside of the black bushings, then place them on the front sway bar with the slits facing the front of the car. Note: My kit actually came with grease, while Grey's didn't...
Step 5,
remove the rubber bushing from the peg it's being held on, this will cause the exaust to fall to the ground. I got it off simply by pulling down on it, it make some little noises, then I just pushed it off. As I said the exaust will procede to fall to the ground. Now if you remeove the sensor for the catatlytic converter, you don't have to let the exaust rest on yourself... or something else it can sit on. Since I"m lazy and didn't want to actually remove the Sensor from the catalytic converter, I just let the exaust fall on my chest (note, it was COLD....)
Here's where having another person around helps out.... BUT i didn't I managed my myself.
Slide the sway bar up where it goes, then thread the bolts into the chassis on one side, then do the same for the other side, I didn't tighten these down at all at this point cause I still wanted to be able to move the bar around. Note, this is very difficult to do alone... especially with the catalytic converter sitting on your chest. Once the sway bar is sitting by itself, you can re-attach the rubber bushing to the exaust so you no longer have to hold it.
next attach the endlinks to the mouting point on the control arm, then to the sway bar, I'm sure you could do it either way.. but on the drivers right side this seemed to work the best, once again, don't tighten down the bolts yet. just thread them on so they stay attached, the do the same for the other side.
When I did the drivers left side, I put the endlink on the sway bar first, then attached it to the control arm.
Step 8
Next, make sure the bar is centered. I did this by comparing the distance from the sway bar to the control arm on both sides. Just push the offending side untill they look even.
Next, attach those collar thingys to the outside of the swaybar bushings. I tightened these down all the way at this point, make sure there's some grease in there if possible.
Next, tighten everything down that isn't tight, then double check it, Re attach the exaust to the header. Put your wheels back on, or in my case I just rotated them cause they were bald as hell... In the process, I noticed that my wheels are 14x5, 1/2 which is something I've been trying to find out. Put the jack underneath the same point, jack it up, remove the jack stands, put the wheels back on, only tighten the lug nuts as much as you can by hand, while the car is still in the air. Then let the car down. Tighted the lugnuts to 85 FT/LBS using the correct patter. Then carefully drive around and test out your new swaybar.
I noticed an Immediate difference in how my car behaived, gone are the days of the super leaning civic HX. If you have any questions on this DIY, PM me, or IM me at renamazazo or just leave a response here.
