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Hey guys I'm new to cars and I really want to upgrade my 05 civic's suspension to coilovers but idk what I should be looking for as far as brand and compatibility. I also want to add rear disc breaking but haven't found any good instruction. I'm not looking for top of the line parts but at least decent ones that are reliable. If anyone can help me out that'd be sweet. Thanks.
Coilovers: Tein are fairly inexpensive but great quality. I rocked a pair of Tein coilovers on my 2002 civic from late 04/early 05 until I pronounced that car dead late last year.
Disc brakes conversion DIY guide: Drums--->Discs SPELLED OUT
Back in 2005, this conversion cost me $500 and took me 4 hours to do. Was $400 for the EP3 rear knuckle assemblies, $100 for the RSX e-brake cables.
Like colin said, EM2 is the chassis code for an 01-05 civic coupe and came with rear drum brakes. EP3 is the chassis code for any 02-05 civic hatchback (US Si/Canadian SiR) and they came with rear disc brakes.
If you don't want to buy another set of rims, make sure the knuckle assemblies you get are from an 02-03 Si. For those years, Honda stuck with the 4x100 bolt pattern, and in 2004, they changed to a 5x114.3 bolt pattern.
As far as what I got, I got them used. It would've been well over a grand to buy everything I needed new back then.
If you're in Canada, Acura 1.7EL rear knuckle assemblies will also work since they're civic sedans with a facelift, different tail lights, and rear disc brakes. Maybe some more "luxury" features, but those of which I am uninformed upon, but those three are the big differences. If you can get ahold of the 1.7EL e-brake cables, they'll fit so much better than RSX ones. When I did the swap, I had to loosen up the brackets on the e-brake cables and take up pretty much all slack in those lines in order to get them to fit. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that, despite what the DIY guide says, the EP3 e-brake cables are even shorter and you'll have a harder time fitting them. However, there have been people that had great success using EP3 e-brake cables (see post #15 in the DIY guide)
Also, the rear knuckle assemblies I bought came with severed VSS wires. I took a chance and slapped my EM2 ones on those knuckle assemblies and they worked just fine.
Super noob lol what are VSS wires? Frankly, I didn't understand that last little paragraph
Lol, my bad. I usually explain everything like the person receiving my explanation knows nothing about the subject matter at hand (I seriously do it with everything). I got lazy. haha
Originally Posted by BrotatoChip
VSS=Vehicle speed sensor
Also known as WSS: Wheel speed sensor
Unfortunately, I declared my 2002 Civic dead back in October. Head gasket failure, spend $400 to repair it in my driveway, and when I went to put it all back together, the head studs stripped out the block. Tried to fix that, and the fix failed on round 2 of head stud torque (36ft-lbs).
But, to answer your question, this is what my car looks like now:
and an artsy *** night shot after I installed yellow fog light bulbs and HIDs
She's a 2018 Civic Sport Hatchback with the 1.5L turbo engine. Thing's a freakin blast to drive.
If you wanna see what my 2002 looked like, click the "Azumi" link in my signature. That thread was from a while back, but for the most part, she looked like that (albeit a bit beat up) at the end. With new headlights, too (see the "her baby blues" link in my sig)
04-04-2018
:P 
