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Hey there,

I just got my first Honda! I am not new to cars, but I picked it up for a steal and couldn't resist such a highly recommended daily driver car.
It has 196,000 miles on it, and the TOB makes a ton of noise ( to be replaced soon)

So far, I love the suspension design! I was very surprised to find that the car corners pretty flat even with stock suspension and the little brake line width anti-roll bars. First fill up I averaged 37MPG (5 speed life)
I tore out all the carpet and cleaned the interior really well, everything seemed fine! I re-greased the shifter linkage and also took the door panels off to add some new speakers and gorilla tape on buzzy panels. This worked pretty well. Car is unmodified otherwise, and if I modify the car, it'll only be upgrading bushings; the powerplant of the car is fine enough.

The only issue with the car is that something is letting water into the driver's side floor area; the carpet gets soaked when it rains. There isn't any rust under the car, and I'm not seeing any wetness at the door gaskets. Are there any common places where these cars can let water in, like at the firewall?

If anyone auto-crosses with these, do you have any quick advice about a simple setup that helps the car? It feels fairly balanced, I'm willing to bet that upgrading the tires will start to show weakness in the suspension.

Thank you all and I'm happy to be a part of the Honda gang!

 
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I've had stock suspension since I've owned it and I've never found it to handle well. I currently have 204-45/17 Michelin Pilot Sport AS3+ on it and the body roll is horrible.

If you're looking to do autocross, then I'd grab some coilovers and tires. Do your research on what kind of coils and tires you want: I can't decide for you because everyone's budget is different. A good budget choice would be Raceland coils and maybe some Ventus V12's.

Also, just a quick note: I'm looking at your username and the EM2 is only the coupe. You have an ES1.

 
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Thank you for the advice! Ah really?! Shoot, oh well. I guess I'll have to bondo over the rear doors haha. I guess "handling well" is subjective. Your level of grip with those tires will be well above mine so I'm imagining that's contributing to your body roll, I'm on some junk General all season tires the car came with. The Ventus V12 Evo2 tires have performed well for me in the past, they'd probably be my choice since the car isn't going to get much for money. I'm not looking to go to a coilover setup (I never thought I'd hear someone suggesting Racelands, they must be decent on this platform!) I would prefer a non-height adjustable damper setup with a well paired spring. I'll search the forums.

I'm assuming there's no way for me to change my username, so oh well; I guess I'm stuck being in error state!

 
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I'll base it more off the fact that I've grown up around great-handling cars (Focus ST, Mustang GT with the new independent rear suspension).

Racelands are just an old design, but there's nothing wrong with them.

 
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Leak might be cracked seam sealer in the bottom corner of the windshield

 
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I'll have to look up if they post anything about the valving and spring rates they use. If I spent money on coilovers, I don't think I'd want something that wasn't built for this platform specifically, like Ohlins, KW, Bilstein, ST, etc. I've had an NA Miata, and a few E36 set up for autocross before that I ran Bilstein and Koni offerings on with great success (Koni didn't fly so well on E36, but was killed on the Miata).

I'll just poke around the suspension section (I'm sure there is one) and see what is used. As I said, I'm not looking to spend money on coilovers because this is a DD that will see some autocross if I don't feel like running my other car for it. I'm also not looking to lower the car for dat fitment, I don't care if the car rides 4x4 height if it grips. It's definitely hard to get used to the drive tires being the steering tires!

 
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The car was in a minor fender bender on the driver's side before I got it. Is there a way to check this without having the windshield pulled?

 
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Welcome and yes you have an ES1.

Yes upgrading the tires will show the other weaknesses of the suspension. I got my 01 to pull over 1g in corners with sticky tires, KW coilovers and a Progress rear sway bar. My 01 Lx did not have a factory rear sway not sure if the 02's do. If it doesn't have one it's a huge improvement.

 
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@sdaidoji You're up for the auto-x part. lol
BTW, if you want, either sdaidoji or I can change your username to 802ES1, assuming it's available. Just saying.

edit bc I feel like joining the conversation:
The leak part might be one of the rain runoff drain lines or something. Forgot which one, and couldn't tell you where it was. I just remember reading someone mentioning that once upon a time regarding the same issue. Perhaps runs down an A pillar, behind the dash, something... I dunno. Never had to deal with that specific issue.

As far as suspension, man the ES1/EM2 chassis really respond well to suspension upgrades. Front upper strut tower bar will tighten steering up a bit. You may not notice it upon initial installation, but I'll tell you that you'll feel the difference if you take it off. I had one, didn't feel anything, decided not to put it back on because I took it off to install coilovers. I got 50 feet down the road before I turned around to put it back on. If you can find a neuspeed single piece front upper strut bar, that's one of the best bang for buck upgrades. Back in the day, it used to go for about $100 used. I also paired that strut bar with a Neuspeed front lower x-brace and my front end was solid. Might've been overkill, tbh. lol

Coilovers, I personally liked the Tein coilovers (Tein Super Street) I had. They've since discontinued them and came out with their successors, the Tein Street Advance line. Adjustable height and dampening, and, from what I've seen, very reasonable price. I installed them back in early 2005 and they were on the car when I got rid of her. I read too much negative about racelands, so I never bothered to venture anywhere close to them. Read a few good reviews, but more bad than not. Anything that connects or keeps my car off the ground, I'm not taking the chance and cheaping out on them.

 
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​​​​​​Might be able to pull the cowl trim and see, pull the carpet back and have someone spray the car outside while you're under the dash watching

 
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autoX?
Hoooh, boy...
front MacPherson, rear multilink = huge understeer, especially if you lower the car.
1" lower on eibachs made me loose about 1-2 mm of tire shoulder gauges every day of autoX (around 70 sec course, 6 heats/day). I use kayaba since they are adjustable.
broke my trans due to high front wheel spin around corners (synchro shaving everywhere)

I removed my front anti-roll bar, rear I have the 1" progress bar
front alignment bolts, rear adjustable upper arms. camber: fronts adjusted -1.5 deg, rear at -0.5 deg.

now it is better, but some more extreme cornering I still have understeer.

 
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Thank you very much! I'd love if you could change my username to 802es1. Thank you (and everyone else so far) for the advice! I think I'll start with some control arm bushings and a strut tower bar, maybe an anti roll bar set before doing coils or wheels and tires. If I do coilovers I'll do wheels and appropriate tires at once!

 
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Thank you for this; I was expecting that the roll center and front MacPherson strut up front would induce a lot of understeer if I lowered it, which is why I wanted to leave the ride height unchanged if I can. Removing the front must help avoid wheel hop, good thinking. I'll try that and see what I think. I remove my rear anti roll bar in my turbo FR-S for autocross and it makes a huge difference

 
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you will at least need some good shocks. Civic's are too soft dampening
Haven't checked lately, is changing springs still a no-no in stock class? (or whatever the class name is?)

 
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Man, I'm slacking. Changing your username right now. IIRC, you should be getting an e-mail with your username change. I've only done it for like.. 3 other people before, and they were able to log in just fine. I'll send you a PM, too, and assuming you have e-mail alerts setup, you should see the PM come through there, too

 
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You shall henceforth be known as... 802ES1

 
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Welcome 802ES1