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2000 civic hx

I had my suspension replaced at a shady shop and now the front sits too low. Originally it was OEM and now it has strut towers that say KYB WJ-20. The front is dragging. Can I replace the springs with longer/stiffer ones or use some kind of spacer to get it back to normal ride height? The rear was replaced also and is fine.

i can't go back to the original shop.

 
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So you just replaced the shocks? That shouldn't really lower the car at all. Have any pictures?

 
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It looks like the entire shock/spring assembly was replaced. I trie buying OEM springs to put back on but I realized they are twice the diameter of the ones on there now and clearly won't fit. I'll post a picture soon.

 
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....

 
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Here it is now with the wheels on:


I had taken a wheel off a while ago thinking I could just go back to OEM springs but I then realized the whole thing must have been replaced because OEM springs are 6" diameter and the ones on it are 4" diam. I am okay with keeping the KYB stuff I just need the ride height another 2" or so higher so it doesn't hit every bump on the road. The rear is only slightly lowered from stock though it seems to b e using the same kit as it has the same style and color springs and struts. Whoever did the work clearly screwed something up.




"OEM equivalent springs" I got to try to restore it... but they are too wide to fit.

 
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might be their strut plus kit?
http://showmetheparts.com/kyb/
or potentially installed in the wrong end? (not sure if that could happen, but...)

here goes the kyb site
http://www.kyb.com/products/shocks/strutplus.php

 
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It could be a good possibility that the front and rear springs were mixed up. That would explain why the front dropped a lot, and the rear not at all. Ideally, but should have dropped an equal amount.

 
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bmnot, were are you located? I have a set of stock OEM springs out of my old Sedan, they would fit perfect, if we are local to each other we can trade springs. . . .

 
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My money is on they switched the rear and front springs around.

 
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I will check the rear, I think they were wider than the front so I doubt they are swapped. I am hoping kyb can match longer springs with this kit for the front.

I am in PA but I can't use stock OEM springs as they don't fit the kyb shock and I don't have the original OEM shock/strut

 
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?!?
rear spring/shock are narrower than fronts. post pics of rear, they might have installed the whole assembly on wrong end.

 
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hunh... now that i thought more about, the setup is different front/rear, not likely they will be swapped.
here, some pics of 6th gen from another thread i had:

 
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Replaced one side of the front with a fully assembled spring/shock "quick strut" from local auto parts store. Seems to have brought that side back to normal ride height. Going to do the other tomorrow.

The shock assemblies are both about the same length when sitting side by side but the new replacement one is tighter, I guess.

 
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Yes, they are narrower, I was wrong. I don't think that was the problem... see my other post here.

 
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Thanks for the pics sdidoji. That adds to a mystery I have:

When I replaced the shock, it was *extremely* difficult to remove the shock assembly from the fork after removing the required bolts. There wasn't nearly enough clearance. I had to have somebody stand on the wheel to pull down the control arm & axle far enough to be able to pull the shock up out of the fork. Re-installing the new one was just as hard. I was using a video of somebody doing a similar job and theirs just fell free basically, they did not have to pull the wheel down away from the body to get things on/off. Is it possible that the "knuckle" was replaced for some reason, or that the fork is non-stock? In the pictures your wheel seems to drop below parallel whereas min seems nearly parallel even when hanging free.

The knuckles say 'SOL L' and 'SOL R' for left and right which I think is stock as I see it elsewhere. You can see this in my first picture here, it appears to have been painted black when the suspension work was done. The control arms and such look original.

In any case it seems fine but I can't explain why there is so much resistance on the wheels to move downward.

 
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potentially need some grease on the suspension bushings sleeves?

 
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The right side went easier. Not sure why, but ride height is back to normal... slightly higher actually as it needs to settle. I think the cause was definitely that the springs were too weak.

 
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glad it worked.
seems that we need mention on the forums that tokiko springs are too soft...
their shocks are good, but springs...