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Hi, I'm new here... Just bought a 2004 Civic 2Dr EX...

I love the car --- it was the best bang for the buck.

What kind of mods can you do to make the car handle better without looking "Ricey"?

I'd love to have less roll and more supple feedback but not at the expense of lowering the car. I'm a little too old to get revved-on at a stoplight by the local kids

-I was thinking about those strut bars, but I'm not sure if they really help.
-I was also thinking of a sway bar in the rear, but was wondering how much modification needs to be done to the stock hardware. <-- I want the car to be reversible to stock.
-From what I read, even drastic engine mods yield poor results. I don't want the car to be any louder anyway.

I'm guessing that tires will be my best upgrade, but I'm going to wait until I'm done with the stock tires.

Your input appreciated! I know I'm asking for 2 conflicting things, but was just wondering what your thoughts were.

 
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H& R Progressive rate springs...no scarifice in ride...handles better, and lowers the car some.

strut tower bar ...neuspeed...don't have to worry bout your intake hitting it.

rear lower tie bar...helps a little...rear strut bar..good but folding down the seats to put a big item in the trunk is now outta the option

 
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first of all, welcome to the site...

we'd love to give you lots of advices for ur new car..

however, i don't suggest for you to ask about "how not to be ricey," i saw some dudes asked about it....and they got flammed. LOL. ricey or not, that's ur car.....do it if you like it.....

i dunno why, but some dudes over here doesn't like being asked like, "is this ricey?"

anyway,
strut bar: i suggest neuspeed
for sway bar, search for grey's DIY....he got lots of DIY for it....rear sway bar, etc etc.

tires: falken ziex 512 (M+S performance)

air intake? IMO, FIPKII....however, u said u don't want to rev it, right? if that is so, then just get K&N replacement air filter, they are worthed.

u got a new car.....however, NGK Iridium IX's good for spark plug replacement..
Denso IK20 (iridium) might be another choice....they're more expensive though....denso's good for dudes who wanna boost their car...

i dunno nothing about lowering car....cos' i think it's looks strange when u lower it...

hope this help...

 
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Thanks for the feedback, guys. The front strut bar looks easy to install. I was reading up on the DIY for the rear sway bar and it looks really ... destructive. So i guess I'll shy away from that.

Rear strut bar is out of the question cuz of the trunkspace issue... Makes you wonder why they don't make one that curves up and doesn't kill all the trunkspace!!! How hard is the lower control arm bar to install, and is it destructive?

ps. Sorry about the "Ricer" comment ... I've been hanging around motorcyclists too long and we have a tendency to give bad names to slammed Civics with coffee-can exhausts pushing 133.7 hp... The worst is when you can tell that someone just cut their springs.

Has anyone here purchased HFP suspension parts? I like the fact that they adjust the camber correctly for the new suspension settings.

Thanks!



It's looking like a

 
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huwahaahaha, LOL LOL.

anyway, u can't just get the suspension part of the HFP...

i asked about it already...i was actually looking for the 16" HFP wheels....however, they won't break it apart..

 
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1st i think that a strut bar is a very good investment!
2nd definately new tires lower profile is always good in the corners
3rd rsx sway bars or you can get S.T. bars are really good.
4th and not really necissary<sp a higher spring rate always a good upgrade.. but i ended getting rid of my springs when i hit a sidewall. now that im back to stock with my strut bar and kumho'215/45/17's the ride is great perfect for a daily driver. you would prolly prefer the 16inch rim with a 225/45/16. if you want to go back to stock maybe you should do a full replacement coilover. they are great but the ride depending on which one you get leaves something to be desired. also the resale on a tein full replacement coilover is awesome!


but if you do all of these you will be rideing on rails in no time
good luck and welcome to the site add me to your buddy list and if you have any questions just hit me up

 
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if you want to make a huge differance in the way your car drives without being obvious or hurting anything, I have three recomendations for you. Find a used Acura Rsx rear swaybar to replace your stock one. You will need the acura bushings as well but your stock brackets will be fine. This will put a great deal more stress in the lower mounts of the rear suspension of the car so a good lower tie bar brace would be a wise thing to pair with the swaybar. Most of these are polished but you car always paint it before you put it in. Up front, get a Neuspeed upper strut bar. with just these three chassis mods you will have a dramaticly better handling car and if you paint the lower tie bar, no one will know unless you tell them. Tires are critical but you seem to have that part under control. If you shop around you can probably get all this stuff for about $200 complete. Its all easy enough to instal yourself. Your car has a rear swaybar (if it is an EX like you said), its just really small. So all you will have to do is hang onto the stock bar and bushings and you will be able to return it to stock without any problems. Let us know what you do with it.

Oh yeah, welcome to the site

 
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that is so acidbaby...

anyway, i prefer 15" with 195/60/R15 OR 205/60/R15

and i prefer Falken Ziex 512 from www.vulcantire.com, they are cheap as hell.

sway bar.....interesting.....but im interested more in just the strut bar...

 
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Tanabe Sustec UnderBrace http://www.7thgencivic.com/memberrid...hp?photo=14727

 
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You're right on your guess, tires will give you the best bang for the buck, the thing you need to find out is.... How long do you want them to last? 2 street tires I Highly reccomend, Falken Azenis and the Kumho MX, though both will only last about 15,000 miles.

as far as adjusting the handling, Heres the jits on the different bars.

Strut bars/tie bars, will help the chassis to resist flexing, allowing the suspension as tuned to work better.

anti-roll bars (particularly the rear on in this case) will alter the handling ballance of the car.

so if you only have $$$ for one, then the anti-roll bar will do more for handling then the strut/tie bars. (the RSX is a good bar for the street, enough to get rid of a good portion of our cars understeer, but not enough to make the car want to spin.

after that (Tires and Rear anti-roll bar) I suggest shocks, Konis will do nicely. after the shocks, springs (I have the Eibach Pro kit) just about any will do fine, depending on how you wnat the car to ride. lower springs will help a bit in handling, stiffer springs will help a bit, but its up to you for that trade off between Ride quality and handling.

once all thats in place, a camber kit and the proper alignment would round out the car nicely. and by proper alignment I dont mean average joe aligner setting it to some where with in factory specs. I mean setting the cars front camber to the maximum negitive camber possible(with in factory spec) the front toe to a little toe out (with in Spec) the rear camber to say, -.5 deg (with in spec) and rear toe to either 0 toe or a little toe in depending if the car rotates too much or not.

I cant streess this enough, the proper alignment can be the difference between an understeering pig of a car (Factory settings) and a Fun corner loving machine.

 
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204/60/r15 man that is almost a stock tire basically you would upgrade the brand and not the tread. if you are running a 60 the sidewall is going to be huge therefore more give in the corner. and more chance to lose grip lower profile tires are a great upgrade. maybe a 215/50/z16 kumho mx
or a good set of yok's

 
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I didnt realize SUSPENSION MODS were ricey

 
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acidbaby, its going to depend on where he want to drive it though. 16s are a lot rougher around town then 15s and depending on his setup that might not be the ideal size.

 
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Zzyzx

 
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well yeah but not buy much he says he wants to get a good sporty stance and a 16 would be the best imo 0.02

 
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I love my sustec underbrace



oh and a 50 dollar rsx rear sway bar IS the best bang for the buck....

 
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Well i never really gave my opinions

Get some honda 16" rims with some tires of those suggested above.
Get some ebay strut bars 15-25 each
Get a rear rsx sway bar $50 (around there)
I know you dont want to lower, but you could think about the Eibach prokit it only lowers 1" and is something like 20-40% stiffer than stock

 
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For wheels and tires.... If you are looking for all out performance, then you cant beat a set of light 15X7s with the proper tire of course. If you really want some thing bigger..... 16s sure, 17s maybe.... any thing bigger then a 15 is cutting in to your acceleraton and braking performance, but with a soft walled street tire, the bigger wheels will help with your total traction. BUt you may loose more in Braking and acceleration then what that added traction is worth.

Proper tire selection is Very important for the total handling pacage, your alignment will be tuned to work with a particular tire. Different tires like different settings (camber toe ect..) Some do better With higher slip angles then others.

 
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I have 17's on my car, and the ride is not that much rougher, almost as good as the stock tires. Yeah, I know 17's are stupid, but I picked them up for 400 bucks, brand new with tires. and for those who think a 60 on a 15 inch won't help, I had a '94 civicwith big 13's on it. With regualar tires it pulled a .81g and with Toyo RA-1 it pulled .91 (same size tires). Granted the RA-1 probably is not what he looking for, but you get the point, I don't think low profile does THAT much, a sticky tire will help tons. I recommed Dunlop SP sport 9000's, for 30,000 miles tires that grip good. Size on those I would go with would be 205/55/r15. That's about a 23.9" diameter tire which is only down .3 inchs (stock is 24.2"). If you want to be faster too, go with the 205/50/15. They will drop the car about an inch, but that is the cheap mans way of shorting gearing to make the car fast. There are some cons to it though, it will through your speed off and rack the mileage up fast than actual mileage, but is well worth it.

 
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Low profile tire will help if he really know how to use them.

If he really want to get the most out of his car, I say go to school, a high end driving school and learn how to manipulate the car's center of gravity. Ask questions about the cars you get to drive and how they set them up.

Sorry for two different posts.

 
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the thing is....i want MPG..

and 205/60/R15 does that....cos' it's taller than stock tires, right? that means, lower acceleration... = higher MPG..

im a MPG boy...

anyway, most probably im going with 195/60/R15....that's the optional stock...
it won't hurt my tach at all, right? with 205/60, my ride will be smoother, right?

 
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16 aren't very bad IMO too, just don't get shiny ones with centers that don't move.

 
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where do u get it?

handa does not carry any 16"

hm..

 
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CDMX was probably referencing the HFP pacage and the 16 that come with it. You (Zen Master) asked about those earlier...

 
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WOW this website rocks! The feedback was great!

I looked under the car and didn't see a sway bar. I guess I will look again. Is it placed in front of the tie-bar? Cuz I didn't see anything from looking at the *** of the car. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough, I was at the dealer.

The suggestion about bigger rims is a good one, but I spent 1500$ more for my EX with rims and intend to keep them. Plus I don't want to screw up the speedo too much and I think the car is anemic already ... ie. I'd get smaller wheels if they looked as good. I like the HFP rims because they look pretty conservative.

Bang for the buck, I will go with the RSX rear sway and add these strut bars you guys are talking about. I have a buddy that welds and I'll try to get him to weld up a rear strut bar that doesn't take up trunk space!

I'll tell you the truth,
I don't know much about cars but I ride my bike a lot at the local tracks.

Donovan

The reason I'm afraid to lower the car is 2 things: Scraping the fairing/front fender on driveways, harsher ride, and incorrect camber that will ultimately give me worse traction (?? just wondering ??) than stock.

Do replacement suspension components allow for the correct camber adjustments/toe adjustments? I have no clue.

 
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nice bike

 
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Most suspension systems don't correct for camber, but you can buy a camber correction kit. If you don't lower that much, you may beable to just adjust the camber with the fatory adjustments. I think our cars have a small amount camber adjustiblity, does anyone know for sure though? My other civic did, but it also had double wishbone.

 
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WTF is all this talk about rear strut bars messing up the pass through.
Are you all dumb or something? They lay flat on the floor! When you fold the seats down, the bar is still below the bottom of the pass through hole.

 
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yo, whadday think about 215/45/17, is that good enough? hm..

 
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^^^^^^^thats exactly what i got and it looks and rides great without a drop.. the pic below is what that trie size looks like i think the fit is awesome. i dont need to drop the car just to make the tires fit usually with lowpros and bigger wheels you get this huge gap

[/QUOTE]I have a buddy that welds and I'll try to get him to weld up a rear strut bar that doesn't take up trunk space!
[QUOTE]strut bars are usually bolt in