Noob lowering questions
 

I have a few noob questions. I know a lot of you are going to say this has been covered, but I'm looking for people to post actual experience, not what they have read.

I'm looking to lower my car, with a very conservative drop (about 1") for a number of reasons. I live in upstate NY. The roads in my city suck, and I don't want to be scraping. Also, we get a lot of snow here, and I would prefer not to have my car turn into a snow plow. What I'm considering doing is dropping the car on Tein H-tech springs. From what I've read, this gives about a 1" drop. I really don't have another $400+ to invest in new shocks/struts. I'm looking at tokico blues if I do end up going with shocks/struts. Basically, I'd be dropping the car so it doesn't look so ridiculous on my 17" summer wheels. I have a front strut bar, and am condsidering the same for the rear. I will likely not be doing sway bars simply because I don't want to drop that much money into a car that will still be slow when I'm done. Basically, my mods are going to be done when I get a front lip and sides, new pads/rotors for the front brakes, and slight suspension drop.

I'm looking for people that have dropped their car 1-1.5" on stock shocks struts. I'm curious about your experiences. Did the ride quality suck?? How long did you go before you blew a shock/strut?? Did you use a camber kit?? If not, did you destroy your tires, even with just a 1-1.5" drop??

I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but unlike a lot of you, I don't still live at home, and I really don't have another $1000+ laying around to drop on my car.

i HAD dropzone springs. like a 1" drop. it was good, smooth. but i wanted more feel. and then after about a year my front strut was gone. and bouncy. so i replaced with KYB AGX with the skunk2 coilovers. they work great, just bouncy, since i ride stiff. the s-tech is agreat ride. H-tech i heard is close to oem ride, with a drop i read... and s-tech more soft, but lower. so go TEIN...imo. when my shocks and all go, im going TEIN SS-P or Flex....

ok. did you have a camber kit at first, when you were dropped like 1"???

not at first, but i has bad camber wear in the rear. so i got one, and it worked! then i lowetred to 2.5 i nthe rear and 2 1/4" or 2" in the rear. but the front is lower and i have no camber wear with my spc.

get a camber kit no matter what, it will save you money in the long run

the kit is also real easy to install so install the camber kit yourself and then take it to get aligned and save some cash

I figured I was going to need one. But I had read it wasn't necessary with a 1" so I just wanted some opinions. I'm going to get a camber kit, whether I get new shocks/struts or stick with oem. Camber kits are relatively cheap, right??

Thanks for the info, I'm still looking for more people with experience with about a 1-1.5" drop on stock shocks.

Also looking for info on cheap, but decent aftermarket shocks/struts. Are tokico blues about the best I'm going to get as far as decent quality, with a small price tag? Or are there cheaper ones out there that are still good??

on 1" of drop there is a possibility that you wont need a camber kit. the only way to know for sure is to hook it up to the alignment machine and let it tell you if you NEED one. As for the dropp CAUSING struts to prematurely fale, they fale so prematurely that ther is NO way to judge if they fale from dropped springs or just poor quality to begin with

I have Tein S Techs. I like 'em, but isn't low enough for my taste. But it's the kind of drop you want. So they would be good for you. :tup:

i got s techs..... good enough for me... im on stock shocks and still ridin nice.... s techs are around 1.4 inches all around... looks pretty nice if u got a kit on civic

Using a camber kit at all, dj??

I'm rocking stock struts and stuff too. Not using camber kit either. :]
Works good for me.

Thanks guys, keep the info coming. I wanna know how cheap I can get away with being, at least for a while.

How long have you been set up like that??

I say just save your money and get the shocks, springs, camber all together to save time and just put them all on at one time and get it aligned afterwards. Im on s-techs with spc camber and Blues.

I'm considering about that same setup. But if I stay on stock struts, I'm going with H techs, 'cause they only drop like 1". How much did your whole setup cost, if I may ask??

i was on s tech with tokico blue. feels like stock. and with s tech and stock shocks... it sucks .. if you wan s techs , i have them used only for a month before i got goldline, i just wana get rid of the s techs now .. throw me an offer ..

Well, I haven't really priced them, so I'm not sure what they go for new. Is $80 shipped rediculously low??

If youre looking at brand new setup, then its gonna run you bout 750-800...assuming you do the labor yourself. But it should be a bit cheaper if you piece the parts together yourself. Ive seen S-techs floating in the FS section for bout 100 or less. The shocks are the most expensive of the whole package. Dont bother gettin the H-tech becuase the S is such a minor drop, its almost unoticeable to the untrained eye.

Well, I was gonna get the H tech if I was going to put them on stock shocks, figured the 1" drop with them would be slightly easier on the shocks than the 1.5" the s techs drop. If I get new shocks, which I probably will, I'm going with the s tech. Any thoughts on what I should get for shocks??

Tokico Blues are perfect for daily driving. Id go with some adjustable Konis for track pueposes and such.

I don't think the Konis will be necessary. I'll stick with the blues. Lowest i've found them for is about $400. Is that a good deal??

blues for 400? i paid 479 for my set. so, not a bad deal IMO

I'm on a Pro-Kit w/ stock shocks/struts for probably 20k miles and no probs to speak of. I am looking at getting a camber kit for the spring however as I've had some camber wear on my 40 series tires. I'm gonna chuck em' because they were loud as hell and the co. never charged me for em' anyways. I know the stock shocks will go at some time so I'm hangin around the F/S section for some blues lol:tup:

this is what I'm looking at.

http://robearracing.com/pd_tokico_hp...civic_0305.cfm

nope..... not at all

u can get it on ebay for like 350 shipped

Oh?? Do you have any sellers you recommend on there?? There was a post on this site last night that someone bought blued off eBay, and they now think they're fake, so I'd like to be cautious.

i'm going all out on this. i bought some s tech springs today. looking for a camber kit, and shocks before spring. anyone have anything they want to sell??

http://www.truehonda.com/inventory.p...=showsub&id=15 there's a special on the tokiko blue's .. on the 7thgen link.. and then a special on the spc camber kit link.