Springs, Struts, Swaybars, Bushings, Tower Braces & more
User avatar
By weaponr82
#23103 Ok my projects coming along. Now I need you guys to guide me next. What components can I use to stiffen the chassis and notice the difference. Im looking to spend the least and do most of the work myself. Tell me what works best and cheaply so I dont buy a 5 piece ebay kit and mess something up with handling.
User avatar
By thedaemon
#23511 Springs and sway bars make noticeable differences. What do you want it for?
User avatar
By teal_dx
#23523 after springs & shocks/struts, an Energy Suspension master bushing kit will do wonders for making the car stiff. Too stiff for some people. The kit runs about $120, but installing them is the hard part...
User avatar
By ohDirka
#23530 its prolly more time consuming i would assume
User avatar
By LowTEC-Derbo
#23533 as far as the biggest differences in change in suspension are as follows:



-Coilovers/ Shock&springs
a stiffer than OEM replacement will offer you a completely different car when properly changed.

-Sway Bars
A small note on upgrading sway bars, is that these bars will affect the way the rest of your car works. Sway bars basically independent movement of the lower control arms when turning. This in part helps lower roll on a car. A small note is that by decreasing less roll, your shocks/springs as well as tires will be force to take the heat.

-Tires/Rims.

This is the biggest one to change. A selective size tire will help handling and braking. Say you have 185/60/14 and you upgrade to 195/50/15 rims. This will benefit the car as it has increase it's tire patch by 10mm which is almost half an inch on each corner! Also note that Tires and rims have a limit.. a 20inch rim will not increase your handling.. for civic egs I say 15-16 lightweight rims and running 195 (roughyl stock power) to around 215 is the maximum for optimal handling.






I can go wayy more into depth but i'm too lazy right now. I love educating. :)
User avatar
By york62
#23545 wow man great info!
User avatar
By LowTEC-Derbo
#23552 another thing.. just like parts in a car.. just adding one upgrade will be decent results but if you do a bunch of things together that work together at once, it will feel much much more dramatic.


IE. I did suspension/tires at the same time.. then I added sway bars (which didnt make too much of a difference from the suspension/tires pov, and strut bars didnt do anything after that.


Imagine if you did strut bar first..then suspension/tires/swaybar.. it would feel amazingly differtn!
User avatar
By PetrolHeaD
#23553 dont forget front and rear strut bars and any other damn chassis stiffening bar u can get!

the biggest differences i felt were when i got the front strut bar, follwed by the rear and inner fender braces. my hatch felt a lot more direct after installing all of them. the rear one made the biggest difference; before the bar it felt like it was going all over the place in corners. now my hatch feels like its on rails! im still looking for lower tie bars though :cry:
User avatar
By LowTEC-Derbo
#23555
PetrolHeaD wrote:dont forget front and rear strut bars and any other damn chassis stiffening bar u can get!

the biggest differences i felt were when i got the front strut bar, follwed by the rear and inner fender braces. my hatch felt a lot more direct after installing all of them. the rear one made the biggest difference; before the bar it felt like it was going all over the place in corners. now my hatch feels like its on rails! im still looking for lower tie bars though :cry:



really?

I added the strut bars to the car with all three major components and i felt minimal difference.

The strut bars made the least differences compared to the other major components i just labeled. Yes they do make differences, but they are very minor compared to the major 3 right there.
User avatar
By PetrolHeaD
#23559
LowTEC-Derbo wrote:
PetrolHeaD wrote:dont forget front and rear strut bars and any other damn chassis stiffening bar u can get!

the biggest differences i felt were when i got the front strut bar, follwed by the rear and inner fender braces. my hatch felt a lot more direct after installing all of them. the rear one made the biggest difference; before the bar it felt like it was going all over the place in corners. now my hatch feels like its on rails! im still looking for lower tie bars though :cry:



really?

I added the strut bars to the car with all three major components and i felt minimal difference.

The strut bars made the least differences compared to the other major components i just labeled. Yes they do make differences, but they are very minor compared to the major 3 right there.


well the biggest difference like i said was from the rear strut bar, maybe cuz urs is a coupe, thats why it didnt make much of a difference for you.

i got the front strut bar before my suspension, the inner fender braces and the rear strut bar after.

ARBs are standard at the rear with an ITR one in the front.
User avatar
By Sire
#23647 You can also go the OEM way... Should be a little cheaper... Best bet is a complete setup from an SI or an integra that should make a huge difference for cheap...
User avatar
By chnzgoofball
#23648
PetrolHeaD wrote:
LowTEC-Derbo wrote:
PetrolHeaD wrote:dont forget front and rear strut bars and any other damn chassis stiffening bar u can get!

the biggest differences i felt were when i got the front strut bar, follwed by the rear and inner fender braces. my hatch felt a lot more direct after installing all of them. the rear one made the biggest difference; before the bar it felt like it was going all over the place in corners. now my hatch feels like its on rails! im still looking for lower tie bars though :cry:



really?

I added the strut bars to the car with all three major components and i felt minimal difference.

The strut bars made the least differences compared to the other major components i just labeled. Yes they do make differences, but they are very minor compared to the major 3 right there.


well the biggest difference like i said was from the rear strut bar, maybe cuz urs is a coupe, thats why it didnt make much of a difference for you.

i got the front strut bar before my suspension, the inner fender braces and the rear strut bar after.

ARBs are standard at the rear with an ITR one in the front.


i felt a difference when i got strutbars all around the car.. but the biggest i felt was the rear sway bar

EDIT: another big difference i felt was when i upped the spring rates :thumb:
User avatar
By LowTEC-Derbo
#23666 i barely felt any difference between my strut bars.


I was originally running poly endlinks, ITR rear sway bar, and APexi N1 suspension and some potenza tires. I honestly didn't feel much of a difference.




I do know it does make a difference simply because an open shoebox is weaker than one with a cover on top concept.
User avatar
By chnzgoofball
#23669 my setup was... nuespeed race springs, koni yellow shocks, ebay 5 piece strut bar set, stock sway bar up front, rear ls sway bar, and for tires they were yoko es100
User avatar
By PetrolHeaD
#23675
LowTEC-Derbo wrote:I do know it does make a difference simply because an open shoebox is weaker than one with a cover on top concept.


yeah i guess thats why my rear strut bar made such a big diff for me :)

but then again, your suspension setup is way advanced with the endlinks and apexi coilovers, that could also be why u didnt feel that much of a difference :D