excitid

Ok we all know our cars handle ok from the factory but what does it really take to have a great handling car. I've heard illuminas and a good spring kit. But I've heard others swear that the blues and coilovers give an alright ride. With good struts and springs will it allow the car to ride the bumps without the bounce and jerking. I want my car to sit about with about the same wheel gap as a M3 but with a fairly decent ride. I really want to be able to enjoy on and off ramps to the fullest, Sometimes it seems when I brake late into a corner it seems as if the rearend wants to come around is this easily solved other then me braking sooner or is it stabilizer bar related. I'm real big on the way a car feels and would spend my money on handling way before speed products. I'm asking for your opinions since it seems alot of our questions are more engine and speed related and not alot of talk about suspension and how to make us handle wicked.

WhiteRice

A front tower bar helps ten-fold. I have neuspeed, and I love it. You can get cheapies off ebay which basically do the trick, but I don't think they're as nice. Neuspeed is one piece made specific for a car, where as the cheapies have a screw like mechanism that adjusts the to width of the engine bay.

Old91CivicGuy

..........This will be the last time I ever post about suspension ever again. I have done this 8x already. Keeps getting erased. So............White rice is correct. Neuspeed makes a wicked ass front strut bar. Now, something for a daily driver limits the things you can do to your car. If your car is a daily driver and you drive it really hard all over the place, bumpy roads, pot holes, train tracks and these are all daily occurances.......DO NOT GET COILOVERS!!!!! You will shoot yourself in the head because of the vibration and noises they make. Realize that coilovers have a constant spring resistance. There is no progressive spring resistance out there. Except the teins. But those will cost you a lot of dough.

Now, what I reccommend may not be the same for all. Excited, I'll assume that you want this for a daily driver. So here we go.

1. Strut bars would be the first thing you can do to your car. You will want front, rear, and lower tie. Do these all at once. (I still have front and rear for you waiting and they were not cheap)

2. Sway Bars are optional. Hondas come stock w/ a front sway bar in the front and no rear. The reason for this is to prevent the back from coming out.......as in a fish tail. It is easier to control a car with understeer that w/ oversteer Especially with a front drive car. Go autocross your car. You'll understand. If you put a rear swaybar and you brake late in a turn, your back end will fly out and you'll be sent into 360's. Trust me, had one and took it off.

3. Springs, one brand and type. "Eibach ProKit" DO NOT GET ANYTHING ELSE FOR A DAILY DRIVER. anything more than an inch and a half you will regret and continually kick yourself.

4. Struts, daily driver, you do not need adjustables unless you autocross w/ your daily driver. You want a performance strut.

5. Wider soft composite tires w/ light rims.

6. Camber kit. YOu want some negative camber. It makes a difference but kills your tire life.

7. Bushings.......urethane bushings make a difference but must be lubed properly or they squeek like crazy.

8. Learn how to drive your car. Go autocross. That's the only way to learn. Find out when your car breaks loose, how fast you can take turns, how to make your back end break loose. Lean how downshifting into turns can make your car act like a rear wheel drive car.

Set up on my deceased 4dr.....
eibach prokit,
front/rear strut bar, lower tie rod
tokico blue( they are rated at the #4 setting on the illuminas and illuminas have the highest setting of #5)
eibach front sway bar
16x7 rota subzero w/ 205/45/16 estcas
brembo rotors w/ axxis pads

jc836

Another opinion--
Whether your car is a daily driver or not the suspension can be updated with coilovers and Koni shocks or whatever brand you prefer. I will agree that Prokit or Neuspeed Sport springs are an excellent choice IF you do not want a lot of drop and a milder feel (less bouncy as some put it). These springs are fine for most uses including fast ramps and turns -but they are not race springs for serious competition.
My CRX and Civic ride on Skunk2 coilover sleeves mounted on Koni shocks. The spring rates were selected based on how the cars will be used. The CRX is a drive it to the track and race setup and the Civic is a daily/autocross car. The spring rates on both are very high compared to stock, but not so extreme as it be grossly uncomfortable on the street.
Sway bars-this is an area where there is a lot of debate, but the overall feeling is to increase the size of the rear bar. My Civic CX came with no bars-so a set of ST's went on it. The CRX Si comes with bars and the rear has been upgraded to an ADDCO 19mm bar. My Prelude has been upgraded in the rear with a Neuspeed 25mm bar. This one mod will make a huge difference in turning characteristics. What happens is that understeer in a FWD is reduced. Yes the car is a little touchy but better behaved overall.
Now for tower bars-I do NOT subscribe to putting anything on the bottom. The upper bars are a must and all 3 cars have a front one while the Prelude has a rear upper. The CRX does not need one as the roll cage is taking a lot of flex out of the chassis.
Bushings-a great upgrade and well worth the effort for an older car (14). The CRX has been updated in the rear only as to the lower control arms, trailing arm, sway bar with polyurethane. YES-these parts must be properly greased or they really squeak a bunch.
Up front the sway bar bushings and end links were updated with poly too. These are the only pieces that you really need to do in polyurethane. If you suspect wear on the rest of the bushings-do them in rubber. Why-because you can actually get the suspension too stiff otherwise.
The point about tire wear is very important-get Camber kits. A CRX can be done one of several ways. In my case racing in ITA I am only allowed shims in the rear and eccentric (Specialty Products) bushings up front.
THis works well for a drop of 1"-2". There are Ingalls kits on my Civic because it is in another class. My Prelude (99 Base) has Ingalls in the rear and Specialty up front. The value to doing this is to reduce tire wear and make the car more adjustable to your driving style. THis is regardless of the type of springs or brand of shocks you use.

Finally, get some serious track and autocross time. Seat time is the most important thing you need to better learn your car. Here in the Northeast we are fortunate to have NASA, PDA, Trackmasters and various car clubs renting tracks. I have my share at Watkins Glen, Pocono, and soon BeaverRun-the weeklends have been a great learning experience. If this is not in your plans then find a weekly autocross and go and run. Don't worry about winning-learn your car.

Hope this helps and good luck

BTLFED

First of all, my CRX Si came with a rear sway bar also. It is the lower models that don't come with a rear. The setup on my car is Speciality Products camber kits, Tsudo coilovers for an Integra(use the same setup as Ground Control, but without Eibach springs) because I wanted a stiffer spring rate, KYB AGX struts, Suspension Techniques sway bars, a complete Prothane Urethane bushing kit, Neuspeed front upper and rear lower bars, and a rear upper bar from Tanabe Japan. I have 17" Toxxins with Kumho tires and it still rides very nice for a performance car and handles very flat without a bunch of understeer which my car loved to do. I had a rickety Number 1 rear upper strut tower brace and it didn't seem to do much of anything because the mounts came up so far to come out of the big hole in the plastic paneling that was already there to get to the struts. You could actually grab it and pull and it would flex a lot. I didn't like that so I bought a JDM Tanabe bar (not trying to sound like I jumped on the JDM bandwagon ) And it was almost completely flat all the way across. It took a little cutting of the panels to get it in, but when I put it in it was solid and helped a bunch.

Everyone's opinion is going to be different, depending on what people's opinion of a good ride is and a good balance of daily driven and track handling is. I know in my opinion my balance is:thumbup: and I have gone through 4 different suspension setups. In my opinion I have finally gotten it right.

FourthGenHatch

I have a good supension set up for daily driving which is also good on the budget...

Neuspeed® Sport Lowering Springs, 1.5'' Drop
Neuspeed® Front Strut Tower Bar
Neuspeed® Rear Strut Tower Bar
Neuspeed® Rear Lower Tie Bar
JDM Cusco® Front Arm Bar (Front Tie Bar)
Suspension Techniques® 22mm Rear Anti-Sway Bar
OEM/Stock 18mm Front Sway Bar w/ Energy Suspension® Poly. Bushings
Ingall's® Camber Kit

My car handles very well, I have never had my car do a 360* or anything because of my larger rear bar, my handling is quite neutral, I would have a hardtime getting it to lose control. I think it actually handled better before my rear disc swap (because it F*ed up my offset in the rear I think) but I'm working on correcting all of that.

Good brakes is another thing you want which will help control better also.

Old91CivicGuy

Try this..........go find a really big parking lot w/ no light poles or anything like that and pretend you are making a left and turn at a light. Enter the turn at like a constant 35mph and hold a constant accleration. Right before you hit the apex of the turn, let off your gas slightly. Your back end should come around really quick.

FourthGenHatch

Maybe, I usually brake before turns, then accelerate all the way through them.

Old91CivicGuy

That works too, but if you accelerate too much your car will go directly into understeer. So to be able to acclerate in a turn you must be going really slow to avoid understeer. Have you ever autocrossed your car?

FourthGenHatch

I tried doing the thing in the parkinglot and in the rain and the back never came out, if it did it was only like a few inches.

As for the oversteering thing yeah mine does do that sometimes, like I will turn the wheel and it keeps going straight. I flew off the road once. But it only does that in rain. But since then I make sure its stable all the time and to keep my tire pressures correct.