lowering my 93 civic hatch

[Schugg]

i know this is probably a stupid question buts its been so long since ive put on some coil overs that i cant remember. is there a way i can put coil overs on with out having to do an alignment? i have 13inch VX rims and i hate the massive gap, but want to check on a few things first. if i cant avoid an alignment i need to set some money aside for that, but also if im going to get an alignment wanted to know if i should go ahead and set money aside for the front camber kit, or if it really wont make a dif? (any certian brands if so? i i put skunk 2 on my last civic coupe) as for the rear camber kit should i waste money on that or get the same results by putting spacers on the little upper bracket of rear drum assembly with longer bolts. thats what i did last time and it worked fine

OR instead of reading all that time wasting paragraph, here:

- can i lower my car without needing an alignment?
- if not, should i go ahead and get a front camber kit (brands?)?
- waste money on a rear camber kit or get the same results with spacers and longers bolts on the bracket with 2 bolts going in the body

[bRiAnMcIvIcS]

Just shim the rear end with big washers and 10 grade 1.25x60mm bolts(longer than stock)...rear camber kits are pointless(it costs like $12 for 2 bolts and like 10 washers at ace hardware). You could just get them to adjust the toe on the front and just shim the rear. A camber kit would be needed on the front if you slam it.

[silversol]

if your vx is stock sell it to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Barefoot]

- can i lower my car without needing an alignment?
- if not, should i go ahead and get a front camber kit (brands?)?
- waste money on a rear camber kit or get the same results with spacers and longers bolts on the bracket with 2 bolts going in the body

yes get the alignment
ingalls is what ive always used
shim the rear

[Homer Simpson]

if you're gonna adjust your ride height at all, you're gonna want to get it aligned. Toe in/out is what wears your tires out, not so much camber. But yes, I would invest in a camber kit up front if you're gonna slam it, as far as the rear, just get a home depot camber kit, worked great for my old hatch, I've never had a camber kit up front and my old hatc was pretty low, but I got a aligned and rotated often and after over 1 year, My tires still had about 75% thread left, no lie. All about alignment bro.

[Schugg]

ok thanks everyone who posted, ill look into those type of front cambers, and just go ahead and do the acehardware special on the back.. my last civic i had a front camber kit (charcoal one on my sig) and i still got front tire wear for some reason. it wasnt really slammed but i had 15's, and now i have 13's, im sure ill need it.

haha oh yeah, cant sell the VX! haha mainly cause im in texas, another reason cause i get like 40mpg, and finally where im at in texas it took me over 9 months to find a honda/acura i wanted

[ash7]

i know this is probably a stupid question buts its been so long since ive put on some coil overs that i cant remember. is there a way i can put coil overs on with out having to do an alignment? i have 13inch VX rims and i hate the massive gap, but want to check on a few things first. if i cant avoid an alignment i need to set some money aside for that, but also if im going to get an alignment wanted to know if i should go ahead and set money aside for the front camber kit, or if it really wont make a dif? (any certian brands if so? i i put skunk 2 on my last civic coupe) as for the rear camber kit should i waste money on that or get the same results by putting spacers on the little upper bracket of rear drum assembly with longer bolts. thats what i did last time and it worked fine

OR instead of reading all that time wasting paragraph, here:

- can i lower my car without needing an alignment?
- if not, should i go ahead and get a front camber kit (brands?)?
- waste money on a rear camber kit or get the same results with spacers and longers bolts on the bracket with 2 bolts going in the body

I love how you put the Cliff Notes on the bottom without a disclaimer on top.

- can i lower my car without needing an alignment?
yes you can lower your car without getting an alignment. Make sure you have a perfect alignment before lowering your car. I haven't had an issue with this before.

- if not, should i go ahead and get a front camber kit (brands?)?
camber and an alignment are two totally different things.

*laymens terms: alignment - which way your wheels are turning with the
steering wheel centered up.

*laymens terms: camber - how your wheel is centered on the hub. It's
easiest to tell this by looking at the top of your wheel and judge how far
the top of the tire is "leaning" in torwards (or away from) the car.

- waste money on a rear camber kit or get the same results with spacers and longers bolts on the bracket with 2 bolts going in the body
rear camber is not typically severe enough to justify the extra cost of an
adjustable rear upper control arm. But if you want to do it the "right" and
socially correct way, then yes - get them.

-jonathan

[ash7]

ok thanks everyone who posted, ill look into those type of front cambers, and just go ahead and do the acehardware special on the back.. my last civic i had a front camber kit (charcoal one on my sig) and i still got front tire wear for some reason. it wasnt really slammed but i had 15's, and now i have 13's,im sure ill need it.

camber wear severity usually increases depending on the size of the rim. The Larger the wheel, the more severe.

-jonathan

[Schugg]

I love how you put the Cliff Notes on the bottom without a disclaimer on top.

- can i lower my car without needing an alignment?
yes you can lower your car without getting an alignment. Make sure you have a perfect alignment before lowering your car. I haven't had an issue with this before.

- if not, should i go ahead and get a front camber kit (brands?)?
camber and an alignment are two totally different things.

*laymens terms: alignment - which way your wheels are turning with the
steering wheel centered up.

*laymens terms: camber - how your wheel is centered on the hub. It's
easiest to tell this by looking at the top of your wheel and judge how far
the top of the tire is "leaning" in torwards (or away from) the car.

- waste money on a rear camber kit or get the same results with spacers and longers bolts on the bracket with 2 bolts going in the body
rear camber is not typically severe enough to justify the extra cost of an
adjustable rear upper control arm. But if you want to do it the "right" and
socially correct way, then yes - get them.

-jonathan

i figured smaller rims would be worse, but never really looked into it, ill see though. as for camber/toe/caster, i know what they are, but together they i called them an alignment, cause thats what they adjust when you get one.

[rsxtype-svi]

what springs u got? i wanna lower my si

[Schugg]

on my car now, i just have stock stuff but i ordered my other ones off ebay, i dont think its a real name brand but they were the most expensive i could find on ebay.....55 dollars shipped..haha



i have a question though last time i never had or used any of the rubber seals, or the small metal rings, cause i bought them used. it has 4 real thick orings, 8 medium thickness orings and 8 small thickness orings? where do all these go? im assuming the thickest goes between the adjustable holder and the strut cylinder to stop it from moving? if thats right what are the rest for? then it has 4 metal rings, and the inner edge has a lip on it stick out from the side. they fit ontop of the adjustable part but not sure what its need for.

[southside]

4 metal rings are to adjust ride height.The O rings are to hold the sleeves to your struts/shocks.It keeps them from moving around I just used tape.

[AnTi-PooN]

camber wear severity usually increases depending on the size of the rim. The Larger the wheel, the more severe.

-jonathan

the god of dumpage has spoken lol

[Schugg]

4 metal rings are to adjust ride height.The O rings are to hold the sleeves to your struts/shocks.It keeps them from moving around I just used tape.

haha, not those , there is 8 of those anyway, these were just like 4 random washers that fit ontop of the sleeve. dont matter anyway, i went ahead and put them on without the little metal thing or the rubber rings.

[gtikid]

Camber FTW

[rsxtype-svi]

how does it ride

[Schugg]

it rides a rough/bouncy, i wouldnt recommend buying any non-major name brand coil overs from ebay/anywhere for permanent use. (spend atleast 200 for a nice set) i just bought these for now because i plan on getting the full coil over setup later(comes with the strut/spring and all that), those are 600-900 so i just got these til then. to me just having the lowered look and lowered handling is worth the bounce til i get something nice.

[six7teen]

GET AN ALIGNMENT!! if not, you'll end up like me.. 700 miles on brand new tires, worn all the way down .. ftl

[Schugg]

haha, i already lowered it, the camber isnt bad, and it drives pretty straight. lucky if my tires end up like that mine are like 20 dollars each.

[ash7]

GET AN ALIGNMENT!! if not, you'll end up like me.. 700 miles on brand new tires, worn all the way down .. ftl

ben, your alignment was already out of specs. lol

-jonathan

[SlowsterCivy]

yeah, I did the eibach lowering springs...was not about to pay for full suspension. Started to not like the way it felt in terms of the bounchyness, and a few parking lots were pissing me off, so i took them off...never putting them back on unless i get full suspension done, otherwise, ill be riding stock height, no matter how ghey it looks.

[Schugg]

ive rode on a car with cut stock springs and it rode awesome, and was as low as my coil overs got me. ide take cut springs over these if i could get the same results but i probably wouldnt. think he just got lucky

[MR.EM1]

weld ur shocks and cut ur springs

[Schugg]

weld my shocks?! why would i want to do that? dont see how that could do any good. sounds like that would make hitting bumps rough over just bouncy. if anything i was thinking of putting a mark on the struts rod where it meets the housing seal/rim, when the cars weight is resting on it then letting them fully extend and put a gash in it about 2 inches below the mark as far down as i can so that when i put it back on the car and it gets pushed back down the excess fluid will squirt out until it gets to the end of the gash then will be back sealed with the cars full weight on it.