Wheels And Suspension Advice Sought

[culicine]

Hi all, i'll be changing my tires this afternoon. i have a honda civic 2.0 2004 model. the wheels are 17' and tires 215/45/17. They are badly worn on the inside edges, especially in the rear. i'm assuming this was caused by the negative camber in the rear.

The springs are h&r and the drop in the rear is too excessive - the top of the tire is about the same as the wheel arch. however in the front there is about a one inch gap - i'm happy with the front but not the rear.

So i'm asking wht my best options are. i'm thinking just to replace the rear springs with the originals - so the gap will be about 2 inches or so. would this cause major problems with cornering braking or stability? This is my cheapest option. it should fix the height and wheel wear problem. I really don't like the original springs though - to high and bouncy, so was thinking just to replace the rears.

Another option is to pur in a rear camber kit - it will still be low but should fix the tire wear problem - as long as the straightened wheel doesn't hit the wheel arch i'll be happy.

then there is spring spacers that could raise the rear but don't know where to source them here.

or are there other springs that are a little higher, like tein, eibach?

any ideas will be appreciated;0

[MoonRiverOasis]

I would not recommend using an odd comibination of springs - the different rates will make the car very unpredictable in corners, underbrakes, and even over straight line undulations.

By the sounds of it, a camber kit isn't needed - getting the rear height back to where it should be should resolve the problem - the rear tires at arch height is plain too low - unless you want a 30km/hr max boulevard cruiser

The TEIN S-Tech's will even your ride height, work with the OEM shocks, and are the only lowering springs I've used that are able to maintain some ride compliance. For something like the Civic you'd be looking at around 6000 Baht for a set of 4 fitted. The drop from OEM on these is usally around 35-40mm, so low enough to make a noticeable difference to visuals and handling, but not so low as to destroy the shocks, suspension travel, or upset the basic suspension geometry.

[WarpSpeed]

Adjustable rear spring seats should solve the height problem if it is possible to add them in the current application or maybe make a change of damper to accommodate that option. A camber kit may still be required and be aware of adverse toe also which also causes the inner part of the tread to wear prematurely by dragging on the pavement rather then rolling as too much toe out is a common problem with lowering too..

As for varying spring rates, you already have that as the rears are never the same rate as the fronts and that especially applies to FWD, it will not seriously effect your cars performance for every day driving only if you're track driving, though it may effect braking somewhat due to more weight transfer causing more front pitch under braking loads..

In track conditions spring rates are often mismatched by the top teams to provide the best handling and weight balance though not a practice here very often due to an inherent lack of suspension dynamics understanding..

[BSJ]

The funny thing is, after spending many millions of dollars in R&D, Honda thought they had it right when they made that model!

[WarpSpeed]

The funny thing is, after spending many millions of dollars in R&D, Honda thought they had it right when they made that model!

Yeah but what do they know?? They're not Thai ..

[MoonRiverOasis]

So how did you get on culine?

[culicine]

Hi MRO, I got some yokohamas from autobacs yesterday.

They didn't touch the springs as it was late in the afternoon - I was just going to replace the old ones.

However, I was told that it is actually possible to adjust the camber in the rear (I didn' know that), but they can't adjust fully as the tire might strike the wheel arch - and their machine to do this wasn't working last night.

Also they can apparently make spring spacers to raise the rear about an inch. However, though my translating wife, they said this wouldn't fix the camber problem.

Next weekend I'll be in Ratchaburi so will probably get the old springs put back in (which is where I got the lowered springs in the first place).

I have 180K kms on it now. So how much life is there left in my shocks? Could I use bilsteins with adjustable damping rate to improve the ride quality on the old springs? Or are there any other suggestions?