EK- king springs

[timmy_honda]

Hey guys,
I know there may be threads covering this topic, but I couldn't find exactly what I needed, so I decided to post here.

So we test drove a 98 EK today, and it was lowered on kings springs (I believe they were super lows), the wheels were 14" or 15", not too sure (I know there is a lack of information, but yeah)
so when we were test driving it, i was doing 15km/h through a corner and the front wheels rubbed. is it because of the tyre sizes or is it some other problem?
Is it a cheap fix...? (like by rolling the guards or whatever, i don't know...)

Cheers.

[charliebrown]

Could be many things. Blown shocks, sagged springs, tyre sizes, width, offset etc. Need a lot more information

[stndrd]

Where are you located for a start?

King Springs don't usually sag. Did you find this car off the internet? If so post up a link, otherwise get as much info from the seller and let us know.

If your in S.E suburbs of Melbourne, let me know as I could come and inspect the vehicle with you for a small fee (I am a qualified mechanic by trade)

[viinnh]

^^^^^ LOL BRO king springs are shit they are the ones that sag easiest..

[hondapop]

^^^^^ LOL BRO king springs are shit they are the ones that sag easiest..

Sure you're not thinking of Pedders.

[hondapop]

King superlows are supposed to give a 50mm drop, which will change your camber quite a bit but unless the 14 or 15's have got very wide tyres/high offset rims they shouldn't rub on the inner guard. Could have been the tyre edge contacting the plastic inner guard as the car leaned, if the wheels were wide/low offset. (hellaflush or approaching it)

[timmy_honda]

Hey guys, thanks for the kind comments.
The Carsales link is here
http://www.carsales.com.au/private/details/honda-civic-1998-11911195?vertical=Car&cr=27&VNAV=A&eapi=2&__N=1216%201246%201247%201252%201282%204294965322% 204294965250%20898%201621&silo=Stock&Page=2&sort=~Price
And yes it's an auto lol I'm sharing the car with my sister.
Cheers.

[charliebrown]

Walla habib spec much? That wouldn't rub unless springs are really soft (kings) or shocks are foggoted, tyre size and offset look normal

[viinnh]

Sure you're not thinking of Pedders.

nope pedders dont sag, thier much stiffer then kings as well. kings sag..


to OP
ask him why did he get a respray ? im assuming its been hit since the front dont line up, also rev check that shit

i dont know if 98 came in facelift or not but i thought preface was 96-98 and facelift 99-00

[timmy_honda]

Thanks guys.
He got a respray because "the paint was fading", that's what he told me.
and I've already revs checked it, it's all good.
And it's a 11/98 model, which makes it a 99 i think?

[viinnh]

ohh okay, body straight ? look around the radiator support for welds ? as the panels dont line up that good man.

dont reallly think white would fade that easily

[hondapop]

Yeah I would be suspicious of white fading (one reason why most commercial vehicles are white), so as viinnh say's, look for evidence of accident damage/repair. Panels not lining up are an indicator of structural damage preventing them doing so.

[charliebrown]

As said, for frontal damage check for welds on radiator support. Can check for damage on the side by popping out some of the rubber trim where the door opens, common place for weld spots to be hidden. If the car has been in a bad crash and chassis has been straightened then check the 4 jack points for clamp marks. Similarly for heavy rear end damage check wheel well. If the car was full resprayed then might be bad crash? Or is only some panels resprayed

[viinnh]

what the ****
is this car 2 halves joined together ?

its a gli yet looks like rear drum brakes in the first photo, the whole brakes are red. i dont think they made red disc ? ..

EDIT: btw um make sure springs airnt chopped or anything yeah ? they seem a bit low for king springs. and by saying 15km/h and scrub ? sag kings or kings dont scrub at that much km/h

[timmy_honda]

OMG, Thank you for the comments guys.
I don't know much about cars...like mechanic wise.
Anyways, thanks Charlie Brown and Viinnh :) you both have taught me something haha

So wait, GLIs don't have rear drum brakes?! because they ARE drum brakes. Does that mean it's a half cut?!

[charliebrown]

We haven't seen the car, we've only seen some poorly shot pictures. It might still be a good buy and you can bring up a lot of things to shake the seller face-to-face and see if he's full of shit with his responses. Take someone who knows their shit, preferably someone who knows EKs well to spot anything off.

[senna]

nope pedders dont sag, thier much stiffer then kings as well. kings sag..


LOL

This is incorrect....

*Sorry for the thread hi-jack...

[IV73CI]

LOL

This is incorrect....

*Sorry for the thread hi-jack...

x2 ..

Kings Springs are thicker coils than the Pedders.

+ KS use better metal compound than Pedders.

ive used KS for so many years previously due to budget restraint and used OEM shocks.

depending on how low you go - the OEM shocks should last you a while.

if the car scrubs on 14-15inch on corners at low speeds, then most likely the shocks are goneskies and or the offset of the wheels/tyres are too wide. This will make them scrub on the guards/fenders if they havent been rolled.

If you dont know what to look out for when buying a car, pay for a NRMA/RACQ/RACV inspection report.

this will tell you the basic faults of what the car has.

GL and enjoy buying :)

[hondapop]

x2 ..

Kings Springs are thicker coils than the Pedders.

+ KS use better metal compound than Pedders.

ive used KS for so many years previously due to budget restraint and used OEM shocks.

depending on how low you go - the OEM shocks should last you a while.

Thankyou for restoring my faith in deciding to go with Kings for my street Gen2 CRX (superlows fitted to DelSol OEM shocks). I also have a full set of Pedders (lows) on OEM Gen2 shocks. First thing I noticed was the extra thickness of the K's compared to the P's.

I drove the car on the K's for a while on it's old tyres and thought the ride wasn't as harsh as I expected, quite happy with them. Changed over to the P's before getting new tyres and until I can afford camber adjusters (don't want to wear out the tyres too fast haha). Since driving it with them in (still on the old tyres), immediately noticed how much harsher they are even though there's more travel available. Don't like them.

Now, how do I give you a +Rep?

[senna]

There is a common misconception with King Springs being cheap because they are available regularly and they can be purchased relatively cheaply. The other problem is that people buy the Kings and install them with already failing or worn out factory shocks and then assume that the springs are the problem - not to mention all the bushes that are more than likely stuffed on a 10+ year old car (what most members of this forum are running)

The truth is that King springs can and do produce some of the highest quality coil springs in the world. The quality of steel used is far superior and the manufacturing process is second to none. Kings can produce coils that run tapered wire progressive rates - Eibach and H&R cannot do this let alone pedders. If you see a pedders coil with tapered wire material - Kings made it for them. No, i don't work for them either...

It's all about matching shocks with springs - lower and stiffer doesn't necessarily mean better!

Again, apologies for the thread hi-jack

[stndrd]

There is a common misconception with King Springs being cheap because they are available regularly and they can be purchased relatively cheaply. The other problem is that people buy the Kings and install them with already failing or worn out factory shocks and then assume that the springs are the problem - not to mention all the bushes that are more than likely stuffed on a 10+ year old car (what most members of this forum are running)

The truth is that King springs can and do produce some of the highest quality coil springs in the world. The quality of steel used is far superior and the manufacturing process is second to none. Kings can produce coils that run tapered wire progressive rates - Eibach and H&R cannot do this let alone pedders. If you see a pedders coil with tapered wire material - Kings made it for them. No, i don't work for them either...

It's all about matching shocks with springs - lower and stiffer doesn't necessarily mean better!

Again, apologies for the thread hi-jack


No body ever listen's to a mechanic, so I'm glad a suspension guru has put the argument to an end =]

[nny911]

There is a common misconception with King Springs being cheap because they are available regularly and they can be purchased relatively cheaply. The other problem is that people buy the Kings and install them with already failing or worn out factory shocks and then assume that the springs are the problem - not to mention all the bushes that are more than likely stuffed on a 10+ year old car (what most members of this forum are running)

The truth is that King springs can and do produce some of the highest quality coil springs in the world. The quality of steel used is far superior and the manufacturing process is second to none. Kings can produce coils that run tapered wire progressive rates - Eibach and H&R cannot do this let alone pedders. If you see a pedders coil with tapered wire material - Kings made it for them. No, i don't work for them either...

It's all about matching shocks with springs - lower and stiffer doesn't necessarily mean better!

Again, apologies for the thread hi-jack


It sounds like you just regurgitated info from the king spring website, any "Company" can advertise their product as being "far superior" or "highest quality coil springs in the world"

My friend had a brand new FD Civic put in king springs and they sagged and handled worse than stock, now can we really blame the shocks or the bushings of a new car?

Im not giving any credit to Pedders either, I put them on my FD Civic they were fine on the 15's, but once i changed wheels to 17" with 45 profile, the ride was like sitting in Fred Flintstone's car.

So if King Spring - "quality of steel used is far superior and the manufacturing process is second to none" and for such a cheap price why don't we hear of any competing let alone winning, race cars / rally cars / drift cars using king springs?
with such expensive technology how are their costs so low?

don't take this the wrong way but i had a look at your website most of your customers are sex spec? do they really care about handling?

even though you don't work for King springs your company supplies them and i can bet they are your top seller, you wouldn't say anything to commend Pedders, as you dont stock them...

and i apologise too for the thread hi-jack.

[senna]

I'm just going to reply within your quote


It sounds like you just regurgitated info from the king spring website, any "Company" can advertise their product as being "far superior" or "highest quality coil springs in the world" Would anyone not advertise it if they believed in their product?

My friend had a brand new FD Civic put in king springs and they sagged and handled worse than stock, now can we really blame the shocks or the bushings of a new car? How long did it take to sag? Did your friend look into having them replaced under warranty? They do come with a lifetime guarantee against sagging - even the best products have failures which are covered under warranty. Standard shocks also don't last very long these days - we commonly replace shocks on vehicles with less than 50,000k's

Im not giving any credit to Pedders either, I put them on my FD Civic they were fine on the 15's, but once i changed wheels to 17" with 45 profile, the ride was like sitting in Fred Flintstone's car. That's a fairly mute point for any spring since the only thing that changed was your wheel and tyre combo

So if King Spring - "quality of steel used is far superior and the manufacturing process is second to none" and for such a cheap price why don't we hear of any competing let alone winning, race cars / rally cars / drift cars using king springs?
with such expensive technology how are their costs so low? 7 out of the top 10 V8 Supercar teams run Kings, the only other supplier of springs to the teams is Eibach. Pedders sponsor the V8 series however not one team uses their products. Monster Tajima (Pikes Peak Legend, he builds the 1200hp Suzuki Vitaras for hill climb) runs Kings on his Evo's and recommends them for Evo owners. Costs are low becuase you aren't paying for an inflated brand name like we do here in Australia so often. Eibach sells in the US and Europe for around $270 per set - does that mean they are worse since they are cheaper?

don't take this the wrong way but i had a look at your website most of your customers are sex spec? do they really care about handling? No offence taken, the majority of customers these days are Sex Spec inclined or they only care for looks, so of course that is going to be our featured style, however i can assure you that we do not recommend this style of modification to achieve better performance we simply provide a service that requested by the customers that walk in the door. If you look at any car that belongs to our staff you may consider them "boring" since they aren't crazy low with 22" rims or what have you.

even though you don't work for King springs your company supplies them and i can bet they are your top seller, you wouldn't say anything to commend Pedders, as you dont stock them...

We are completely independent, so we use the products that do the job required while being good value for money (both for us, our trade customers and the general public) and also provide good warranty support even though a warranty claim is very rare. Pedders have some good products and we have used them in the past, however in our experience the failure rate is higher than others and the pricing is generally too high for competitive markets like Sydney.

and i apologise too for the thread hi-jack.