changing springs in dc5r

[franki]

hey all,
im ready to change the spirngs in my dc5r, i know that people have opinions on which springs are good or bad, i just would like to know, im fitting king springs lowered 2" to my dc5r and im wondering, has anybody else done the same? was the handling screwed up when doing this? and is it ok to fit the king springs without chnageing shocks or anything? (no spam please) :honda:

[FunkyR]

go coilovers if u have the $$....

i have spoon progs and they're fine.... lower the car about the same.... on issue is that on track the exhaust pipe sometimes hits my sway bar.... thinking of upgrading to coilovers soon....

[davidd]

King springs for the dc5r without changing the shocks is not the smartest way.

I would have gone for either spoon or merwede....

The king springs are usually very soft, what spring rates did you opt for ?

[franki]

go coilovers if u have the $$....

i have spoon progs and they're fine.... lower the car about the same.... on issue is that on track the exhaust pipe sometimes hits my sway bar.... thinking of upgrading to coilovers soon....

i dont mean to be an rude but please don tell me your opinion on which springs i should get or whether i should get coilovers, i would just like to know is it going to mess up my handling if i get the hardest spring rate, lowered 2"? :honda:

[davidd]

Hardest rate isn't really that much info mate....

Softer rates (4kg front) and say 6kg in the back, with make the car very sluggish. 6 in the front with 9's in the back will make it a bit harder on the bumps, but the handling is fairly good.

Your will probably just end up wearing out your shocks fairly quickly

[franki]

so i need 6kg in front and 9kg in the rear, if i want to still handle well, thanks mate, il ring the shop and check whats pring rate theylle be using?
cheers :honda:

[FunkyR]

i dont mean to be an rude but please don tell me your opinion on which springs i should get or whether i should get coilovers, i would just like to know is it going to mess up my handling if i get the hardest spring rate, lowered 2"? :honda:

sure, i wasnt intending to be offending just giving you some friendly advice.

[edit] - my bad u did ask specifically if anyone had king springs and asked about handling.

[davidd]

From my understanding, for dc5's the best spring rates are comparative to ...
for every 1 kg front, there should be 1.5 -2 Kg in the back

[franki]

sweet, rang the shop, they will be checking up on it, il ring them back soon and see what they say, then post up my options. ps. davidd your car is so sweat, ohh the power of forced induction, its just a dream for me, lol

[ilusi]

umm...when i bought my car...it already has king springs on them!

i dont know the specs for them..but i am also considering lowering the car more..but i dont want to put out big bucks for the drop. i like the drop on this car in the attachment. Which springs could i get that are good quality to get this kind of drop? I dont think spoon progressive springs give that kind of drop.

ummm....i cant attach a file...why not?

[FunkyR]

franki - depends on what you're trying to achieve.

Handling for track? handling for every day driving? or even just dropping the car for looks and worried about handling?

Too stiff and you're handling will suffer like david said. Track spring rates not uncommonly go to 12/14 or even higher. On the street they'll be horrible, bump steering too much.

On the road it comes down to personal preference. The stock spring rates are (NB JDM)
Front - 2.8~4.6
Rear - 3.0~8.0

It also depends on future mods you have planned. The AUDM stock DC5 is designed to understeer at the limit - safer for the average driver. Why david was suggesting stiffer rears is that the rear sway of the AUDM is 19mm compared with JDM 22mm (that equates to a stiffness difference of about 40-50%!). You can compensate by upping your rear spring rates or if you are planning to get aftermarket sways, stick with a more neutral spring rate balance. I wouldnt be suprised if the King springs are heavily rear biased for this reason.

Yes yes, I'm refering to spoon again (so u get an idea). Spoon is approx 7.4F and 8.2R. That's a more balanced spring rate than say 6/9 but that's designed for a JDM DC5R with the thicker rear sway.

Lowering the car doesnt necessarily improve handling. 2 inches should be fine, but if you go any lower you'll have too many camber issues. Dont forget any springs you buy for the DC5R from JApan are designed for the JDM DC5R so in addition to the drop add another 1cm (as the JDM sits 1cm lower than AUDM).

And getting back to my spoon springs and sway bar hitting exhaust point, if my car drops about 1"+and I have this issue, I think you might too with a 2" drop.

[davidd]

Agree with what funky r has said ...

But if you also upgrade the front sway to 22 - 24 mm you need to once again have stiffer rear springs :)

I have 24mm sways both front and rear, with 6Kg front and 9kg rear springs.
But this is in tein coilovers.....

[davidd]

All that adds up to a car that is neutral for most driving, and still does tend to understeer at the limit ....

although lift off oversteer can be fun :) :D

[FunkyR]

Depends on ur driving style.... some ppl prefer the car to understeer more and some oversteer more. For track purposes, slight oversteer is better - counter acts the inherit understeer nature of FF and allows you to carry more speed into corners BUT is much less forgiving.

hope this helps

[franki]

i ordered som 2" lowered kmac springs $440, not bad ay, thanks for your help anyways guys. :honda: