HELP!!!!Suspension setup

[blabla]

Looking to change a few things on the suspension.

Firstly it’s a 1996 Ej8.
Secondly the car was lowered before I bought it. Then I lifted the front coz it was too low.

Car has Pedders springs, front sway bar, no rear sway, and no top mounted sway bar.

Want to know what a good setup is so that it matches up with each other.

[AE092]

being a front wheel drive what you want is a rear sway. Rear sways give more traction and better turn-in at the front.

the "upper sway bar" is actually called a strut brace, provides extra stiffness and reduces suspension flex when cornering and so forth.

Rear sway, front strut brace and lowered suspension is what i have. Works well, oh yeh good tyres are important too

[nd55]

> Want to know what a good setup is so

1) ASR rear brace & 22mm ITR rear sway bar.

2) Good tyres.

3) Good tyre alignment.

4) Engine mounts / engine torque arm / traction bars.
Depending on your goals & tolerance for vibration to solve dreaded wheel hop.

Nick.

[blabla]

all i want is better handling. its not tight around corners so what about a tie bar?

[Limbo]

then you want a rear swaybar 22mm. I'd recommend the Whiteline + asr.
An ASR brace to stop your rear from rippin out worth the investment

[blabla]

is worth leaving the stock one on there or just change it?

coz i was just thinking of finding someone that had the em1 sway bar and strut brace or finding the same size brand new.

any suggestions.

[nd55]

> so what about a tie bar?

ASR rear brace is also a "tie" bar, of sorts. It's main goal is to reinforce the rear subframe which are known to fail when fitted with > 14mm rear sway bars.

IMHO strut/tie bars are for track junkies. For a street car there's better places to spend money on.

> I'd recommend the Whiteline + asr.

I can't remember if an ASR brace and Whiteline bar will work. Apologies if I'm wrong, yet a again.

It's been covered here before, just can't remember where.

Whiteline is local and the rear sway has three different mounting holes so you get adjustability.

ASR + 22mm ITR rear bar is a well proven combination.

Either is good.

Chances are your front is 22mm. An upgrade is the 26mm civic type R bar.
Get the rear fitted with good rubber, a wheel alignment, -2.5 camber front, -1.5 rear, and go from there.

Standard practice on wheel alignments is to roll onto a machine, if it's within spec, then roll straight off.

You want a performance oriented place which will go the extra mile to dial in what you want.

> or finding the same size brand new

fitting a new, same size sway bar? Pointless. Have I missed something?

You will probably notice an improvement just by fitting new poly bushes to the front sway bar and endlinks.

Whiteline do poly bushes. I think for the D brackets, Speedpro make some nice generic bushes which have a knurling on the ID and thus retain grease better.

Nick.

[dudeling7]

the problem is that you say your car has no rear sway bar. i cant remember if ej8's came with a rear sway bar or not.

but jsut adding a smaller stock one from an em1 or ek4 will make some noticeable difference and i think they are 14mm.

if you jsut want a slight improvement over what you have now go this option, its cheaper all you need to source are endlinks, swaybar, d brackets and bushes and bolt it on. oh LCA's if you dont have provisions for endlink bolts.

if you want a nice noticeable performance increase go the ASR an 22mm ITR rear sway bar.

this is a lot more expensive but well worth the gains and it seems like its what you are after performance wise.

you will need ASR brace, 22mm itr swaybar, d brackets, bushes and endlinks. great upgrade though :)

[blabla]

ej8's dont have a rear sway bar

[blabla]

keep them coming i think the Em1 have a 26mm (front) 14mm (rear) swaybars

[JohnL]

IMHO strut/tie bars are for track junkies. For a street car there's better places to spend money on.

Nick,
What tower brace have you tried? I'll bet it wasn't a very good one, i.e. not very rigid. My experience with tower braces is that they make a substantial difference, but only if very robustly made (and this includes the brackets that attach the bracing bar to the tower tops, but these brackets are typically the weakest links with most poor quality tower braces).

With tower braces you can't go on looks, some rubbish tower braces look very 'racy', but in reality only have bling value...

I'd highly recommend both front and rear tower braces, but el cheapo units are a waste of money...

[AE092]

true,

and if in doubt go for a 3 point strut brace - non cheapo brand where/when possible

[nd55]

> I'll bet it wasn't a very good one


mmmm. Guilty, your Honour.

Nick.

[JohnL]

> I'll bet it wasn't a very good one


mmmm. Guilty, your Honour.

Nick.

Try a good quality brace, I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised. When I made / fitted mine I wasn't expecting much, maybe a very subtle difference, but it was much more than I thought it would be. It was so good I almost immediately made a rear tower brace, which I was equally pleased with.

Having said that, if you're purchasing tailor made rather than rolling your own, I can't say that $X might not be better spent on say a stiffer rear ARB, but it certainly wouldn't be wasted on a good tower brace. Get both I say!

[blabla]

Just purchased a sway bar. Is a front a rear tie bar a good investment?

[tank]

What size sway bar have you bought?? You might need some form of re-inforcement to protect your subframe.

A rear lower tie bar helps protect your subframe, but that alone may not be enough.

[blabla]

14mm of an em1