Suspension Question - Spring rates

[testify]

why wouldn't you? civic type r was shipped from the factory with them.

Depending on what coils or springs and struts he goes with, its hard to say what issues he'll be experiencing... My car handled like it was on rails with the current setup I posted and that's why I recommend doing it. However not everyone wants to spend 1200 on coils and another 400 on sways.. If adjustable coils were purchased he could raise or lower the dampening to compensate for either over or under steer utilizing stock civic type r sways..

Because the Civic Type R was also shipped from the factory with a Limited Slip Differential and really soft springs.

With an open diff, which I'm assuming OP's car is equipped with, a front swaybar will cause excessive wheel spin on corner exit. A general rul of thumb is to never increase bar size on the drive wheels on an open diff car. It causes lift on the inside tire, which in turn greatly reduces traction and causes the inside tire to spin like crazy, and the car goes nowhere.

A trick with these cars to compensate for an open diff is to actually delete the front swaybar altogether. It works amazingly well.

You can still fight roll, and keep steering response up with spring rate, which is something Honda couldn't do on the CTR, because people are pussies and would complain that the ride is too harsh. A larger swaybar allows you to keep your soft springs and ride quality, while adding a bit of steering response and reduced body roll.

I'll also mention that a swaybar, front or rear, really only serves to increase response, but at the same time it actually reduces traction, especially at or near the limits of traction - somewhere OP's car is going to spend a lot of time. That works great on the rear of the car to induce some nice oversteer and rotation in the corners, but will just cause understeer up front.

[Jjevans]

I guess I can chime in,

I own Progress CSIIs and I love them. Bang for buck-wise i don't think they can be beat, especially since I got them new for around $600. Those shocks cannot be lowered like your average "stance" coilover. They are multi-piece similar to a ground control/koni setup. Progress suggests you have 12" between center of the wheel and fender. (that would change depending on wheel/tire combo), I had 16x7.5 Kosei K1s on 205/50 Goodyear Eagle f1s and they performed flawlessly with the fender right at the top of the tire.

As far as spring rates go, I custom ordered 450f/550r. Being that it is a dx hatch I had no front sway, so i did not have to delete it. I did however add Poly Bushings all around, a 22mm ITR rear sway, ASR subframe brace and lcas to install the sway. (remember brace is pointless without a sway bar), this setup rotated very well but it was choppy on the highway and very responsive....NOT a setup i would drive carelessly with. Rear end would swing with sometimes even faint throttle lift and/or braking in a corner (which I learned not to do in autocross rookie school). I never daily-ed the car because it was built to compete but it easily outhandled 95% of the cars I've owned/driven.

To contrast the hatch I also have a del sol si, which I also added an itr sway, poly etc. but i left the stock front 22mm sway and used 550f (eibach)/550r (FF) springs on Function and Form type 1s. that car is also very low. this set up is not nearly as responsive as the progress but it is very linear and neutral-ish. The shocks do not hold those spring rates as well as the Progress but some of it has to do with the ride height as well. it's just not nearly as fun.

My suggestion is:
-upgrade rear sway
-remove/keep front sway if you are not comfortable with throttle lift oversteer (don'tupgrade)
-contemplate bushings
-Progress CSIIs 350/450 at the minimum
-As Testify said springs are affordable and easy to purchase. 2.5" ID is availabel everywhere, if you don't like the springs, change them.

Hope that helps.

[orlando8243]

Sorry i took long to reply, was just waiting to see what everyone says and learn as much as i can. Thank you all for your input!

I think im gonna go with the 450f/450r setup. and still get the ctr rear sway, as for the front sway bar, i guess ill see how i like it once everything is installed since i have an ex and i do have a stock front sway bar. if i feel the need to remove it i will do that, i was thinking of doing bushings too. I didnt think much about changing the springs out thanks for letting me know, this way if i dont like them i can just keep going till i find ones i like.

ive read that lca brand doesnt really make much of a difference, its just a matter of bushings in them, is that true? alot of people seem to like skunk2 and function7 lca's mainly because of tthe polyurethane bushings. and for the subframe subframe brace does brand make a big difference as well? obviously you get what you pay for but just wondering sorry for silly questions

[testify]

Bushings will definitely help a lot. As soon as you stiffen one part of the suspension (springs), the slop you remove from that one part, goes to the next weakest link and exploits it. Out of all the bushings on the car, you'll definitely get the biggest change from replacing the bushings in the front lower control arms.

I run a $70 set of eBay rear lower control arms with poly bushings, and they are holding up just fine, and perform as well as anything costing three times as much. Heck, I'm fine with the OEM cast iron arms as long as they have poly bushings.

But the upper control arms, if you decide you want camber adjustment, I probably would suggest staying away from the eBay stuff with that. I've seen eBay rear upper arms that had some really scary casting defects, and the front uppers tend to slip and have crappy ball joints.

I ran the eBay front upper adjustable arms for a while, and had trouble with them slipping no matter how tight I locked them down.

In the end, I just went back to stock front upper arms, and adjust camber via the ride height.