lowered the civic today
 

I was able to get a set of tein s tech springs for $139 shipped which seemed like a great deal. I was looking for something to lower the car slightly without affecting ride quality. Daily driver status

http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x...psqlenavan.jpg

I waited a few weeks to install them, got me thinking that my car at 300k miles probably had alot of spring sag to begin with and was sitting lower on the left side than the right.

Anyways I started with the passengers front and worked my way around the car

The tools. It should be noted that most bolts are 13 and 17mm on the suspension

http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x...psd2tdzkzd.jpg

At this point I'm not going to lie, the spring compressors are worthless tools but I did use them, at first.

http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x...psqzavlqh6.jpg

The shock is able to slide out of the fork holding it to the lower control arm and you are able to slip it out after Un bolting the upper bolts

http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x...psv5cysfap.jpg

I'm skipping the pictures of using the spring compressors as I should mention I didn't use them after this first side

http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x...psicfx96dv.jpg

At this point I was worried my drop might be more than I bargained for

http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x...pscwjpznui.jpg

I am re using my stock shocks they seemed to be holding up fine

Good luck little buddy lol

http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x...psqv7mq0uc.jpg

I measured before and afters and the car was lowered half an inch at all 4 wheels. Once the springs settle a bit I'm figuring they will be close to a 1 inch drop

So my ride height didn't change drastically however I have noticed the car is more responsive to the road where as before it had a floating feeling to it

http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x...psggi4pyjm.jpg



Cheers!

I cut mine and the cornering confidence improved dramatically.

ride height looks good to me.

How's the alignment? Don't want the tires chewed up.

looks loww! you make it look so easy!

When I had my MR2 I put Tein S-techs on them by getting a set of new shocks from someone who took them off because they didn't like the S-techs, so I got fresh shocks with it too for 200 and all I had to do was bolt them in. I think stiffer springs is a great thing, less floaty feeling and roll, and since you hit the bump stops less the ride can be quite comfortable.

Looks like a nice usable ride height. :thumbup:
Do you happen to have a picture of the rear Tein springs? I am curious. According to your picture the fronts use a truly progressive design unlike e.g. Eibach springs, which are two-stage. Wonder if the rear uses the same design?

You are correct sir, the factory springs on there are progressive so the more they compress the harder they get. The rears were the same way, I had to guess which springs out of the box were the fronts as they are only about an inch difference in height

The rears are the same way, so the springs should only get lower from here

Yeah the s techs are a pretty minimal drop my shocks seem to be doing fine. I didn't want to spend big money for a little drop

I have done many lowering springs and coilovers back in my day so I knew what I was getting in to. The rest of the shocks I removed the top nut on the car with a rag over the nut so the other 3 went quickly. In total I believe it was 4 hours including washing the car and shampooing the trunk carpet.

Shouldn't need an alignment yet, I'll give it a few weeks to get everything settled

My drivers side still appears to be lower not sure why.

I also changed the iridium plugs out for the factory ngk zr4f-11 plugs. Initial impression is that the car makes more power/torque but appears to lower the vacuum at idle. No real mileage put on them yet but even the clutch engages differently

http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps8pvj7dz9.jpg
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x...psrpgmb04b.jpg
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x...pse26d6tfb.jpg
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x...psqtjpospw.jpg

Cool! It's a better design than the one used by Eibach and other manufacturers. Those tend to produce a lot of noise when the softer portion of the spring extends and then collapses all at once, e.g. when passing through a pothole.