My car's ride quality/comfort level.

[IcyDeath]

Never owned a lowered car until the time being. I jumped into a great deal on my EP3 and it had mods I'd of ended up doing to it myself anyways.
I know this is a long post, but I need help since I've no experience or previous non stock suspension EP riding to gauge this against.

Here is what I know it has:
1. Neuspeed Race Springs
2. Stock Shocks (inspected and said to be in good condition)
3. Camber Kit (wheels are straight on and alignment is good)
4. Front Strut Bar (no idea of brand)
5. Rear Sway Bar (no idea of brand)
6. 205/45/16 Tires

I expect harsh, I really do. But there are tiny potholes or bumps in the road that skip my radio and it feels like the car jolted pretty good, although I don't think it bottoms out. It does however beat the living crap out of the piping on my Apex'i N1 exhaust (speed bumps). Turning is mega stiff, like never before experienced there is no roll or swing this is a good thing?

When I took it to a shop that's done some work for me in the past we got it on a lift and confirmed that it is on stock shocks(dampeners, whatever) and the opinion in the shop seemed to be Honda makes great quality abuse resilient shocks and they seemed fine, not busted.

So, is it that my tires are small diameter? I am looking into 215/40/17 which should lift me up somewhat. Or do I possibly have a shock problem and should get Koni shocks or something? Someone on here has my springs on stock shocks with 215/40/17 tires and a body kit and it doesn't look like it would be so bad.

Ahhhh! Help!

[talonXracer]

Replace the struts and springs with a matched set and the ride should improve greatly. A taller sidewalled tire would also improve the ride. And if you are going with a 17" wheel then you want either a 215-225/45/17

[IcyDeath]

Replace the struts and springs with a matched set and the ride should improve greatly.

By matched set you mean full coilovers? I don't really wanna drop 1.5grand. Or does Eibach/Neuspeed make something like what you are referring to seperatly?

[clujalolo]

By matched set you mean full coilovers? I don't really wanna drop 1.5grand. Or does Eibach/Neuspeed make something like what you are referring to seperatly?

full coilover set is not 1.5g, UNLESS you are getting a full race suspension, they tend to go for 1000. But what talon was talking about was to just get like tokito (sp) shocks and some springs like progress. ihave the neuspeed springs and they are garbage. they make a lot of noise and the ride is REALLY bad, its not even stiff its just sloppy. but thats a year on my stock shocks. so they are pretty much gone. But you can get a tokico shocks new for about 500 and some springs for im guessing 200>?? the ride will be really good, a full coilover set will make your car really stiff unless you are able to adjust it......you can get tokico d-spec shocks which go for i saw 549.99 and these are adjustable to make the ride stiff or soft. im probably confusing you right now. i might be wrong on some stuff but someone will correct me.

[Karma]

i think what he means by 'matched set' is to pair up spring and shocks with similar (?) spring/dampening rates.

a decent coilover would run roughly $900-1100.

opinion:
coilovers: progress, buddy club (heard good reviews)
springs/struts: eibach+bilstein, koni.

HFP/mugen ss

i just think the ep is slightly rough, regardless of suspension.

[RHCP0801]

neuspeed race springs on stock shocks is a bad combo, i would definatley upgrade to tokico blues or konis and get some different springs or coilovers if you want. You said you have 16" wheels but you want 17" tires? are you getting different wheels? 215 45 17 or 225 45 17 should give you better comfort than what you have now

[IcyDeath]

Thanks guys for the info. I kinda figured Neuspeed springs were crap and/or a bad idea on stock shocks. I prob. won't go coilover since after adjusting the ride height, you typically need to re-align your car.

You said you have 16" wheels but you want 17" tires? are you getting different wheels? 215 45 17 or 225 45 17 should give you better comfort than what you have now

Yes, larger wheels. 215/45/17 my speedo will only be 1% off then, not like nearly 7-8% and the ride would be better, nice.

[v1c10us]

as far as the ride quality goes, neuspeeds are softer than stock, the stifness is because the struts/shocks/dampeners/whatever are compressed. Get some proper shocks and it will be softer than stock, get adjustable ones and you can make it what ever you want.
The tires are quite thin which will make it quite jarring.

[ep_hatcher_510]

Get rid of the nuespeed springs, get some better ones.
Get better dampers, dspecs, konis..etc Don't matter if your stock ones are still good or bad and Don't get the Tokico blues, not worth it for they are basically stock replacements.
Get fatter tires, 205/50/16, 215/45/17.

the other option will be just get a full set of coils, some with lower spring rates don't ride as rough as some people think and some have the tie rod angle corrections so thats something to look into also which should make steering a bit easier.

[talonXracer]

Thanks guys for the info. I kinda figured Neuspeed springs were crap and/or a bad idea on stock shocks. I prob. won't go coilover since after adjusting the ride height, you typically need to re-align your car.



Yes, larger wheels. 215/45/17 my speedo will only be 1% off then, not like nearly 7-8% and the ride would be better, nice.

The EP3's VSS and gauge cluster is spec'd the same as the typeS, so the optional 225/45/17's will work fine. My speedo is spot-on with 225/45/17's.

[FCobra94]

My speedo is spot-on with 225/45/17's.

Huh?

How is that possible when the car came stock with 195/60/15's? Going off of that alone shows over a 3% difference...

Also, how do you know that your speedo is "spot-on?" Did you compare it with a GPS reading?

[IcyDeath]

Huh?

How is that possible when the car came stock with 195/60/15's? Going off of that alone shows over a 3% difference...

Also, how do you know that your speedo is "spot-on?" Did you compare it with a GPS reading?

Yea, I'd like to know this for sure also.

[mustclime]

The EP3's VSS and gauge cluster is spec'd the same as the typeS, so the optional 225/45/17's will work fine. My speedo is spot-on with 225/45/17's.

sorry, you are mistaken.....stock tire size for the 02-03 ep is 195/60-15 and stock for the 04-05 is 205/55-16( a differance of almost 3/8th of a inch)
here is a little chart for keeping stock dia

year.....stock.............+1.............+2...... ...........+3
02-03...195/60-15...205/50-16...215/40-17...225/30-18
04-05...205/55-16...215/45-17...225/35-18...yea, right


you see the pattern?

there is also +zero for each size

02-03...215/55-15...225/45-16...235/35-17
04-05...225/50-16...235/40-17...245/30-18

see the pattern?
FYI, a lot of these sizes are not in production......

I am running 225/45-17 on a 03 ep3, that is a differance of 3/4 of a inch in dia....or abou 4-5 mph low reading on the speedo and the odometer reads about 6 miles low for every 100 miles( ie: 100 miles=106 real miles)

[jtyler05si]

i used to work for a gps company so i got a shit load of gps at home....
my speedo is about 3.5 to 4 mph slower than the gps readings (of course averaged, because diff. units give less/more acurate speeds).
this is with stock size tires and stock rims.

so would bigger tires (225), make the error less? or even throw it above gps-speed?

[mustclime]

i used to work for a gps company so i got a shit load of gps at home....
my speedo is about 3.5 to 4 mph slower than the gps readings (of course averaged, because diff. units give less/more acurate speeds).
this is with stock size tires and stock rims.

so would bigger tires (225), make the error less? or even throw it above gps-speed?

you have to look at the aspect ratio....thats the second number....