Springs or Sway Bar? Need some advice...

[ep332]

Alright so I need some advice...

My next $100 is either going toward a set of new Vogtland lowering springs (from a friend) OR a Godspeed rear sway bar. I can't decide which would be a better next step from the stock setup (2002 Si). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Springs or sway bar next? Benefits of each? Thanks!

[RedSiBaron]

what are the spring rates on those lowering springs? you need to be careful with a lot of the springs out there for the ep, a good number of them have lower spring rates than stock plus a drop which usually results in the car handling like shit...also, em2 springs fit the ep, so its really easy to get the wrong ones as well and those are always softer...

if you drop the car more than 1.5" you are playing with hurting your handling, 2" is about the limit...i run progress springs they are stiffer than stock but still driveable, they drop the car 1.8" in the front and 1.5" in the rear and cost $150 shipped from one of our vendors...

as for swaybar, whats the size on that godspeed rear sway? im running the 22mm ctr sway and got that for like $80 new from jdmland.com and i love it. the sway bar is really going to help reduce all the understeer that has been dialed into the usdm ep3...so by adding the bigger sway you'll be able to have much better throttle control over the rotation of the car but also you'll much more significant lift off oversteer then before.

hope some of this helped, but id say do the springs with the intention of doing the rear sway next

[RickEP3]

I believe you can purchase a rsx typeS rear sway for like $50 (but don't quote me on that) which is negligibly smaller than the dc5r sway which I paid $100 for. Save another $50 after that to buy your friend's springs. I've never heard of that company, what's the drop and spring rates.


Edit: baron is right, didn't see his reply because of my sloooow mobile web typing skills.

[Zzyzx]

what are you trying to set the car up for? priorities? are you still on the OEM dampers?

[kai-wun]

$100? Camber kit.

Read ^_^
http://forums.clubep3.com/showthread.php?t=569763

http://forums.clubep3.com/showthread.php?t=573805

Zzyzx ftw!

[ep332]

The spring rates are as follows (what I was told when I spoke to a rep earlier):

Front- Initial = 131 Final = 154
Rear- Final = 274

The drop is 1.8".

The godspeed sway bar is also 22mm...sounds like it will be a good purchase after the springs.

Here's the link for the springs. Do they seem like a good purchase with the given info? Likely handle better than stock? Thanks for the help!

http://www.vogtland-na.com/sportsprings.asp

[ep332]

what are you trying to set the car up for? priorities? are you still on the OEM dampers?

Yes I'm still on the OEM dampers. Generally speaking at this point I'm trying to make the most out of my budget while improving the handling and overall look and feel of the car. From an image standpoint I like the lowered look as well.

[Zzyzx]

Yes I'm still on the OEM dampers. Generally speaking at this point I'm trying to make the most out of my budget while improving the handling and overall look and feel of the car. From an image standpoint I like the lowered look as well.

Then avoid the springs for now. You'll be doing more harm then good by lowering the car on the already over taxed OEM dampers.

focus on two things, getting a decent rear anti-roll bar and buying a camber kit (front has priority here).