Need suspension advice on all aspects.

[Powers]

Starting to work on the suspension now that I have kpro and a good tune. So I have plenty of questions. First off Ill state what I want to do with the car.

The ep is my daily driver. That being said I dont really care about how smooth the ride is at all. I could care less if it felt as though I was going to lose my teeth or break my back. I like to do some spirited driving every now and then and plan on putting it on the track maybe once or twice a month and also attend a few autocross meets.

Now where to start? Im thinking braces and bushings. But which bushings hard rubber polurethane or spherical. I would get spherical but im scared of how long they will last with daily driving like pot holes bumpy roads and stuff. Im leaning towards polyurethane. I dont know what direction to go in with that department.

Would it be bad to do lets say lower tie bar rear control arms subframe brace and strut tower braces on stock struts until tax season rolls around to get coilovers?

What coilovers would you reccomend? I like the idea of buddy club rsd's with the tax money.

I know I will need rear camber arms and camber bolts. I also plan on roll center adjusters. With the roll center adjusters about how low would you set the ride height?

And then theres sway bars...what would be a good competitive set? I've read that stiffer in the rear and softer in the front is good. But just how stiff in the rear and how soft in the front? I saw the hotchkis competition sway bar kit which seemed to be a good idea to me.

Theres to many options and variables running through my head

[Popeye]

If your car is going to remain a DD, I dont know that I would make your ride too harsh. A lot of us dont care how harsh our ride is. But if you ever end up taking a long trip in your car, you're not going to enjoy that harsh ride so much. What if you had to go to a funeral and give an old person a ride? Yeah, I know, dumb example. But you get the point. In MY opinion, if you had another car to drive, make it as harsh as you want. Having a harsh ride at first wont matter much. But before long, you'll be wishing you would have gone with a softer ride.
My suggestion....get a good set of coilovers that is adjustable. That way you can control how harsh your ride is when you need to.

[.colin]

I'll share my setup and experiences - I have the Mugen SS with a CTR rear sway bar and I think it rides too harsh sometimes (and this is a pretty mild setup). But I also live in Pittsburgh and our roads are shit. My wife's RSX rides so much smoother. I actually prefer her car when driving long durations or distances. I have other suspension mods but they don't make as much difference as the sway and springs/struts. Stay away from strut bars, they don't do much (at least ones that bolt together). 1 piece bars are the best. Also, if you get adjustable coilovers, don't slam your shit on it's tits like half the members on this site. It'll drive WORSE than stock.

Get a good set of tires, springs/struts, and a beefy rear sway and you'll be happy.

[makavelibranded]

Starting to work on the suspension now that I have kpro and a good tune. So I have plenty of questions. First off Ill state what I want to do with the car.

The ep is my daily driver. That being said I dont really care about how smooth the ride is at all. I could care less if it felt as though I was going to lose my teeth or break my back. I like to do some spirited driving every now and then and plan on putting it on the track maybe once or twice a month and also attend a few autocross meets.

Now where to start? Im thinking braces and bushings. But which bushings hard rubber polurethane or spherical. I would get spherical but im scared of how long they will last with daily driving like pot holes bumpy roads and stuff. Im leaning towards polyurethane. I dont know what direction to go in with that department.

Would it be bad to do lets say lower tie bar rear control arms subframe brace and strut tower braces on stock struts until tax season rolls around to get coilovers?

What coilovers would you reccomend? I like the idea of buddy club rsd's with the tax money.

I know I will need rear camber arms and camber bolts. I also plan on roll center adjusters. With the roll center adjusters about how low would you set the ride height?

And then theres sway bars...what would be a good competitive set? I've read that stiffer in the rear and softer in the front is good. But just how stiff in the rear and how soft in the front? I saw the hotchkis competition sway bar kit which seemed to be a good idea to me.

Theres to many options and variables running through my head

Energy Suspension makes and entire kit for our cars and replaces all bushings, theres just tons of them and is the only reason why I have not got them yet only motor mount inserts.

Go here to learn about your bracing needs http://forums.clubep3.com/showthread.php?t=676396

I love my RSD's and im also running no front sway, and a CTR rear sway, its pretty dramatic and creates a good amount of oversteer, my alignment is setup 0 toe front and back, neg 2 camber up front neg 1 in the rear.

[ep_hatcher_510]

Starting to work on the suspension now that I have kpro and a good tune. So I have plenty of questions. First off Ill state what I want to do with the car.

The ep is my daily driver. That being said I dont really care about how smooth the ride is at all. I could care less if it felt as though I was going to lose my teeth or break my back. I like to do some spirited driving every now and then and plan on putting it on the track maybe once or twice a month and also attend a few autocross meets.

Now where to start? Im thinking braces and bushings. But which bushings hard rubber polurethane or spherical. I would get spherical but im scared of how long they will last with daily driving like pot holes bumpy roads and stuff. Im leaning towards polyurethane. I dont know what direction to go in with that department.

Would it be bad to do lets say lower tie bar rear control arms subframe brace and strut tower braces on stock struts until tax season rolls around to get coilovers?

What coilovers would you reccomend? I like the idea of buddy club rsd's with the tax money.

I know I will need rear camber arms and camber bolts. I also plan on roll center adjusters. With the roll center adjusters about how low would you set the ride height?

And then theres sway bars...what would be a good competitive set? I've read that stiffer in the rear and softer in the front is good. But just how stiff in the rear and how soft in the front? I saw the hotchkis competition sway bar kit which seemed to be a good idea to me.

Theres to many options and variables running through my head

Bushings will benefit, go hard race rubber ones they will last longer, if not get the poly ones, don't do spherical for a daily.
Tie bars, strutbars, control arms... etc are pretty useless so don't waste money on that yet.
Yes get the stuff for camber adjustments, camber is good, cant tell you how much, that depends on the car and you.
Sway bars is also good, a stiffer rear will have the car rotating around a turn better, you dont have to spend a whole lot, u can get a 21mm rsx type s for 60 bucks, 22mm type r for about 120, or the more expensive progress 22mm, cusco 25mm etc.... depends on you which ever one you want.
The RSDs are a good set of prebuild coilovers although i never had them but many who autox and track says good things about it.
Ride height should be set at 1.5 - 2" max with the adjusters, at least that's what i recommend.
Also a good idea to upgrade brakes later on.
You forgot the most important thing, tires, a good set of sticky tires out weights all of the above.
Also don't mind body roll, it does not determine how good or bad a car handles.

Have fun.

[Powers]

Looks like your setup is running pretty nice mak. And thanks for that list I might order up that brace for under the steering rack and shock tower braces tomorrow after reading it and leave the braces there. You wouldnt happen to have a part number for the ctr rear sway bar would you? And lets say I got the rear ctr sway. Would you run that with out a front sway on stock struts until you got the coilovers or is it that the stock springs are not stiff enough to do so?

[poeticfinesse21]

Read these threads, the amount of info is ridiculous...
http://forums.clubep3.com/showthread.php?t=569763
http://forums.clubep3.com/showthread.php?t=573805
http://forums.clubep3.com/showthread.php?t=565676

[Powers]

Tons of good info there poetic. Youve got some good links! So far you motivated me to start out with the energy suspension bushing set and two braces that came on the dc5r. Which rear sway would you say is better though the ctr rear sway or the dc5r? Or are they both the same thing?

[poeticfinesse21]

DC5-R and EP3-R both came with a 22mm rear sway bar so it makes no difference but honestly I would just go with a 05-06 RSX-S 21mm rear sway bar. Why pay more than double for a 1mm difference? If you want a real serious rear sway then pick up a RSX cusco 25mm, that'll will definitely make your car rotate

[rhdsirek4]

DC5-R and EP3-R both came with a 22mm rear sway bar so it makes no difference but honestly I would just go with a 05-06 RSX-S 21mm rear sway bar. Why pay more than double for a 1mm difference? If you want a real serious rear sway then pick up a RSX cusco 25mm, that'll will definitely make your car rotate

Which one are you using? I want to make my car as stiff as possible. Once I add my aggressive wheels that is.

[poeticfinesse21]

I have the 05-06 RSX-S 21mm rear sway, I got it for $50 shipped from a clubrsx member. I'm currently on a full DC5-R suspension but when that goes, I wanna upgrade to either the a-spec kit or the mugen sport. Once that happens I also wanna upgrade to the cusco 25mm rear sway If you want the stiffest rear sway then your options are:

Cusco (solid bar) 25mm
Hotchkiss (hollow bar) 27mm
ASR (hollow bar) 32mm

Great sway bar info in these threads:

http://forums.clubep3.com/showthread.php?t=567637
http://forums.clubep3.com/showthread...939&highlight=

[Zzyzx]

Lets start with the things that will actually improve the cars handling now, such as tire choices and alignment settings. leave the things that will do next to nothing to last, such as chassis bracing.

so, first things first... What tires are you running? and what is the cars alignment set to?

[Powers]

I have 215/24r17 nitto neogens. They deffinetly helped out and I like them a lot hooks up alot better and handles better. Its stock alignment right now but I dont want to get it aligned right now. Im probably going to end up buying energy suspension bushings and a ctr rear sway to start out with in a week or two. Ill get it aligned then and try to get it a little more aggressive.

[Zzyzx]

are you planning on sticking with the Neogens for the foreseeable future? I ask because when dealing with suspension tuning, everything ends up being in support of the tire. Remember, your tires are the only thing touching the ground, and thus the only thing that can generate traction. So every thing you do to your suspension has to be focused on getting the most out of what ever tire you have, else you just end up tuning for "feel" and that tends to mean a poorly handling but good feeling car.

[Powers]

I do plan on sticking with them. In my opinion they seem to be a good tire.