stiffer in front or rear?

[adams86lxi]

Alright i have some 88-00 honda civic coilovers which im putting on my car today and they have spring tesnions on them. One says 350p and the other says 450p i was wondering which should go in the rear and which should go in the front. I was thinking that if i put the softer in the front and harder in the rear it would prevent some understeer causing it to oversteer by letting the rear end come lose before the front does. Do you think this is reasonable. What is your guys opinions? THANKS!

[Justin86]

just play around with them and see what you get, trial by error.

[Dr._8t9LX]

I think you are right, but I just re-did mine and the spring in the back was way softer than the front on a stock setup. Maybe they figured the front hits all the potholes first at full speed and when braking the weight of the car goes forward. Just some thoughts.

[Moodybluesr]

Those are some hella stiff springs!

At any rate, tightening up the rear end will help to curb your understeer, but you have to remember that the front springs have to be stiffer because they have the weight of the motor to contend with. The stiffer springs in this case should definately be put in the front; if you put them in the back you are definately going to be over-compensating for you FWD understeer not to mention it's going to ride like crap (with springs that stiff, it will probably ride like crap anyway, but stiffer rears will make it worse). Just for comparison, the Lightspeed springs I have on my car are 381lbs up front and 220lbs in back and I have a tough time keeping the rear end from coming around on the autox course. Good luck.

[adams86lxi]

man!!! i just get done doing my suspension with the softer ones in the front and the harder ones in the rear and then i come on here and see that i should do it the other way around! I am running them on the stock crappy 180 plus thousand mile struts on them and i took it around the block and it drove pretty good i was surprised. But i need to drive them more to see what they will do im still adjusting the height with them now!

[Busted_Blue]

you do know...your rear end will bounce like crazy over bumps because of the 450 in the rear.

Buts...350 is plenty to hold the engine weight in the front. like what justin said, play around. Thats the only way to learn: by experience the worse and best.

I'm wondering if those numbers mean 450lbs/in or does it mean something else.

[Justin86]

you do know...your rear end will bounce like crazy over bumps because of the 450 in the rear.

Buts...350 is plenty to hold the engine weight in the front. like what justin said, play around. Thats the only way to learn: by experience the worse and best.

I'm wondering if those numbers mean 450lbs/in or does it mean something else.

Thats what I try to tell people learn by experience. Yea you might blow up a tranny or bend some valves in the process, but hey you know how to do it right, and you won't ever fuck up again. I have been doing it all my life and so have a lot of people, it's called life. Except I have more fuck ups then most people.

[Busted_Blue]

I've tried:

350 in front and 170-190 in the rear for my setup on 205/50/15 on tokico blues.. I had no idea that this setup would be pretty good considering everyone kept saying stiffer rear means less understeer. I learned to adapt to the springs and during turns its more of a lift off the accelerator in the beginning then after apex is feathering gas till wot.

I thought it handled quite well for the mountain roads I go to. Then I installed S/T rear sway bar. The car had less understeer and it made the car rear end turn faster instead of sluggishly come around.

Then I installed the front sway bar and took it out on the road again. The car doesnt dip as much in the beginning of the turn and has more of an instant turn so that increase speeds around corners too.

Now I will be planning to install Koni reds in the front and see how that goes. I'm expecting more understeer due to extra stiffness in the front but I won't know for sure yet. Anyone have an idea how many turns I need for 350lb/in front springs? My guess is somewhere on the 4-5 area.


Only way to learn is experience it yourself. I've just been lucky to experience good results with the products I've bought.

[AZmike]

The adjustment range on the front Konis is 2.25 turns. One turn from soft works well for 265 lb/in so 1.5-1.75 turns from soft seems like a good place to start for 350. It might be worth an email to Koni though.

[Busted_Blue]

The adjustment range on the front Konis is 2.25 turns. One turn from soft works well for 265 lb/in so 1.5-1.75 turns from soft seems like a good place to start for 350. It might be worth an email to Koni though.

I already emailed them about it already. No reply. would this be a shock modification question or just a general question? I already emailed them as a general question.


and I was talking about half turns..sorry. =X

[Busted_Blue]

hate to bring an old thread up but why not.




Stiffer in the rear is great for low speed turns and sharper corners like those in Autocrossing.

Stiffer in the front will allow the car to be more stable during turn in (mountain roads, track). A small side effect would be a bit of understeering but sway bars can counter this small side effect.

In autocross, the road is flat and your car needs to perform quick and responsive in those small tight corners. There are plenty of u-turns and 90 degree turns where the rear needs to be able to rotate with a snap of the wheel.

On the track and the curvy back roads, there aren't as many sharp corners and there isn't a need of quick snap of the rear. Instead there is a need for stabilitiy as speed also becomes a factor.



I put my konis on full 2.25 turns in the front and I must say the car doesnt dip as much during turn in and has a bit more tiny understeer. Once I let off the gas pedal though, the car rotates until the apex and then I can floor it out of the corner without much trouble. This is of course on a backroad. I haven't been able to test my car in the autocross just yet so I cannot test this little hypothesis. Hope to soon.

[Justin86]

yea the suspension tuning is endless with options. the best thing to do esp if you have coilovers is make sure the car is corner balanced first then mess with your spring rates/sway bars/shocks. I'm running 400lbs front and 375lbs rear with the SE-i sway bars with Konis at max. It gives a very neutral car with a touch of oversteer, and to change that I could add more or less tire PSI front or rear to give me more or less over/understeer.

[Busted_Blue]

yea the suspension tuning is endless with options. the best thing to do esp if you have coilovers is make sure the car is corner balanced first then mess with your spring rates/sway bars/shocks. I'm running 400lbs front and 375lbs rear with the SE-i sway bars with Konis at max. It gives a very neutral car with a touch of oversteer, and to change that I could add more or less tire PSI front or rear to give me more or less over/understeer.

Tire pressure comes into great play. I tend to leave my fronts at 27 and my rear at 35 when I'm really focused on handling. If not 35 all around.


What kind of springs did you get, justin?

[Justin86]

I ordered some more from Eibach, so I have my dropzones with 350 and 450, then my eibach's with 375 and 400.