91efhatch

Name: Hunter
Loc: Richmond
Car: 96' Civic H/B CX
Alright lets see, I Have a 1996 Honda Civic Hatchback CX. I Have Tein SS Full Coilovers. ASR Subframe Brace with the 24mm sway bar setup. I honestly dont know the spring rate on the car. I was wondering what would be a good option for a front sway bar for the car, Should I get the same size as the back or a bigger mm. like 26 or 27? Any input would be great. Im looking for much greater steering response. Also what else would help me out besides sway bars and the Teins? Any chassis parts? A full Poly Urethane bushing set for the car? Anything would be great. Thanks!

BTW: It is my daily driver but I do want it to handle like a race car! lol. But im not trying to kill myself either. Thanks!

elambz

Go with a set of bushings from Hardrace if you want to improve the handling. Just throwing a sway bar on your car isn't going to improve anything. What determines what you should do about a front sway bar has to do with how your car handles now, and how you want it to handle. You can't just buy parts and throw them on and expect positive changes. The bushing kit will atleast give you a definite improvement over your worn out bushings.

BentValve

That's a big ass bar for the rear. Most set-ups use a thicker bar in front.

elambz

Not if you want rotation. I've got a few friends running Mugen 26mm rear bars with a stock ITR front bar.

I'd love to get a bigger rear bar for my car, as I've just got the stock ITR bars, but I have to find a good quality rear bar other than a Mugen since I'm not gonna pay $550 for a used sway bar.

vbspec

That's not true at all. If you look at honda FWD cars that actually go to the track for the purpose of going fast you will see much stiffer rear bars 99% of the time.

But bushings should be the first thing to go on the car. And with a 24mm rear bar don't lift to quick or hit the brakes too hard in corners. Or round and round you'll go.

Fabrik8

I've always found that really funny. It's basically running a bar stiff enough that the rear tires are worked a lot more and balances out understeer. So you're not really adding traction at the back, you're just reducing understeer so more of the traction in the front can be used. By working the rears harder, they take a higher share of the load (than they did before). When it comes down to it, instead of adding traction to the front, you take away traction from the rear in a manner of speaking. It doesn't really work like that exactly, but you get the point. That's why the car wants to rotate more, there is less understeer in the front and now the rear tires stay closer to their limit of grip so the rear will slide around easier. In other words, you're making it easier to drift with no driven wheels back there.

Fabrik8

Oh, and if you want good steering response, don't lower it too much. Usually the more you lower, the more you'll get out of the optimum range of tie rod geometry, caster, Ackerman, etc., most of which you have no way to change without making custom uprights (or "knuckles") and relocating the steering rack.

Anything you can do to get compliance out of the stock stuff works really well too, like poly bushings, and one of the biggest things that affects steering response is tire choice. Contact patch squirm and sidewall squirm have huge effects on initial response, so which tire you choose is important if you want crisp initial turn-in.

vbspec

No.... Custom suspension is not required. Hondas front suspension is so good (88-01) that the only thing you need to do is not lower the car too much. And if you did want to reduce the bump steer (the biggest problem with a Honda) you can get a kit which consists of a new lower ball joint. And that will run you about $175 or you can flip the tie rod ends to the underside of the knuckle. I would not worry about any of this stuff for street driving. But bushings are key. And poly bushings are CRAP.... Replace the stock ones with either a kit from HardRace, Mugen or OEM. The HardRace kit can be picked up for like $200-$300 and that's the whole car. Do not use Energy Suspension bushings because Hondas suspension arms move on more than one axis. And poly only work on one axis with minimal load. Add a twist to it and it will bind like crazy.

Fabrik8

I don't see anything wrong with poly bushings on a Honda at all. If Honda made anything other than the trailing arm pivot multi-axis, that would be a serious design flaw.

Kris.Is.Foamin

I installed a full prothane poly kit (minus the rear trailing arm bushing for obvious reasons, instead I went with a softer bushing from bap-geon).

I can tell you it made a H U G E difference and made the car feel crispy as hell. Everyone will tell you that they squeak like hell, but if installed correctly they won't. I bought my own press and did every bushing myself- so if you need any help let me know.