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-   -   Coil Spring Adjusters : VFM Fix for the Honda Civic's (lousy) soft rear suspension? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/98946-coil-spring-adjusters-vfm-fix-honda-civics-lousy-soft-rear-suspension-22.html)

Got the coilspring spacers installed on the rear side of my ANHC (Dec 2008) with about 50k KMS on it. The suspension feels saggy, but want to give a try if it helps avoid scraping hyderabad potholes and speed bumps.

Product: Superior 18-1901 Donut Style Coil Spring Spacer

Issue: As you can see from the first picture, the Car's coil spacing is more than 1.5" the thickness of the rubber spacer. hence i had to place it and lower the car to have it fall in place. Need to figure out if i need to tie them with a Nylon Cable Tie.

Picture 1: Car lifted up with no load. Is it normal to see sagging coil?

Picture 2&3: After installation

The ride feels a bit higher than normal with no change in road dynamics. I have not yet tested on Hyderabad speed bumps and pot holes yet. Will keep you posted.

Here are the pictures of before and after installation. Sorry for the rather poor quality from the camera phone

Left Rear wheel (before mod)


Left Rear Wheel (After mod)




Right rear wheel (before mod)



Right rear wheel (after mod)

Has anyone ever tried this on the Safari ? Though the Safari has a good ground clearance but it does seem to bottom out at the rear when heavily loaded. Is there any other way its rear suspension can be raised a bit ?

Sudeep, what brand of spacers did you use and are what height?

Did you lift your ANHC completely up and have you tie them up?

1) Brand is Superior & height is 1.5 inches. See Pics below. I purchased them from a very nice BHPIan - Hansi (also on this thread & courtsey for the pictures too) who had bought it earlier from Amazon.







2) Yes, we had to remove the rear wheels one at a time to install the mod and No, I did not tie them up. I don't think there is a need to tie it up with a nylon tag since it fits in very well in there once the car is on the ground. see the pictures taken this morning (excuse the poor quality of cell phone camera)

Hey Dragonov, we have been using the spacers for cars that bottom out and end up with tyres scraping & touching the body. If you are loading the Safari that much, and you are able to accomplish bottom-ing out on a Safari, then I think you would need a TT or a mini-bus !! :D

Just updating the thread after driving about 1900+ KMs with these spacers. The conditions were

a. Fully loaded trunk - Yes literally fully loaded with no space at all.
b. One car seat, 3 adults in the car with some extra luggage under the seats
c. Very heavy rains.
d. Unbelievably Potholed roads as well as best highways (Hosur-Salem road by L&T)

Results:

a. No scrapes at all, except once slightly because of a very oddly build ramp. (I expected a scraping while crossing over)
b. Didn't scrape at all while crossing speed breakers in Bangalore where the car always used to scrape or the mudflaps would touch with loaded boot or with 4 passengers
c. Car felt well planted on road at high speed (maybe due to the weight). No difference felt in handling on highway or otherwise. Max speed touched on L&T roads - 160 KMs
d. With 5 people and few luggage in boot, the ride was smooth as silk on some uneven roads.

Here's a picture of the wheel with full trunk, a car seat, some small luggage in back seat, and 3 adults

Got one from Darryl, Autorunner make, and fixed on my Baleno allround. Got it fixed at Automechs in Koramangala. Done about 1K after fitting this. The car does not scrape any more speed breakers. Need to test it on 2 more which are nasty to come to a conclusion, but happy with the find on the Team Bhp site. The ride height has increased by about 2 inches, but i have not felt any change in handling of the car. Will definitely recommend to fellow Bhpians and keep you informed about the experience.

Sudeep thanks for sharing this, wanted to reconfirm these aspects:

Handling - Did you notice any difference while taking right angle turns or sharp turns? (ANHC by default has a lot of understeer or thats what I feel)

Stiffness - Has the suspension become noticeably harder? Can you feel the bumps more than before on roads with poor surface quality or patchy roads?

Handling - I did not try sharp turns or quick right angle turns because I had a baby on board.

Stiffness - Note that I have installed it only on the rear coil springs. The suspension has not become so stiff that I feel the bumps more. On the contrary it has become much better in my opinion. The swing action has reduced and with 3 people on board with a couple of suitcases in the boot, the ride on uneven roads was very smooth. On poor quality roads, there isn't a noticeable difference in the sense that the ride comfort is almost the same as before. I like the change very much though.

My goal with this mod was only to prevent the scraping without any deterioration in the ride quality or handling. If you skim through this thread, you will see that installing it only on the rear does nothing to the handling of the car.

Guys any further updates on these? Its been more than a year since many of you would have installed these.

I am planning to head out on a road trip with 4 adults (family) in the Civic hence am seriously contemplating on getting these this weekend.

Folks, anybody willing to sell them on mail order. It will be tough to get them in the boondocks - like Kanpur.

Check with Darryl on 9821047448. He will tell you if he can ship it to Kanpur. The shipment from Mumbai reached me the next day thro AFL courier. And during the entire process of fixing, he guided me and the bloke who fixed it the right way.

Ok guys i finally did get the Adjusters installed. It was the 1 inch thick B2 (product name) type and was installed on the upper most coil of the rear springs with the overlapping ends on the inside. (recommended by Darryl himself)

Post which we did a quick 1,800 kms road trip and are very happy with the performance of the mod as far as bottoming out and GC is concerned. Am yet to test the hard cornering stability.

Due to the rains the roads were not in the best of the condition and hence the adjusters were put to a true test. ( BTW the car was loaded with 4 Adults and a boot FULL of luggage)

This was our route...Just to give you an idea of the bumpy/potholed sections which we took B to F and G to J -

Good to hear the news! This mod does nothing to improve the handling of the car and from what I have read, you will not find any improvement in the handling if you throw it around the corners.