Lurker_J's Burrows ('18 Si Sedan)

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lurker_j

lurker_j

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This is an awesome thread. Thanks for all your post and time and effort. It is greatly appreciated. Would you say with your lowering kit that a front and rear camber kit is essential?
The rear camber kit is necessary as you will get a lot of negative camber and car squat as the springs settle. Right now I'm not using a front camber kit and it is fine. It's really just the rears.
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Siqc Cafe

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So the day has finally come where the rear louvers have arrived. It is actually well made and customized to the rear sedan window for the Civic. In my post prior, you can see what the measurements are. But as you'll see in the following pictures, it actually fits snug right into the pockets of the rear window seals.

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IMG_1103.JPG


This is all a test fitment for now as it is on-and-off thunderstorms here, but I plan on using the supplied screw points with the 3M tape backing the louvers came with.

IMG_1112.JPG


As funny as these louvers were to me (and still are), they have a certain charm to them that is growing on me. I plan on painting these gloss black when I get my CBP rattle cans in, then will show them again painted. The material is ABS plastic, so when you pick it up, it is pretty flexible, but it also doesn't feel like it's going to snap under harsh wind either. Here are more pics of it on the car as a test fit:

IMG_1102.JPG


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I also wanted to add in what it looks like from the inside of the car.

IMG_1149.JPG
Those are hot
 

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Thanks for this, there is definitely a bit of contact at the end of the trunk motion. Took a lot of looking to find them, they are listed as "3/4 inch rubber leg tips" for chair legs.
I'm thinking about louvers now, I also think the look will grow on me!
Also,
You could potentially also use Cane/Crutch tips which can easily be found at most stores like Walmart, CVS/Pharmacy, Walgreens ETC
 

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I'm thinking about louvers now, I also think the look will grow on me!
Also,
You could potentially also use Cane/Crutch tips which can easily be found at most stores like Walmart, CVS/Pharmacy, Walgreens ETC
I actually used several different sizes and never found one that fit. I try to be gentle if I use the trunk, since it basically takes me to work and back I avoid it most of the time.
 
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lurker_j

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It's been a long time since I updated.

255/35 Michelin Pilot Sport 4 AS
Running a stretched tire is not ideal in my book since I care about any safety issues I can control, so I decided to try out a wider tire to get more grip and less stretch. I used this tire/wheel calculator to compare the spacing my stretched 235/40s take and what my options were regarding what tire would fit in the wheel well.

My biggest obstacle at the time was being lowered on D2 lowering springs without any way to manually control height. The 255 mm width on a 9.5 in wide wheel make the side wall and wheel rim almost perfectly flush. 265 width would get it more square. 9.5 width wheels also have minor poke from the fender, so with an almost flush tire with wheel poke, the wheels were getting a little too close to Tonka truck for me.

I ended up having to roll the fenders in both the front and rear as I would get rub everytime I hit a dip on the highway or had people in the car. I also flared the fenders a bit so that they would cover more of the width of the wheel and be less Tonka Truck-y.

In conclusion, you can run 255/35s with D2 springs and 9.5 width wheels without rub if you drive everywhere slow and dodge road imperfections. I have since upgraded my suspension to Tein Flex Z coilovers to get a smoother yet performance-oriented ride.

I also want to try 265s with a higher aspect ratio now that I can control my ride height to try and get a softer in cabin ride.


Tein Flex Z coilovers with EDFC Active Pro
The D2 springs are a good start out to lowering the car, but they were making my wife nauseous on long drives, so I convinced her upgrading to coilovers should help smooth out the ride. :cool:

I need to shout out @Thusee for his write up on installing the coilovers, EDFC recommendation, and answering my questions in PMs. He was a solid foundation in helping me get these coils set up.

I went with the Tein Flex Z coils after reading reviews on how other coilovers ran on street cars and their daily drivability. The other options were HKS and KW. Though more performance oriented, I feared it would take the car stiffness to another level and lose credibility with the wife.

The Flex Z kit comes with ADS error cancellors free, so that was one of the biggest selling points. They are super easy to install as the cancellor sits on the strut itself and plugs into the existing ADS ports that are on the OEM struts instead of having to jack into the ADS system under the rear seats. The coilovers also come with pillowball top mounts and camber adjustability, a couple options most other coilovers at the $1k or lower price don't come with immediately.

If you've changed your car to lowering springs, changing the car to coilovers is immensely easier in my opinion. The only issue I had was snapping one of the bolts in the rear that connect the strut to the car body. I accidently cross threaded it without realizing and just thought it was a tight fit since it was hard to pull out as well. The threads were probably mangled already from factory. The bolt snapped in a way that I could still mount the strut with the other bolt and just limp to a shop to get a nut welded to it and pulled out. I tried drilling and heating the snapped bolt, but elbow grease wasn't cutting it. If you're wondering, the torque spec for the strut to body bolt is 30 ft/lb, so I was stupidly putting a lot of pressure on that bolt to snap it.

I appreciate that coilovers nowadays allow for a wide range of height adjustability without sacrificing preload on the springs like older coilover designs used. I have just enough preload on the spring to keep it tight while at full droop on jacks. The height adjustability is nice because you don't have to take the struts out, just unlock the bottom ring and spin the strut in place. Spin left to bring car up, spin right to bring car down.

The coilovers have adjustable damping which can make the ride softer or harder on demand for your needs. If you don't have an electronic controller, you need to manually count the clicks as you turn knobs on the top of the struts. The biggest issue is the rear struts are deep in the rear fenders without access from the trunk unlike older civics. So to adjust the damping back there, I would have to remove the whole strut from the car. This was a no-go.

The Electronic Damping Force Controller (EDFC) solves this by putting motors on the top of all the struts and allows me to control damping force from my drivers seat. This sounds just like the Sport button that comes on the cars already, but the EDFC allows for more finely tuned damping. I can tune the fronts and rears independent of each others or all at the same time. It also allows for more finely tuned damping. The click method gets you 16 levels of damping, but the controller can break it up into 32 and 64 levels of damping, depending on how precise you want to be.

The EDFC Active Pro version I have allows for automatic damping changes while I move due to an accelerometer built into it. There are linear settings and active settings. Linear settings will make the damping force stiffer the faster I go, being controlled only by MPH. The EDFC has a GPS sensor that can track your speed, or you can tap into you speed monitoring wire in the car. I opted for the GPS sensor. Active settings will make damping stiffer on G-force changes making which ever way the car is leaning stiffer. For instance, hard acceleration makes the rear stiffer. Hard turns and braking make the front stiffer then softer again to the initial preset damping level when G-forces level out. It is a very fun feature, but definitely not needed by everyone. I just like all the bells and whistles I can get for my buck.

The Tein coilovers were one of the best investments on the car. It makes the car more reactive and controllable on turns, allows for smoother daily driving with the adjustable damping, and opens up my wheel options by allowing me to easily change my ride height. The only "easier" way to quickly adjust ride height would be air suspension, but that opens up another can of worms. The most important part is the wife also doesn't get nauseous in my car anymore when the car is at it's softest setting.


Goodridge stainless steel brake lines with EBC red front pads
I've always felt that the brakes were spongy and not responsive enough for a sportier car. Maintenance minder said it was time for a brake fluid change, so I figured I might as well upgrade the lines if I'm going to be bleeding the brakes anyway. After reading other reviews here, I can attest to the statement that the brakes are much more responsive and pedal feeling harder after installing these lines with the new pads. There are varying ideas and opinions on what pads to go with. I went with EBC reds because less brake dust than the yellows and still performs well in cold conditions. If you daily drive your car, this is definitely a quality of life upgrade that makes it more fun.

Whiteline 26 mm rear sway bar and lateral locks with whiteline adjustable endlinks in the front and rear.
In lowering and raising my car a number of times over the past couple years, my sway bar endlinks were stressed out. I was getting clicking from the front endlinks no matter what I did, I couldn't tighten them enough to get the clicks to go away.

I finally figure out that to tighten my endlink nuts "while the car was on the ground", I had to simulate it. When the car was on jack stands, I used the jack itself to raise the knuckles on both sides to the actual ride height level. Measuring from the center cap to the top edge of the fender was 13.5 inches. Because I only have one jack, I put my wheel under the knuckle of one side and lowered the knuckle onto it to hold the knuckle up at the 13.5 in height, then went to the other side and raised the knuckle so the sway bar would be level and have equal tension on both sides as if it were on the ground. Using this method of leveling the front sway bar and then tightening the endlink nuts not only made my knocks/clicks go away, but evened out my sway bar tension so it didn't feel like the car was fighting to pull one way more than the other. I know I could have put the car on wood blocks, but I don't have the willpower to hand saw all the 2x4s right now.

Whiteline has always been first in my head when it comes to suspension components and their endlinks were my next step. Both the front and rear endlinks are much stiffer and beefier, with adjustability as a plus. I figured I might as well upgrade the RSB if I am going to do the endlinks. I went 26 mm instead of 22 mm since there wasn't a lot of info on it and wanted to take a chance to reduce as much understeer as possible.

Driving with the 26 mm RSB makes the drive much more fun now. I haven't driven the 22 mm RSB, but I feel like I would have been disappointed with the change compared to how different the 26 mm RSB makes the car respond. A couple of my prior cars were 90's subarus (legacy gt and impreza) and I missed the feeling of being pulled around a corner feeling planted like I'm on a rollercoaster that you get with AWD vehicles. The 26 mm RSB puts that feeling back into the FWD by bringing the rear end around real quick under acceleration and making turning much more tight and responsive. I love it.

With the stock 18 mm RSB, you couldn't see the car body shift weight when you turned the wheel left to right at a stop. With the 26 mm, you definitely can see the stiffness difference, like a tiger shifting weight to pounce on prey.

Though it is a much stiffer bar, it hasn't made the ride quality harsher or the daily drivability of the car worse. It is solid steel bar and is noticably heftier with the weight to the rear end, but the crisp turning response is worth it. I haven't had any issues with going over bumps or NVH changes. Just be sure to tighten the rear endlinks with the suspension under tension simulating being on the ground as noted above. The thicker bar comes with new Whiteline rear endlinks and lateral locks in the kit, and is definitely needed with how much tension it can create.

Suma Performance Smoked Sidemarkers
I went back to the orange OEM sidemarkers since all the aftermarket side markers I went with eventually have issues with water getting in them and either yellowing or molding. The orange side markers sealed well, but just weren't stylish enough for me.

I came across videos of Suma's sidemarkers by chance and fell in love when I saw that they not only had a nice design in the LEDs, but also allowed for taping into the turn signal and having a cool signal effect as well. I always thought that the side markers should blink on the OEM markers too, but now I finally can. This obviously isn't me, but here is a video of the markers if interested: Suma Performance Side Marker
 


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lurker_j

lurker_j

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Removal of OEM mud flaps
I really like the way the OEM mud guards flow with the lines of the car, but being lowered caused some speed bumps to destroy the hard plastic mud guards. If you are planning on lowering your car, keep this in mind if you want to keep the mud guards as they become the lowest point on the car. I ended up having to take mine off because the screws were ripped out and side skirts superficially cracked underneath due to how much pressure a couple speed bumps put on the guards. Now I have the mud guard outlines on the paint. If anyone has any tips for getting rid of the mud guard lines, I'll take em.
 

Thusee

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It's been a long time since I updated.

255/35 Michelin Pilot Sport 4 AS
Running a stretched tire is not ideal in my book since I care about any safety issues I can control, so I decided to try out a wider tire to get more grip and less stretch. I used this tire/wheel calculator to compare the spacing my stretched 235/40s take and what my options were regarding what tire would fit in the wheel well.

My biggest obstacle at the time was being lowered on D2 lowering springs without any way to manually control height. The 255 mm width on a 9.5 in wide wheel make the side wall and wheel rim almost perfectly flush. 265 width would get it more square. 9.5 width wheels also have minor poke from the fender, so with an almost flush tire with wheel poke, the wheels were getting a little too close to Tonka truck for me.

I ended up having to roll the fenders in both the front and rear as I would get rub everytime I hit a dip on the highway or had people in the car. I also flared the fenders a bit so that they would cover more of the width of the wheel and be less Tonka Truck-y.

In conclusion, you can run 255/35s with D2 springs and 9.5 width wheels without rub if you drive everywhere slow and dodge road imperfections. I have since upgraded my suspension to Tein Flex Z coilovers to get a smoother yet performance-oriented ride.

I also want to try 265s with a higher aspect ratio now that I can control my ride height to try and get a softer in cabin ride.


Tein Flex Z coilovers with EDFC Active Pro
The D2 springs are a good start out to lowering the car, but they were making my wife nauseous on long drives, so I convinced her upgrading to coilovers should help smooth out the ride. :cool:

I need to shout out @Thusee for his write up on installing the coilovers, EDFC recommendation, and answering my questions in PMs. He was a solid foundation in helping me get these coils set up.

I went with the Tein Flex Z coils after reading reviews on how other coilovers ran on street cars and their daily drivability. The other options were HKS and KW. Though more performance oriented, I feared it would take the car stiffness to another level and lose credibility with the wife.

The Flex Z kit comes with ADS error cancellors free, so that was one of the biggest selling points. They are super easy to install as the cancellor sits on the strut itself and plugs into the existing ADS ports that are on the OEM struts instead of having to jack into the ADS system under the rear seats. The coilovers also come with pillowball top mounts and camber adjustability, a couple options most other coilovers at the $1k or lower price don't come with immediately.

If you've changed your car to lowering springs, changing the car to coilovers is immensely easier in my opinion. The only issue I had was snapping one of the bolts in the rear that connect the strut to the car body. I accidently cross threaded it without realizing and just thought it was a tight fit since it was hard to pull out as well. The threads were probably mangled already from factory. The bolt snapped in a way that I could still mount the strut with the other bolt and just limp to a shop to get a nut welded to it and pulled out. I tried drilling and heating the snapped bolt, but elbow grease wasn't cutting it. If you're wondering, the torque spec for the strut to body bolt is 30 ft/lb, so I was stupidly putting a lot of pressure on that bolt to snap it.

I appreciate that coilovers nowadays allow for a wide range of height adjustability without sacrificing preload on the springs like older coilover designs used. I have just enough preload on the spring to keep it tight while at full droop on jacks. The height adjustability is nice because you don't have to take the struts out, just unlock the bottom ring and spin the strut in place. Spin left to bring car up, spin right to bring car down.

The coilovers have adjustable damping which can make the ride softer or harder on demand for your needs. If you don't have an electronic controller, you need to manually count the clicks as you turn knobs on the top of the struts. The biggest issue is the rear struts are deep in the rear fenders without access from the trunk unlike older civics. So to adjust the damping back there, I would have to remove the whole strut from the car. This was a no-go.

The Electronic Damping Force Controller (EDFC) solves this by putting motors on the top of all the struts and allows me to control damping force from my drivers seat. This sounds just like the Sport button that comes on the cars already, but the EDFC allows for more finely tuned damping. I can tune the fronts and rears independent of each others or all at the same time. It also allows for more finely tuned damping. The click method gets you 16 levels of damping, but the controller can break it up into 32 and 64 levels of damping, depending on how precise you want to be.

The EDFC Active Pro version I have allows for automatic damping changes while I move due to an accelerometer built into it. There are linear settings and active settings. Linear settings will make the damping force stiffer the faster I go, being controlled only by MPH. The EDFC has a GPS sensor that can track your speed, or you can tap into you speed monitoring wire in the car. I opted for the GPS sensor. Active settings will make damping stiffer on G-force changes making which ever way the car is leaning stiffer. For instance, hard acceleration makes the rear stiffer. Hard turns and braking make the front stiffer then softer again to the initial preset damping level when G-forces level out. It is a very fun feature, but definitely not needed by everyone. I just like all the bells and whistles I can get for my buck.

The Tein coilovers were one of the best investments on the car. It makes the car more reactive and controllable on turns, allows for smoother daily driving with the adjustable damping, and opens up my wheel options by allowing me to easily change my ride height. The only "easier" way to quickly adjust ride height would be air suspension, but that opens up another can of worms. The most important part is the wife also doesn't get nauseous in my car anymore when the car is at it's softest setting.


Goodridge stainless steel brake lines with EBC red front pads
I've always felt that the brakes were spongy and not responsive enough for a sportier car. Maintenance minder said it was time for a brake fluid change, so I figured I might as well upgrade the lines if I'm going to be bleeding the brakes anyway. After reading other reviews here, I can attest to the statement that the brakes are much more responsive and pedal feeling harder after installing these lines with the new pads. There are varying ideas and opinions on what pads to go with. I went with EBC reds because less brake dust than the yellows and still performs well in cold conditions. If you daily drive your car, this is definitely a quality of life upgrade that makes it more fun.

Whiteline 26 mm rear sway bar and lateral locks with whiteline adjustable endlinks in the front and rear.
In lowering and raising my car a number of times over the past couple years, my sway bar endlinks were stressed out. I was getting clicking from the front endlinks no matter what I did, I couldn't tighten them enough to get the clicks to go away.

I finally figure out that to tighten my endlink nuts "while the car was on the ground", I had to simulate it. When the car was on jack stands, I used the jack itself to raise the knuckles on both sides to the actual ride height level. Measuring from the center cap to the top edge of the fender was 13.5 inches. Because I only have one jack, I put my wheel under the knuckle of one side and lowered the knuckle onto it to hold the knuckle up at the 13.5 in height, then went to the other side and raised the knuckle so the sway bar would be level and have equal tension on both sides as if it were on the ground. Using this method of leveling the front sway bar and then tightening the endlink nuts not only made my knocks/clicks go away, but evened out my sway bar tension so it didn't feel like the car was fighting to pull one way more than the other. I know I could have put the car on wood blocks, but I don't have the willpower to hand saw all the 2x4s right now.

Whiteline has always been first in my head when it comes to suspension components and their endlinks were my next step. Both the front and rear endlinks are much stiffer and beefier, with adjustability as a plus. I figured I might as well upgrade the RSB if I am going to do the endlinks. I went 26 mm instead of 22 mm since there wasn't a lot of info on it and wanted to take a chance to reduce as much understeer as possible.

Driving with the 26 mm RSB makes the drive much more fun now. I haven't driven the 22 mm RSB, but I feel like I would have been disappointed with the change compared to how different the 26 mm RSB makes the car respond. A couple of my prior cars were 90's subarus (legacy gt and impreza) and I missed the feeling of being pulled around a corner feeling planted like I'm on a rollercoaster that you get with AWD vehicles. The 26 mm RSB puts that feeling back into the FWD by bringing the rear end around real quick under acceleration and making turning much more tight and responsive. I love it.

With the stock 18 mm RSB, you couldn't see the car body shift weight when you turned the wheel left to right at a stop. With the 26 mm, you definitely can see the stiffness difference, like a tiger shifting weight to pounce on prey.

Though it is a much stiffer bar, it hasn't made the ride quality harsher or the daily drivability of the car worse. It is solid steel bar and is noticably heftier with the weight to the rear end, but the crisp turning response is worth it. I haven't had any issues with going over bumps or NVH changes. Just be sure to tighten the rear endlinks with the suspension under tension simulating being on the ground as noted above. The thicker bar comes with new Whiteline rear endlinks and lateral locks in the kit, and is definitely needed with how much tension it can create.

Suma Performance Smoked Sidemarkers
I went back to the orange OEM sidemarkers since all the aftermarket side markers I went with eventually have issues with water getting in them and either yellowing or molding. The orange side markers sealed well, but just weren't stylish enough for me.

I came across videos of Suma's sidemarkers by chance and fell in love when I saw that they not only had a nice design in the LEDs, but also allowed for taping into the turn signal and having a cool signal effect as well. I always thought that the side markers should blink on the OEM markers too, but now I finally can. This obviously isn't me, but here is a video of the markers if interested: Suma Performance Side Marker
That's one hell of a write up! Very detailed and glad I could help with your build! I have been thinking about going down the route with the EDFC Active Pro. But we shall see. Thanks fo the shoutout haha.
 

Dirt

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It's been a long time since I updated.

255/35 Michelin Pilot Sport 4 AS
Running a stretched tire is not ideal in my book since I care about any safety issues I can control, so I decided to try out a wider tire to get more grip and less stretch. I used this tire/wheel calculator to compare the spacing my stretched 235/40s take and what my options were regarding what tire would fit in the wheel well.

My biggest obstacle at the time was being lowered on D2 lowering springs without any way to manually control height. The 255 mm width on a 9.5 in wide wheel make the side wall and wheel rim almost perfectly flush. 265 width would get it more square. 9.5 width wheels also have minor poke from the fender, so with an almost flush tire with wheel poke, the wheels were getting a little too close to Tonka truck for me.

I ended up having to roll the fenders in both the front and rear as I would get rub everytime I hit a dip on the highway or had people in the car. I also flared the fenders a bit so that they would cover more of the width of the wheel and be less Tonka Truck-y.

In conclusion, you can run 255/35s with D2 springs and 9.5 width wheels without rub if you drive everywhere slow and dodge road imperfections. I have since upgraded my suspension to Tein Flex Z coilovers to get a smoother yet performance-oriented ride.

I also want to try 265s with a higher aspect ratio now that I can control my ride height to try and get a softer in cabin ride.


Tein Flex Z coilovers with EDFC Active Pro
The D2 springs are a good start out to lowering the car, but they were making my wife nauseous on long drives, so I convinced her upgrading to coilovers should help smooth out the ride. :cool:

I need to shout out @Thusee for his write up on installing the coilovers, EDFC recommendation, and answering my questions in PMs. He was a solid foundation in helping me get these coils set up.

I went with the Tein Flex Z coils after reading reviews on how other coilovers ran on street cars and their daily drivability. The other options were HKS and KW. Though more performance oriented, I feared it would take the car stiffness to another level and lose credibility with the wife.

The Flex Z kit comes with ADS error cancellors free, so that was one of the biggest selling points. They are super easy to install as the cancellor sits on the strut itself and plugs into the existing ADS ports that are on the OEM struts instead of having to jack into the ADS system under the rear seats. The coilovers also come with pillowball top mounts and camber adjustability, a couple options most other coilovers at the $1k or lower price don't come with immediately.

If you've changed your car to lowering springs, changing the car to coilovers is immensely easier in my opinion. The only issue I had was snapping one of the bolts in the rear that connect the strut to the car body. I accidently cross threaded it without realizing and just thought it was a tight fit since it was hard to pull out as well. The threads were probably mangled already from factory. The bolt snapped in a way that I could still mount the strut with the other bolt and just limp to a shop to get a nut welded to it and pulled out. I tried drilling and heating the snapped bolt, but elbow grease wasn't cutting it. If you're wondering, the torque spec for the strut to body bolt is 30 ft/lb, so I was stupidly putting a lot of pressure on that bolt to snap it.

I appreciate that coilovers nowadays allow for a wide range of height adjustability without sacrificing preload on the springs like older coilover designs used. I have just enough preload on the spring to keep it tight while at full droop on jacks. The height adjustability is nice because you don't have to take the struts out, just unlock the bottom ring and spin the strut in place. Spin left to bring car up, spin right to bring car down.

The coilovers have adjustable damping which can make the ride softer or harder on demand for your needs. If you don't have an electronic controller, you need to manually count the clicks as you turn knobs on the top of the struts. The biggest issue is the rear struts are deep in the rear fenders without access from the trunk unlike older civics. So to adjust the damping back there, I would have to remove the whole strut from the car. This was a no-go.

The Electronic Damping Force Controller (EDFC) solves this by putting motors on the top of all the struts and allows me to control damping force from my drivers seat. This sounds just like the Sport button that comes on the cars already, but the EDFC allows for more finely tuned damping. I can tune the fronts and rears independent of each others or all at the same time. It also allows for more finely tuned damping. The click method gets you 16 levels of damping, but the controller can break it up into 32 and 64 levels of damping, depending on how precise you want to be.

The EDFC Active Pro version I have allows for automatic damping changes while I move due to an accelerometer built into it. There are linear settings and active settings. Linear settings will make the damping force stiffer the faster I go, being controlled only by MPH. The EDFC has a GPS sensor that can track your speed, or you can tap into you speed monitoring wire in the car. I opted for the GPS sensor. Active settings will make damping stiffer on G-force changes making which ever way the car is leaning stiffer. For instance, hard acceleration makes the rear stiffer. Hard turns and braking make the front stiffer then softer again to the initial preset damping level when G-forces level out. It is a very fun feature, but definitely not needed by everyone. I just like all the bells and whistles I can get for my buck.

The Tein coilovers were one of the best investments on the car. It makes the car more reactive and controllable on turns, allows for smoother daily driving with the adjustable damping, and opens up my wheel options by allowing me to easily change my ride height. The only "easier" way to quickly adjust ride height would be air suspension, but that opens up another can of worms. The most important part is the wife also doesn't get nauseous in my car anymore when the car is at it's softest setting.


Goodridge stainless steel brake lines with EBC red front pads
I've always felt that the brakes were spongy and not responsive enough for a sportier car. Maintenance minder said it was time for a brake fluid change, so I figured I might as well upgrade the lines if I'm going to be bleeding the brakes anyway. After reading other reviews here, I can attest to the statement that the brakes are much more responsive and pedal feeling harder after installing these lines with the new pads. There are varying ideas and opinions on what pads to go with. I went with EBC reds because less brake dust than the yellows and still performs well in cold conditions. If you daily drive your car, this is definitely a quality of life upgrade that makes it more fun.

Whiteline 26 mm rear sway bar and lateral locks with whiteline adjustable endlinks in the front and rear.
In lowering and raising my car a number of times over the past couple years, my sway bar endlinks were stressed out. I was getting clicking from the front endlinks no matter what I did, I couldn't tighten them enough to get the clicks to go away.

I finally figure out that to tighten my endlink nuts "while the car was on the ground", I had to simulate it. When the car was on jack stands, I used the jack itself to raise the knuckles on both sides to the actual ride height level. Measuring from the center cap to the top edge of the fender was 13.5 inches. Because I only have one jack, I put my wheel under the knuckle of one side and lowered the knuckle onto it to hold the knuckle up at the 13.5 in height, then went to the other side and raised the knuckle so the sway bar would be level and have equal tension on both sides as if it were on the ground. Using this method of leveling the front sway bar and then tightening the endlink nuts not only made my knocks/clicks go away, but evened out my sway bar tension so it didn't feel like the car was fighting to pull one way more than the other. I know I could have put the car on wood blocks, but I don't have the willpower to hand saw all the 2x4s right now.

Whiteline has always been first in my head when it comes to suspension components and their endlinks were my next step. Both the front and rear endlinks are much stiffer and beefier, with adjustability as a plus. I figured I might as well upgrade the RSB if I am going to do the endlinks. I went 26 mm instead of 22 mm since there wasn't a lot of info on it and wanted to take a chance to reduce as much understeer as possible.

Driving with the 26 mm RSB makes the drive much more fun now. I haven't driven the 22 mm RSB, but I feel like I would have been disappointed with the change compared to how different the 26 mm RSB makes the car respond. A couple of my prior cars were 90's subarus (legacy gt and impreza) and I missed the feeling of being pulled around a corner feeling planted like I'm on a rollercoaster that you get with AWD vehicles. The 26 mm RSB puts that feeling back into the FWD by bringing the rear end around real quick under acceleration and making turning much more tight and responsive. I love it.

With the stock 18 mm RSB, you couldn't see the car body shift weight when you turned the wheel left to right at a stop. With the 26 mm, you definitely can see the stiffness difference, like a tiger shifting weight to pounce on prey.

Though it is a much stiffer bar, it hasn't made the ride quality harsher or the daily drivability of the car worse. It is solid steel bar and is noticably heftier with the weight to the rear end, but the crisp turning response is worth it. I haven't had any issues with going over bumps or NVH changes. Just be sure to tighten the rear endlinks with the suspension under tension simulating being on the ground as noted above. The thicker bar comes with new Whiteline rear endlinks and lateral locks in the kit, and is definitely needed with how much tension it can create.

Suma Performance Smoked Sidemarkers
I went back to the orange OEM sidemarkers since all the aftermarket side markers I went with eventually have issues with water getting in them and either yellowing or molding. The orange side markers sealed well, but just weren't stylish enough for me.

I came across videos of Suma's sidemarkers by chance and fell in love when I saw that they not only had a nice design in the LEDs, but also allowed for taping into the turn signal and having a cool signal effect as well. I always thought that the side markers should blink on the OEM markers too, but now I finally can. This obviously isn't me, but here is a video of the markers if interested: Suma Performance Side Marker

Do you have a write up for installing the EDFC pro? I’m almost there but cannot find a way to get the rear wiring into the rear cabin without drilling a hole.

Also where is the wire for the VSS (vehicle speed sensor) to plug the orange wire?

I tapped into the fuse box under the dash (#23) for accessory power but it seems the controller has live power since I can turn it on and off without having the key on.

How can I test that the motor is working and the signal converter is sending settings over to the driver units?

Any help would be much appreciated
 
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Do you have a write up for installing the EDFC pro? I’m almost there but cannot find a way to get the rear wiring into the rear cabin without drilling a hole.

Also where is the wire for the VSS (vehicle speed sensor) to plug the orange wire?

I tapped into the fuse box under the dash (#23) for accessory power but it seems the controller has live power since I can turn it on and off without having the key on.

How can I test that the motor is working and the signal converter is sending settings over to the driver units?

Any help would be much appreciated
I drilled a hole, painted the bare metal, and used a grommet for the passenger side rear EDFC wire. For the driver side rear, I found the grommet in the trunk that has the gas cover wiring and went through there. I didn't see a way around drilling a hole unfortunately.

I taped off the VSS orange wire and didn't use it. I opted for the GPS speed sensor hook up instead and use that to track speed. My own VSS is off a bit since I use smaller aspect ratio tire than stock, so my speedometer shows 2 MPH faster than I am actually going.

I didn't pretest the motor and signal converter. I used a multimeter to check which fuses in the footwell fuse box were always on or only on with acc on. The my rear driver motor is powered through a fuse that is always on since Tein's manual states the background charge usage is tiny. When I did the math, it would take like 10 years for the driver motor to drain the battery without ever turning the car on.

I put the controller and signal converter on acc on fuses. Here is a pic of what how I taped under the foot well. There are three tapped into in the pics. The furthest left one is kind of hard to see.

Honda Civic 10th gen Lurker_J's Burrows ('18 Si Sedan) IMG_3718


Honda Civic 10th gen Lurker_J's Burrows ('18 Si Sedan) IMG_3720
 


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Okay so I got it working. The motors are moving but the front are loud.

Attaching a video. These have the extension kit on them.
 
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Okay so I got it working. The motors are moving but the front are loud.

Attaching a video. These have the extension kit on them.
Yeah they are always loud. I like it because I know they are working.
For regular street driving, I keep it on manual and or linear.
For spirited driving, I’ll turn on the G-meter adjusting, otherwise the loudness of the motors gets a bit too much lol
 

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Yeah they are always loud. I like it because I know they are working.
For regular street driving, I keep it on manual and or linear.
For spirited driving, I’ll turn on the G-meter adjusting, otherwise the loudness of the motors gets a bit too much lol

These are excessively loud for the front. Louder than anyone’s I’ve watched on video. Let me know if this is normal. I don't even hear the back moving.
 

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These are excessively loud for the front. Louder than anyone’s I’ve watched on video. Let me know if this is normal. I don't even hear the back moving.
Checked out the vid, yeah thats normal. Sounds just like what mine sound like. You'll hear it in the cabin too. Mine might get dulled out due to my exhaust too, so if youre stock exhaust, I can imagine it is annoying loud.

Btw, can you take a pic of where you mounted the motors with the extensions in your engine bay? I want to see what others did since I have mine zip tied to my strut bar right now.
 

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Checked out the vid, yeah thats normal. Sounds just like what mine sound like. You'll hear it in the cabin too. Mine might get dulled out due to my exhaust too, so if youre stock exhaust, I can imagine it is annoying loud.

Btw, can you take a pic of where you mounted the motors with the extensions in your engine bay? I want to see what others did since I have mine zip tied to my strut bar right now.

Dirty engine bay. Need a detail. But the left is zip tied and mounted with the mount they provided to a stock bracket. Driver side I pushed it behind the brake fluid. Doesn’t look like it’s gonna move from there.

Honda Civic 10th gen Lurker_J's Burrows ('18 Si Sedan) B0D9411F-842D-46D4-B883-F8B42C076E34


Honda Civic 10th gen Lurker_J's Burrows ('18 Si Sedan) 9990BF28-464E-41CC-8659-435D8CB56D74


Honda Civic 10th gen Lurker_J's Burrows ('18 Si Sedan) 18796764-8ECE-4F3B-9EA0-A6B03C42D8CB
 


 


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