DIY: Si or CTR Rear Stabilizer Bar on Normal Civic Sedan/Coupe/Hatch

[gtman]

I know some people have concerns about running too stiff a RSB and I wouldn't take it upon myself to call those feelings invalid. But based on my experience so far, I'd have to be driving like an absolute asshole to get myself into a dangerous situation on a public road.

This is all barring an emergency situation, I dont know how the car will respond in such a situation and that's a risk I'm willing to take.

Just my 2 cents.

That's why I've always been conservative with my suspension upgrades. It's about balance. Honda did a pretty good job with this chassis. But as is the case with all FWD cars, they understeer a bit too much. Switch to a really thick RSB and handling will feel fantastic. But, with that huge reduction in understeer comes the possibility of oversteer. Oversteer by itself isn't a bad thing of course. But, lift off/snap oversteer in an extreme situation is why I go conservative.

Imagine driving on a wet road and going into a corner too fast. You lift off throttle, brake hard and your ass end comes around. It's possible the car could be quite a handful in that situation. I think my driving skills are decent but I don't want to deal with that. But that's just me. I'm sure the 22mm bar is really fun overall. Plus you probably are a more skillful driver than me.

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[hobby-man]

Plus you probably are a more skillful driver than me.

Hah! Probably just younger and dumber

 

[BoostinIX]

Maybe you can use two jacks to load the suspension? You will need both sides loaded evenly to ensure the endlinks are leveled at normal height. Getting the car on an alignment rack is also another way to get it loaded and accessible.

If you're at stock height there's plenty of room to do it without jacking up. I did mine on the ground and haven't had any noises. /shrug.

That's why I've always been conservative with my suspension upgrades. It's about balance.

That's relative too though. For me, SI to 22 was a similar bump, but the shocks/struts are different than on the HB so. It balances nicely when paired with other upgrades

 

[V3N0M_VZL4]

If you're at stock height there's plenty of room to do it without jacking up. I did mine on the ground and haven't had any noises. /shrug.



That's relative too though. For me, SI to 22 was a similar bump, but the shocks/struts are different than on the HB so. It balances nicely when paired with other upgrades

i have in my car the eibach pro kit i believe i dont have enough space to work, maybe i can use 2 concrete block's or i can pass by i mechanic shop to made the adjustment in the aligment ramp.

 

[quakaroaks]

After driving on a lot of familiar roads, I wanted to give an update here since I upgraded to the Si rear sway bar. The stock EX-L bar is 16.5mm and the Si bar is 18mm. That difference doesn't sound like much but it does make a noticeable difference. It's actually something like 45+% stiffer, believe it or not.

For $80, it's a worthy upgrade. But you have to know what you're getting. This won't radically change the handling. It's nowhere near as aggressive as upgrading to something in the 20-22mm range. But for my mod/driving style it's perfect. I always like to take my cars from factory to what the factory should have given us. In other words, better than stock but nothing too extreme.

The Si bar gives me noticeable quicker turn in response and a moderate reduction in understeer. I'm happy with it.

I had a unique opportunity to test it out in an accident avoidance situation. I was travelling at about 40mph and was in the process of making a left turn at a close by intersection. I saw a BMW in oncoming traffic. I knew I had to give it a little gas to make the turn safely. All of the sudden just as I was ready to turn, the BMW driver gunned it. Well, I'm tuned and I gave it a ton of gas as I was making the turn to avoid the BMW ahole. Rubber was burned.

The car was incredibly responsive and well behaved. It turned in nice and fast and flat.

+1 on the si rsb. Eliminates the slop in the rear and just leaves enough roll on tight corners. The rsb really shines on mid speed corners.

 

[L8apex]

i'm looking the FK8 bar, i installed the whiteline bar in the soft position but when i pass over a bump is making some weird metallic noises, somebody experience this before?

What endlinks are you using? You can’t use the soft setting with the OEM Civic or Accord endlinks; they’ll be flexed out of their range and probably tear up the bushing in them. You’ll need the Whiteline endlinks to properly use the soft setting.

If you are using the Whiteline endlinks, the collars need to be stacked properly to get the soft setting.

 

[V3N0M_VZL4]

What endlinks are you using? You can’t use the soft setting with the OEM Civic or Accord endlinks; they’ll be flexed out of their range and probably tear up the bushing in them. You’ll need the Whiteline endlinks to properly use the soft setting.

If you are using the Whiteline endlinks, the collars need to be stacked properly to get the soft setting.

I'm using the accord end links, the sound is very minimal over bumps I will be moving to the hard setting just test, but some people in this forum use this setting without any noise, I mean accord end links in the soft position.

 

[L8apex]

Cool, let us know if that changes the noise.

I'm using the accord end links, the sound is very minimal over bumps I will be moving to the hard setting just test, but some people in this forum use this setting without any noise, I mean accord end links in the soft position.

 

[AmyChris13]

We’ve been running the SiriMoto 22mm bar, and their end links with no issues about a month on our sport coupe- on the soft setting... what a huge handling difference! As mentioned previously, there IS a bit of a learning curve as handling in our case was drastically improved, but it’s a true pleasure in the twisty stuff now! The OEM I pulled was 17mm... not sure where that falls on the scale- but you can see the difference. Took about a half hour to install, and was simple.

 

[Icebear]

Where can one find the factory rear sway bar for the SI ?

All the oem Honda parts stores online show it as “discontinued “ . Any thoughts ?

 

[V3N0M_VZL4]

We’ve been running the SiriMoto 22mm bar, and their end links with no issues about a month on our sport coupe- on the soft setting... what a huge handling difference! As mentioned previously, there IS a bit of a learning curve as handling in our case was drastically improved, but it’s a true pleasure in the twisty stuff now! The OEM I pulled was 17mm... not sure where that falls on the scale- but you can see the difference. Took about a half hour to install, and was simple.

Any noises to report? You tight the end links bolts with the wheels on the ground or in the jacks?

 

[AmyChris13]

Any noises to report? You tight the end links bolts with the wheels on the ground or in the jacks?

No noise at all so far. I tightened the end links to the bar in the jacks almost to torque spec, finished on the ground.

 

[V3N0M_VZL4]

No noise at all so far. I tightened the end links to the bar in the jacks almost to torque spec, finished on the ground.

In my case the whiteline in the soft position the endlinks was making some noises, I switched back to oem and the sound disappeared, in other hand whit the RSB out I noticed the right side was bent that explain why the end link was making sounds, I already order the type R RSB 20.5mm I believe the whiteline is to stiff for daily since this one is solid.

 

[AmyChris13]

Where can one find the factory rear sway bar for the SI ?

All the oem Honda parts stores online show it as “discontinued “ . Any thoughts ?

I’ll measure our OEM that I removed again- it’s out of our Canadian made sport coupe. I think it may be an Si bar, since the specs seem to be equal. Will advise. It has 30k miles on it (just shy), but we’d be willing to part with it. Pun intended. ?
Add-on: Just walked out the garage. Don’t know if this helps, since I can’t find where my buddy put my calipers since he used them yesterday... but maybe this will help: looks like A heavy 16 mm... my 16mm combination wrench fits over it and has plenty of wiggle room. There’s your quick and dirty PA redneck measurement. Also, don’t know if that is a P/N on that sticker or not. I don’t science too good...

 

[gtman]

Where can one find the factory rear sway bar for the SI ?

All the oem Honda parts stores online show it as “discontinued “ . Any thoughts ?

Some Si guys here that upgrade will sell theirs in our classifieds from time to time.

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