Lowered the Sonic Grey Sport Hatch Yesterday

B18C5-EH2

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***EDIT***

The pic with the line of Hondas is the "before" look at stock height.

Hey there! I bit of background info on me before I get going. Long time Honda head. Used to work at a Hondas-only shop for a touch over a decade. Was doing B swaps in my garage at 19 or so back in 2001-ish. Owned only Hondas, and I'm no stranger to suspensions swaps on them.

Bought the Eibach Pro Kit as a surprise for my wife for Xmas. We'd kicked around the idea of lowering it, and I figured it'd be fun to do it myself since I'm able. So yesterday I set out to lower the 2017 Sport hatch in my garage yesterday using only basic hand tools. It wasn't a terribly difficult job, but you have to be really patient with how the front knuckles are bolted to the lower control arms, and how you have to get it juuuuuust right to be able to drop the knuckles far enough down to get the dampers out without popping the inner CV joint apart in the cups.

I did not approach this from a technical write-up standpoint as I would have in my younger days, so the pics are very limited. I took the front dampers out, and down to a local dealer for a buddy to use their legit spring compressor to do the actual spring swap. The rears were so stupid easy that they literally took maybe 20-30 minutes for both.

The ride is fantastic, and the appearance is perfect. It needed to be comfy still, yet get rid of that stock gap. As you can tell by the last pic of the Honda line-up the springs did a great job of bringing it down just enough.

Enjoy!

Honda Civic 10th gen Lowered the Sonic Grey Sport Hatch Yesterday SportHatchlowering1


Honda Civic 10th gen Lowered the Sonic Grey Sport Hatch Yesterday SportHatchlowering2


Honda Civic 10th gen Lowered the Sonic Grey Sport Hatch Yesterday SportHatchLowPump1


Honda Civic 10th gen Lowered the Sonic Grey Sport Hatch Yesterday HondaLineUpPOP2
 

charleswrivers

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Awesome. 159 views, zero replies.

Fuck this place.
It looks good. Be proud of yourself.

You say, 'Enjoy' at the end of your thread and it was apparently... 159 times. Then you ruined it.
 

ClearKeys

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Awesome. 159 views, zero replies.

Fuck this place.
There is an entire thread dedicated to "what did you do to your civic today?" because everyone wants to show off their mods but not everything is worthy of a thread and response. Are you happy with it? That's what really matters. Regardless, it does look good.
 


stadt

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Looks really good. I've been mulling this mod, but more for the handling benefits than the looks. How does it drive? Less body roll? Sharper turn-in? Or no noticeable difference?
 
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B18C5-EH2

B18C5-EH2

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What should people be replying to? This isn’t a diy or a question being asked, or are you just looking for some love :love:
Honestly, yes. Something, anything. "How hard was the install?" or "How does it compare to those older Civics in the pic" or something. I guess I'm just used to the old Honda-Tech days, and current social media formats where you get some form of reciprocation/comms back.

It looks good. Be proud of yourself.

You say, 'Enjoy' at the end of your thread and it was apparently... 159 times. Then you ruined it.
I didn't ruin anything. My response out of frustration at least seems to have triggered SOME conversation.

There is an entire thread dedicated to "what did you do to your civic today?" because everyone wants to show off their mods but not everything is worthy of a thread and response. Are you happy with it? That's what really matters. Regardless, it does look good.
Yes, and I posted there too. No responses there, but people were happy to carry on a conversation about blue interior lights. I guess I'm just not familiar with the audience here, nor the dynamics of this forum.

Looks really good. I've been mulling this mod, but more for the handling benefits than the looks. How does it drive? Less body roll? Sharper turn-in? Or no noticeable difference?
The ride quality itself doesn't suffer much at all. You can "feel" the road a touch more, but IMO that's not a bad thing. The springs feel tighter in turns for sure, and I could see the progressive wounding of the rear springs much more obvious on the Eibachs when compared to the stockers.

It's definitely improved the handling, but oddly enough the steering feels a tiny bit "heavier" since the lowering. I'm taking it for an alignment (toe only) tomorrow, so perhaps the changes in toe have affected the steering slightly. It's not a negative impact, nor the reason why I'm getting the alignment done. I just want to wear the tires as evenly as possible, and toe kills ires far worse than the slight negative camber I'm seeing after the Pro Kit install.
 
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B18C5-EH2

B18C5-EH2

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This should be in the 'Suspension / Brakes / Chasis' category.
...but it's a picture/video forum, right? I put up a few pics of the the install, and the final product in hopes of having a conversation.

To that end here's a few more pics.

Honda Civic 10th gen Lowered the Sonic Grey Sport Hatch Yesterday SportHatchLow


Honda Civic 10th gen Lowered the Sonic Grey Sport Hatch Yesterday SportHathLow3


Throwing in a few of my 1994 Si as well. 350whp, A/C, P/S, cruise, full interior, etc. etc.

Honda Civic 10th gen Lowered the Sonic Grey Sport Hatch Yesterday K20SCEH3downtownRSide


Honda Civic 10th gen Lowered the Sonic Grey Sport Hatch Yesterday K20SCEH3bayPOP


Honda Civic 10th gen Lowered the Sonic Grey Sport Hatch Yesterday K20SCEH3newInteriorWheel
 

ClearKeys

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Yes, and I posted there too. No responses there, but people were happy to carry on a conversation about blue interior lights. I guess I'm just not familiar with the audience here, nor the dynamics of this forum.
What makes your modification have more importance than what someone else did to their car?
 


bembol

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From Aaron Rodgers...

R-E-L-A-X


Having said that. Love it. The more I see Sonic Grey hatchback the more I regret getting WOP.
 
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B18C5-EH2

B18C5-EH2

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What makes your modification have more importance than what someone else did to their car?
Obviously it's more important to me, LOL! I see what you're doing. That's cool man, take the high road, etc. I just think it's interesting that neon interior lights would warrant more of a discussion than a performance mod that improves the looks as well (suspension.) .
 

eDUB632

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wow that pro kit makes a huge difference.
I dont want to go too low but so far from researching online, this seems to be the lowest drop available.
the megan set of springs is advertised as 1.0" drop front and back but are much cheaper than a pro kit.
i drive a lot (15k since 7/2017) so i need parts to last me a long time. don't want to kill my struts with a slammed drop or wear out my tires even faster.
any tips for a weekend warrior looking to DIY?
 
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B18C5-EH2

B18C5-EH2

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wow that pro kit makes a huge difference.
I dont want to go too low but so far from researching online, this seems to be the lowest drop available.
the megan set of springs is advertised as 1.0" drop front and back but are much cheaper than a pro kit.
i drive a lot (15k since 7/2017) so i need parts to last me a long time. don't want to kill my struts with a slammed drop or wear out my tires even faster.
any tips for a weekend warrior looking to DIY?
Thanks for replying! I used to run a Hondas-Acuras only repair shop that also did performance-oriented modifications such as engine swaps, suspension, alignments, etc. I've personally lowered countless Hondas, and have seen/installed a wide variety of brands. Let me tell you that Eibach is top-notch quality, and Megan is junk. I have installed Eibachs on countless customers' vehicles, and on my own personal vehicles. This Sport is my wife's daily driver, so for me I wanted the best in quality, minimal drop, and most importantly something that will LAST the life of the vehicle. Eibach suits all of those needs. With the Eibach Pro Kit you're getting a reasonable drop in ride height that doesn't compromise tire wear so long as you get a proper toe alignment. They have been engineered to work with factory dampers, and the ride quality is superb.

I've installed Megan stuff at customers' requests in the past, and it's just cheapo stuff. Springs that collapse over time, uneven ride height, sagging, etc. They simply do not perform the real-world R&D that eibach does, and that's obvious when installing, and seeing how they stand the test of time. I would never recommend Megan under any circumstance, even if budget is super tight.

As far as tips are concerned for the weekend warrior, DIYer?

This job can be done with simple hand tools, a good floor jack, and ideally a set of four jackstands. You'll need the jack to compress the suspension while the car is steadied on jackstands so that you can remove/line up/install bolts for the sway bar end links, LCAs, and front knuckles. A comprehensive list of tools is:

Floor jack
Jackstands
19mm socket (for wheel lugs)
17mm socket (for rear LCA bolt, front knuckle bolt, front lower balljoint nuts)
14mm socket (for rear sway bar end link bolts)
12mm socket (for front bracket that attaches brake hoses and ABS sensor wiring to knuckle)
Pry bar (to help remove/reattach front knuckle to lower control arm)
*Optional* is PB blaster to aid in removing/reinstalling front dampers out of/into front knuckles

***MORE TOOLS ARE NEEDED IF YOU INTEND ON BREAKING DOWN THE FRONT DAMPERS/SPRING ASSEMBLIES***

I chose to take my front damper assemblies to a local Honda dealership where I know a lot of the techs, and pay a tech $20.00 to use their superior spring compressor, and swap the front springs for me. I have done this type of stuff at home with rented parts store spring compressors, and they are garbage. These Civics employ a plastic bearing cage in the upper spring perch that can be very easily damaged if you attempt to disassemble them, and the pressure is not 100% even on the spring when compressed. Parts store compressors are two post style, but good shop spring compressors are the more stable three post style.

There is a YouTube video that I watched that helped me decide to even do this in my garage without air tools, and that's here - just ignore all the ride height/coilovers specific stuff, and focus on how they extract the front dampers, and rear springs.



Does that help?
 

eDUB632

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Thanks for replying! I used to run a Hondas-Acuras only repair shop that also did performance-oriented modifications such as engine swaps, suspension, alignments, etc. I've personally lowered countless Hondas, and have seen/installed a wide variety of brands. Let me tell you that Eibach is top-notch quality, and Megan is junk. I have installed Eibachs on countless customers' vehicles, and on my own personal vehicles. This Sport is my wife's daily driver, so for me I wanted the best in quality, minimal drop, and most importantly something that will LAST the life of the vehicle. Eibach suits all of those needs. With the Eibach Pro Kit you're getting a reasonable drop in ride height that doesn't compromise tire wear so long as you get a proper toe alignment. They have been engineered to work with factory dampers, and the ride quality is superb.

I've installed Megan stuff at customers' requests in the past, and it's just cheapo stuff. Springs that collapse over time, uneven ride height, sagging, etc. They simply do not perform the real-world R&D that eibach does, and that's obvious when installing, and seeing how they stand the test of time. I would never recommend Megan under any circumstance, even if budget is super tight.

As far as tips are concerned for the weekend warrior, DIYer?

This job can be done with simple hand tools, a good floor jack, and ideally a set of four jackstands. You'll need the jack to compress the suspension while the car is steadied on jackstands so that you can remove/line up/install bolts for the sway bar end links, LCAs, and front knuckles. A comprehensive list of tools is:

Floor jack
Jackstands
19mm socket (for wheel lugs)
17mm socket (for rear LCA bolt, front knuckle bolt, front lower balljoint nuts)
14mm socket (for rear sway bar end link bolts)
12mm socket (for front bracket that attaches brake hoses and ABS sensor wiring to knuckle)
Pry bar (to help remove/reattach front knuckle to lower control arm)
*Optional* is PB blaster to aid in removing/reinstalling front dampers out of/into front knuckles

***MORE TOOLS ARE NEEDED IF YOU INTEND ON BREAKING DOWN THE FRONT DAMPERS/SPRING ASSEMBLIES***

I chose to take my front damper assemblies to a local Honda dealership where I know a lot of the techs, and pay a tech $20.00 to use their superior spring compressor, and swap the front springs for me. I have done this type of stuff at home with rented parts store spring compressors, and they are garbage. These Civics employ a plastic bearing cage in the upper spring perch that can be very easily damaged if you attempt to disassemble them, and the pressure is not 100% even on the spring when compressed. Parts store compressors are two post style, but good shop spring compressors are the more stable three post style.

There is a YouTube video that I watched that helped me decide to even do this in my garage without air tools, and that's here - just ignore all the ride height/coilovers specific stuff, and focus on how they extract the front dampers, and rear springs.



Does that help?

Good stuff to know. I figured megan was almost $100/set cheaper for a reason. My choice will be an eibach pro-kit for sure. would love some coilovers but for the time being and with my budget, springs will do.
A few threads on here say that the CV boots wear out a lot faster and will need to be replaced soon.
Going to poke around and watch more videos before deciding on installing them myself or going to a shop.
how many miles have you logged with the springs on? any clearance issues?
I have the aeroflow dynamics kit (minus the front splitter) and dont want to scrap the diffuser or the splitter going up steep driveways.
Would you say the end result drop is about 1.5" all around?
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