JO3L
Senior Member
- First Name
- Joel
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2018
- Threads
- 6
- Messages
- 387
- Reaction score
- 379
- Location
- Southern California
- Vehicle(s)
- FC1E5, NA6CE
- Thread starter
- #1
Finally felt like I had enough miles with the new Whiteline anti-lift kit installed on my daily driven 2017 Si to give my feedback and share my experience with the community. This kit replaces the heavily voided rear rubber bushing and housing on your lower front control arm with a much stiffer polyurethane bushing. It also changes the front suspension geometry to give additional positive caster. Here are some of the key benefits of adding caster to your vehicle and why you would want more.
1) Improved straight-line stability at speed due to higher self centering effect on the steering wheel.
2) Improved cornering grip due to maximizing the tires contact patch through better dynamic camber control. The outside wheel will get more negative camber and the inner wheel will get less negative.
I won't go into much detail about the install because it is really straight forward on the base models/Si and Whiteline does include pictured instructions. For the Type R alloy arms I know it is a bit more complicated due to having to separate the ball joint from the control arm instead of just unbolting it like on the steel arms. If you can install lowering springs yourself, then you should be able to do this job no problems. The hardest part really is trying to get the OEM bushing off. If you don't have access to a press, it can still be done without one though with the help of a bench vise. You will need to try prying and twisting the arm itself or the bushing housing to separate the two. Install of the new Whiteline ALK is basically reverse of disassembly. Be sure to line up the locating indentations on the newly supplied bushing insert with the OEM steel arm if you are a base/Si owner it can only fit on one way. These are located at the 12 and 6 o clock position on the arm itself. Before sliding the new bushing over the arm I used teflon tape to wrap the steel arm itself to prevent any metal on poly contact. This is not in the instructions but it is a trick I have used in the past on other vehicles to help prevent squeaks later down the road once the grease starts to dry up. In my opinion there wasn't enough grease supplied with the kit, but luckily I have a whole tub of moly grease, which is the same type of grease Whiteline uses. You can never put too much on when it comes to applying grease to poly bushing. It would be nice to have zerk fittings though.
First thing I noticed immediately upon my first drive was the feel of the additional positive caster by way of the increased steering effort and how the steering wheel wants to snap back to center after making a turn. The best way I can explain the new feel is like my car is now already in sport mode as there is much less difference in steering feel between the two modes. Si owners should be able to relate to this. The alignment shop was able to confirm just over 6 degrees of positive caster. This is almost a full degree more than I have seen on my other alignment sheets and from others who have shared on this forum.
Another noticeable difference is the improved brake pedal feedback. Now that the LCA is being held in place with a firmer bushing, there is less deflection in the suspension allowing the front tires to better grip the ground which helps not only in deceleration but also acceleration. I don’t like launching my car that much, but I feel like I did notice a little less wheel spin when launching the car with TC fully disabled on my stock all season Goodyears. This will most definitely help coming off the line in drag racing or autocross scenarios.
At my local test track (shout out Adams Motorsports Park) which is really a kart track that lets full size cars run twice a month, I was able to shave off almost a full second on a 10 turn course that runs primarily in 2nd and 3rd gear. With the benefits of more cornering grip from the additional positive caster provided by the ALK I was able to consistently get on the throttle at the apex or just before the apex with little to no understeer. On some of my local freeway interchange loops that I regularly take I noticed I am able to carry more speed through the turn before TC kicks on. This could simply be me feeling more confident in car though. Overall I am pretty satisfied with the performance of this kit, the cost of it, the install and best of all it was wife approved!. Thanks for reading this far and happy
1) Improved straight-line stability at speed due to higher self centering effect on the steering wheel.
2) Improved cornering grip due to maximizing the tires contact patch through better dynamic camber control. The outside wheel will get more negative camber and the inner wheel will get less negative.
I won't go into much detail about the install because it is really straight forward on the base models/Si and Whiteline does include pictured instructions. For the Type R alloy arms I know it is a bit more complicated due to having to separate the ball joint from the control arm instead of just unbolting it like on the steel arms. If you can install lowering springs yourself, then you should be able to do this job no problems. The hardest part really is trying to get the OEM bushing off. If you don't have access to a press, it can still be done without one though with the help of a bench vise. You will need to try prying and twisting the arm itself or the bushing housing to separate the two. Install of the new Whiteline ALK is basically reverse of disassembly. Be sure to line up the locating indentations on the newly supplied bushing insert with the OEM steel arm if you are a base/Si owner it can only fit on one way. These are located at the 12 and 6 o clock position on the arm itself. Before sliding the new bushing over the arm I used teflon tape to wrap the steel arm itself to prevent any metal on poly contact. This is not in the instructions but it is a trick I have used in the past on other vehicles to help prevent squeaks later down the road once the grease starts to dry up. In my opinion there wasn't enough grease supplied with the kit, but luckily I have a whole tub of moly grease, which is the same type of grease Whiteline uses. You can never put too much on when it comes to applying grease to poly bushing. It would be nice to have zerk fittings though.
First thing I noticed immediately upon my first drive was the feel of the additional positive caster by way of the increased steering effort and how the steering wheel wants to snap back to center after making a turn. The best way I can explain the new feel is like my car is now already in sport mode as there is much less difference in steering feel between the two modes. Si owners should be able to relate to this. The alignment shop was able to confirm just over 6 degrees of positive caster. This is almost a full degree more than I have seen on my other alignment sheets and from others who have shared on this forum.
Another noticeable difference is the improved brake pedal feedback. Now that the LCA is being held in place with a firmer bushing, there is less deflection in the suspension allowing the front tires to better grip the ground which helps not only in deceleration but also acceleration. I don’t like launching my car that much, but I feel like I did notice a little less wheel spin when launching the car with TC fully disabled on my stock all season Goodyears. This will most definitely help coming off the line in drag racing or autocross scenarios.
At my local test track (shout out Adams Motorsports Park) which is really a kart track that lets full size cars run twice a month, I was able to shave off almost a full second on a 10 turn course that runs primarily in 2nd and 3rd gear. With the benefits of more cornering grip from the additional positive caster provided by the ALK I was able to consistently get on the throttle at the apex or just before the apex with little to no understeer. On some of my local freeway interchange loops that I regularly take I noticed I am able to carry more speed through the turn before TC kicks on. This could simply be me feeling more confident in car though. Overall I am pretty satisfied with the performance of this kit, the cost of it, the install and best of all it was wife approved!. Thanks for reading this far and happy
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