Lowering & Coilovers Chat 1998 1999 2000 2001 CG Accord Coupe

[nikkiv6coupe]

I never thought that flex could feel any better, but after this mornings venture out i totally agree, not gonna but

[V6vtec]

Nah, I'm going to keep mine original Dave. I'm happy with my ride.

 

Did look good tho on Stu's car, I was impressed.

 

With my V6 it's all about originality with the odd improvement here and there for engine breathing and sound and a little more. I'm going to see what happens with Stu's car on the life of the springs he has fitted. I did have adjustable spax ones on my MGB GT but I hardly ever altered them for ride height or comfort as the drive was comfortable like my lovely V6.

 

I'm on the fence with this one.

[V6vtec]

Although if I had a spare V6 I would add all the modifications I could with sound, ride height, performance etc etc. Probably like Stu's car, which I think is a very very nice car and I take my hat off to my friend Stu for that.

[hughezee]

I wasn't convinced at first Sean but my O.E springs and shocks where 14 years old and Eric the car guy convinced me to change them due to age and use either O.E or upgrade and I’m so happy I did now.

 

Also credit goes to members Pr1ths & AhsyV6 thank you for your patients guys

[Laird_Scooby]

Nah, I'm going to keep mine original Dave. I'm happy with my ride.

 

Did look good tho on Stu's car, I was impressed.

 

With my V6 it's all about originality with the odd improvement here and there for engine breathing and sound and a little more. I'm going to see what happens with Stu's car on the life of the springs he has fitted. I did have adjustable spax ones on my MGB GT but I hardly ever altered them for ride height or comfort as the drive was comfortable like my lovely V6.

 

I'm on the fence with this one.

 

 

You'll get splinters in very strange places Sean! I totally understand what you mean and in a nice way i'm a little jealous that you are able to do that but for me with the demise of Rover, it's just not possible to keep everything original. Obviously some parts are still available new from either Honda or from Rimmers for mine but increasingly i'm having to find alternative parts to keep it going - either that or parts have to be commissioned from a specialist supplier and made in a limited production run or self-fabricated and/or modified from another vehicles parts.

 

 

Although if I had a spare V6 I would add all the modifications I could with sound, ride height, performance etc etc. Probably like Stu's car, which I think is a very very nice car and I take my hat off to my friend Stu for that.

 

 

That was my line of thought when i first bought the SLi (now sold, awaiting the balance on the payment) and had in mind plans to not just modify it but create a Rover-based version of the Rolls-Royce Phantom Celestial - The Rover 827 "Galactic".

 

The one big problem about creating a project like that though is where do you stop??? That said i could of course do most of the mods i had in mind to my Sterling as they were predominantly to do with comfort and "dressing it up" and on the suspension side, much of it has been done already.

 

 

Talking of suspension :

 

 

I wasn't convinced at first Sean but my O.E springs and shocks where 14 years old and Eric the car guy convinced me to change them due to age and use either O.E or upgrade and I’m so happy I did now.

 

Also credit goes to members Pr1ths & AhsyV6 thank you for your patients guys

 

 

About 2 years ago i was lucky enough to get a load of used 800 spares from someone in Rochester and it's now affectionately known as "The Rochester Stash". Many of them i have passed on to other members of the 800 forum/club as they were specifically for a different model and as such not much use to me anyway. That aside, i kept the springs and shocks from a low mileage, 1998 825 Sterling. Rover did a funny thing with the spring ratings, the simple version is whatever spec the previous generation Vitesse had was what the new generation Sterling got.

As the springs and shocks on my Sterling were all past their best, when i fitted the later Sterling springs, not only did i get some barely used springs and shocks so an improvement from that alone but i also gained slightly stiffer springs and shocks (same spec as the Vitesse from the same year as mine in effect but with Sterling ride height) and i had already sourced and fitted the last spec Vitesse Sport anti roll bars front and rear, which changed the car from rolling in corners like a pregnant elephant on roller skates to going through corners near enough flat, without compromising the ride quality.

Also on my coupe, i renewed the rear springs last year with new old stock springs bought on ebay for £9.99 each! Had to temporarily refit the passenger side rear spring due to the drivers shock mounting bolts being almost impossible to shift. When i did eventually shift them, i ran out of daylight before refitting the passenger spring and since then i keep forgetting! The difference between left hand and right hand corners is amazing though - left hand corners are easy, right handers are a bit of a lottery though - all because of a weak N/S spring!

 

The main point of those little anecdotes is that the springs and shocks are very often ignored on a car, unless they fail somehow. They do wear out though and become much less effective with age, even if still apparently working. Like an exhaust system, you don't realise how bad they are until renewed and then the difference is obvious and you wish you had done it ages ago!

[Graymalkin]

After the Honda 6 meet in October and I saw Robs silver coupe that had been lowered at the front I thought I would like to do that. Then after a near death experience on a round a bout in Milton Keynes I decided I had to lower the car to get a bit better handling. So the decision was made to lower Sticky Vicky.

Rob already had his eye on a set of Eibach springs (front and back), but he didn't really need the front ones. So I went halves with him on these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Eibach-Lowering-Springs-Honda-Accord-VI-Coupe-CG-30-35-12-97-06-03-/161681820806?hash=item25a4fccc86:g:0LMAAOSw~FNUZPNx

Basically £180 all in between us both.

However, then there was the first fly in the ointment, Sticky Vicky is a bit rusty see here:

The splash guard marked as wonky, well it wasn't just wonky it was almost totally corroded, along with the disks and the bolts and you can see here the current shock absorber. Funny really they should be called shock absorbers cos to see the state of them was really quite a shock that I never really absorbed!

You can see from this picture how badly rusted the lower part of the shock was and the plate the spring sits on was corroded beyond belief. How the spring didn't break this part off the shock I do not know. So now I was faced with a budget increase to buy new shocks too and I was going to have to face the prospect of other suspension parts being replaced also as Stuart was unsure if he would be able to get bolts off etc.

So Stuart pointed me in the direction of these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181871000909?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

GH Shockabsorbers from Germany. These were another £100, but OK, I realised wether I got the car lowered or not I was probably going to have to replace the shocks at some point so why not do it now. So these were purchased. However, when they arrived they had been sent from Poland and were KYB shocks not GH. But Stu felt they were a good deal so I went with it.

Note 2 things from the picture above, the red/white tape is not a standard Honda feature. I am not sure what that was doing there, marking a hazard possibly or marking a part of my car not currently corroded. Also notice the wire brush that appears to be levitating under the ABS ring. He really has undiscribable powers!

We... I say we, but that's the royal we because I really didn't do much apart from remove the airfilter housing to allow Stu to get the ABS sensor/conector to be removed which sits tightly right behind the air filter box (orange), anyway WE started work at about 10 am on this. A lot of hammering and bashing to get the rusted bolts off and to loosen the corrosion on the ... well on everything really.

 

You can see here the first shock/spring is in place. Rust treatment applied also.

You can see here the hub was replaced from a scrapper that Stu had. Note the new shiny painted splash guard. Note also the blue paper towel stuffed inside Sticky Vickys sub frame. On top of everything else there was a hole here which Stu filled with wax and had to let dry. Once dry Stu then put some putty over the hole to seal the wax in and make good. This was then coated in a rust treatment.

While the rust treatment and the wax was drying on the passenger side Stu started on the drivers side. But this side was even worse for rust. The picture above you can see Stu having a sleep, I mean he was cutting the bolt off... something or other because it wouldn't come off by standard methods. Bolts off, hub off, brakes off... it was beginning to get cold and dark. I did wonder if Stu was going to start a fire Bear Grills style but no.

As a side project we decided to fit some wheel arch LED lighting here.... I wish! This picture belies the fact it was now getting very dark and Stu needed lights to work by. Note here the amount of rust gathering on the blue tarpaulin, and that wasn't the half of it. Again you can see how corroded the old shock was.

It was now 5pm and dark so no more pictures were taken. But suffice it to say the bolts were cut off, some parts were replaced including the hub, brake discs, bolts and more from the scrap car he had. I think it was about 8pm when "we" finished.

To be honest my expectations were not very high. I wasn't expecting a massively noticeable drop in the profile of Vicky, I was expecting a slightly worse ride with a slight improvement to handling.

What did I get??????

Which is the before and which is the after... quick quiz? Result below.....

 

 

 

The car at the top is the after picture. Its subtle, for sure. The general stance is more aggressive and looks like the car is angled down at the front more. The gap under the arch really doesn't look too different unless you look closely see the next picture.

Before you could easily get 4 fingers inside Vickys arch eh hem. But now its quite tight with just two... eh hem oh god...<cough>

So even though esthetically the change is subtle, that is what I was after really. I didn't want to slam Vicky so it looked like I was hauling bricks or a fat bloke in the back. If I ever get round to being able to afford 17 inch alloys then the gap will decrease even more potentially.

So even though over two sessions I guess the process took around 16 hours, because of the corrosion and the work involved in getting the bolts off and the new springs attached to the new shocks I am very pleased with the result. The total spend was around £350 including Stu's time. I am guessing if I had had this done at a garage the bill would have been £1000 or more. So I am very thankful for Stu for getting Vicky in shape. That's not to say there is not more to do. But that's all for now. Oh and one last thing, Vickys ride, well she rides well, I was anticipating it being a bit harder and firmer eh hem, but the ride is actually better, this is more than likely due to the old shocks were indeed coming to the end of their lives. Also the handling, well as yet I have not tackled that round a bout in MK again and the handling doesn't feel any different BUT that is mainly because I have only done motorway driving since having the work done. So we will see. 

[hughezee]

Great post Rich, really enjoyed it in-light of recent events  I'm sure you will notice a great improvement in handling given an opportunity that is and especially with some new front tyres...

The amount of rust was a shock at first, nevertheless only three nuts succumb to the grinder so it wasn't to bad come reassembly time. The twenty pence size hole on sub frame was located on the water drain seam although I was more than prepared to get the welder out but thankfully the rest of the structure was sound and liquid steel does work well on those sort of jobs

[Mazda Man]

Your posts Richard really are bostin', as we say in the Midlands, loads of pictures and great detail.  Much like Dave's.....They're funny too and the above made me chuckle.  The double entendres are flying too, brilliant, and I'm resisting the urge to respond....but it's hard!  Ooo errr.  "The above picture you can see Stu having a sleep"  PMSL

I spoke to Stu earlier and I think he's still recovering! 

[Laird_Scooby]

Great post Rich and a nice end result! Have you had your headlamps tweaked up a little since dropping the front? Bet you're dazzling all the slugs and snails now!

 

If you go for 17" wheels, if memory serves the correct tyre size will be 215/45R17 to keep the same rolling radius but the wheels will "fill" the arches better and you will probably find the ride is quite harsh on the front. Depends what you're going for, bone-shaking, denture rattling, filling loosening, back jarring balls-out hard ride and handling or something with a bit of compliance and comfort befitting a true Gran Tourismo aka GT car.

Having tried 17s on an 800 (and knowing what the 16s feel like with 205/55R16s, same as the Accord) and found them unbearably harsh, making the ride jittery, the steering less positive (prone to "tracking" along bumps/ridges in the road) and accurate i would recommend sticking with the 16s, not to mention the fact that the tyres are cheaper!

It's your car and money though and what you like/want it to be so if that's what floats your boat - fill your boots!

[hughezee]

Good point Dave I'm on 225/45/R17 and it was bumpy ish on a stock sussy set-up, right up until I replaced the springs (35mm lower) and shocks rides like a magic carpet now with virtually no road noise by comparison. I would say I can only dream of what brand new OEM set-up would feel like if age was the factor.. However the front springs where so heavily compressed by almost 3inchs making the front end ride high, I very much doubt age was a contributing factor in the feel of the V6 coupe

[Laird_Scooby]

By rights for the full effect/package you really need to go for firmer seats as well Stu. Many moons ago when i was a young pup, a friend of mine had transplanted XR3i springs and shocks onto his Mk3 Escrot 1.6 Ghia. Before that it had handled reasonably well and the seats were comfy while not being thrown around through S bends. However, with the XR3i set up, the soft ish seats turned into some kind of pinball derived buffers that threw the occupants around like Zebedee on a pogo-stick.

Having been in many XR3is (and plain XR3s), i knew the springs and shocks weren't responsible for this rollercoaster ride. So it had to be the extra support from the donor cars extra firm Recaros that smoothed the ride out.

 

I suspect your original springs were only compressing the "soft" end of the progressive rate springs so you still had some softness to soak up the bumps but push a little harder and the springs would become much harder, giving excellent cornering and roadholding capabilities without sacrificing normal ride comfort. Are the new springs linear rate?

[hughezee]

Don't get me wrong the car original set-up was good and I was very happy with it on wider tyres and I never liked the idea of lowering my coupe   but with it riding almost a full 2 inches over the rears it looked odd to say the least and the prospect of having to replace something due to age like Retro Rich's shock just popping? So I decided to keep experimenting and lowering the car (progressive springs) got rid of body roll which I never really noticed before and cornering was just even more effortless at high speed and I have more comfort which was a surprise. 

I still have my old springs if I ever have a change of heart but for now I'm happy with it....

[Laird_Scooby]

That makes me think your original springs were weak with age Stu and you were hitting the harder part of the progressive part of them from the off. Obviously undulations in the road would allow the softer parts to come into play again giving you dodgy handling. The new progressive springs, being stronger because they're new and uprated (?) would be more progressive so the comfort zone would be bigger

[hughezee]

Retro Rich coupe drove just like mine originally and he prefers mine now, unless he's just being nice 

[Graymalkin]

Great post Rich and a nice end result! Have you had your headlamps tweaked up a little since dropping the front? Bet you're dazzling all the slugs and snails now!

 

No I have not adjusted the lights. Basically because I upgraded the bulbs to Osram Night breakers HB3 & 4. They see a lot further anyway than the standards. So I have not bothered with that. They light the road pretty much perfectly.

As for the bigger wheels. That's quite a way off. Next I need to get fuel filter changed brake lines and possibly fuel lines replaced. Plus the aircon tubey thing in the front, new front tyres, and another ATF change. Plus get the rear arches chopped out and replaced. Oh and hopefully get the driver seat cover replaced too. Id like some sort of LED lighting in the door cards and in the centre console too. So there is still a lot to do that take priority over the wheels. I am lucky because I like the wheels on the V6 and my wheels are very good condition too, Stu thinks they have been refurbed at some point.

Oh and a nice plus on that point too, Stu gave me some very natty Honda valve caps Which I have not put on the car yet, but will do once its cleaned.

[hughezee]

Sounds like a plan buddy and don't forget to feature your tailored car mats

[Laird_Scooby]

You've a lot of good plans there! Hope they all come to fruition nice and easily, without any gremlins getting in the way!

[Mazda Man]

It's great Richard that you're making the effort and spending time and money on your coupe.  Hopefully when we have our next meet next year, you'll be all sorted and it will be one of the flagship coupes in the club.  I have the same wheels are you and I think they suit the car a treat.  Purple Haze is mechancially pefect and runs like a Rolex, all I need to do/want is:

1. Wind Deflectors for the two doors.
2. Chrome tips for the exhaust (Already in hand) 
3. Some 360 LED's for the side lights, I think they look coolio and 'fill' the bottom of the headlight.
4. Some LED's for the puddle lights in the doors and for ther interior lights.
5. Tint the rear windows.  Nothing too dark or 'gangster', I think tinting looks cool and will give it a mean and modern look.
6. Swap over the passenger door for the purple one Stu is breaking.  Mine has a crease on the bottom.
7. Swap over the rear bumper for the purple one Stu is breaking.  Mine is fine but the other one is better.
8. Get the remote central locking working with a key fob, I have to use the key to lock/unlock at the moment.  Stu said he can wire it up so that I car start the car even if I were standing on the surface of the moon!
9. Continue with the engine bay detailing.  Not much fun in this weather but I will persevere.

[Laird_Scooby]

Bit concerned about starting on the moon Geoff - you'd need a few cam belt changes (and other service work) and an inter-planetary fuel tanker in tow to get the 238000 miles home!

As for the rear windows, have you considered a slight purple tint? Nothing obvious, that would look silly but  something mid-dark grey tint with a hint of purple in it?

I don't have that option with mine - if you have a look carefully at this pic you can see the rear screen and rear side windows are tinted heavier than the front windows :

You can see by looking through the rear screen the side windows are much darker at the back than the front and if you look at the drivers side, you can see the tint is lighter through the front and side than the back and side. I think that makes sense? Come twilight time, the difference really shows up though :

I don't know what's available in the way of tinting film but i daresay there's something there with a slight purple/grey tinge. Don't think you'd need to go too heavy to get a really good effect considering they're already tinted.

 

 

[Mazda Man]

Never considered a slight purple/grey tint, sounds interesting.  Need to get Christmas out of the way first plus is a 6 week gap until pay day in January as I'm paid monthly!!  Eeek.

I could do it all myself but I think it's easier to pay someone who isn't 18 stone and 6'2 to crawl around in the rear, fitting tint to the rear screen looks like a nightmare to me.  Likey Likey. 

[Laird_Scooby]

I had a bit of a search online earlier for window tinting services in Birmingham and although some only have 4 shades ranging from black to near-clear, others offered many shades of grey in between - not sure if there were 50 but a lot! Oooo-errr missus!

Some places were suggesting it would be about £80 but whether that's for one window/screen or the whole car i'm not sure. Probably best for you to do your own reasearch as you know the area, what you're after and your budget.

[Graymalkin]

Geoff. Keep me posted on the tinting. I am wondering if they would do a discount for 2 coupes at the same time? Double up on cutting shapes etc etc

Might be faster for them to do 2 identical cars?

I would be happy to go for that with you.

[hughezee]

I'm after tints as well H6 tint day

[Laird_Scooby]

Now that is an idea! Get a mobile tinting service to got to H6HQ, do 3 or more cars at a heavily discounted price in return for advertising (via the thread on it) with loads of photos etc.

Double whammy for the club and the tinting service!

[Mazda Man]

That sounds like a cunning plan, Dave, more cunning than a fox with a degree in cunning from Cambridge!  Makes sense, the guy could do all our 3 coupes (Stu's, Richard's and mine) all in one hit and for a discount, we could add his logo/link to the Honda 6 home page/Facebook page with photos and comments?