[Jiggaman]

RE: H & R Springs

hey guys,

Need some quality advice in regards to some H & R Sport Springs. I have a 1999 Acura TL 3.2 and want to put some springs on it, but I do not have rims on it yet. Should I still put the springs on it and if I do will it make a difference later on when I put the rims on it? Don't know to much about this subject, so all the info would be of great help.

The back of my car is real low right now due to the custom stereo system in my trunk. I have 3 JL 12" W6's, 2 Amps, 1 Capacitor, etc...Basically the installer told me that there is over 200lbs in the trunk right now. The back of the car is low and the front is up, it is looking real bad in my eyes.

Do I need to get separate shocks to compliment the springs or can I use the stock springs with the H & R Sport Springs? What else do I need to get with the springs? What the hell are coilovers, camber kits, etc...? Don't know what does what. Can anyone give me a brief insight in regards to the suspension and shocks issue and anything else that involves in the matter.

Thanks!!

 

[Crav4Speed]

i have H&R sports (stage II) with stock shocks and stock 16" chromies... i also have 2 10" solobarics and 2 RF amps in the trunk and the car sits level... if you say you have about 200lbs in the trunk and the car is already raked with the front higher than the back then i would say go with Comptechs cause they raise the back a little higher... so with the stuff you have in the trunk and Comptechs i think the car would level out.

coilovers are springs and shocks assembled together in one unit... so instead of getting H&R's and say tokico shocks as seperate units, all you do is get coilovers and there's no need to replace the shocks and springs seperately... the thing is they're more expensive than replacing springs and shocks seperately but you have the ability to raise and lower the car. camber kits are needed (but not always) when you lower your car. what happens is your wheels angle inward the lower your car goes due to the geometry of the suspension... camber kits are used to adjust and correct this angle... with the H&R sports (stage II), camber kits are not needed... I dont know how i had the energy to write all that but i hope it helps

 

[rominl]

ok, let me try to answer them one by one

1) you can still lower your car without new rims. a lot of people, including me, still have stock rims and we all lower our cars. it's fine, just make sure you get alignment done when necessary

2) if your rear is so low now due to the heavy weight, i don't know if h&r sport is a good choice for you. it gives an even drop on the tl, so that means after the drop, you will lower your front and rear by the same amount. so yes maybe you will reduce the wheel gap in the front dramatically, but maybe your rear wheels will go under the fender!

imho, if you have a system and you wanna car look level again, comptech is the only good choce for you. it gives around 1.75 to 2 inches drop in the front and 1.5 drop at the back, so it will probably give you a level look with your system in the trunk. the eibach pro kits might do the same too, but it gives more drop and i have heard cases where it ends up giving an even drop after a while, soo.......

3) well, technically you should get new shocks when you get new springs, coz' the new springs makes the car lower, and it will change the "rest" or "idle" position of the shock. that will have two effects. i) the shocks will not function at its best coz' of its damping property. therefore sometimes when you go over speed bumps, you might find the car going up and down, very bouncy. that's not the case for my tls probably coz' i have a stiffer shock, but for your tlp that could be the case i dont' know. ii) the shocks will die much faster coz' of it's out of spec usage. with stock shocks and new springs, your shocks will probably go out at around 40k miles. for me i will just let it die and get new ones then

coilover, in short, is basically the spring and shock combined together as a set. the best thing about them is that most of the time they have different settings where you can adjust the height, damping, harshness of the setup. however you pay a definite premium for them.

camber kits. when you change your springs, there are three parts of the suspension systems that you might touch and affect their accuracy, they are camber, caster, and toe. caster is how the wheels align with the front and back of the car. toe is how badly the left and right wheels compared to each other (whether they are like | |, or / \, or \ /), and camber determines how "vertical" your wheels are. that's the main reason why you nneed to do alignment after you install springs.

among the three, for our tl's, the camber is the one that's affected most of the time and can never been corrected. most of us will get negative camber after installing the springs, meaning that the upper part of the wheel actually goes INSIDE a little bit. this is because our stock camber can't allow that much of a drop and it doesn't have enough headroom to adjust itself. this is why you need new camber if you wanna correct the problem.

there are good and bads about negative camber. the bad thing is it wears out your tires unevenly, and in short it kills your tires much faster than you anticipate. you will find the inner side of the tires run out much faster than outside (if you have negative camber). good thing about camber is that it's allows better grip and handling when you do hard cornering. therefore if you do that often (say you go to autocross) you are better off having some negative camber.

for my tls, i just let the negative camber goes coz' i like to corner fast, and since our stock tires are garbage anyway i don't mind them wearing out faster so i can get new ones. however when i get new rubbers i will most likely install camber. fyi, i have negative camber in my rear but my front is within spec.

i hope this answers most of your questions....

 

[songoku]

Re: Re: RE: H & R Springs

i hope this answers most of your questions....

:hitit:
:thumbsup:

 

[patrick]

Everything Rominl said. If you can afford it, getting coilovers would be the best, as you can manually adjust the height. So if your rear sags a bit, you can jack it up more.

 

[Escamar]

Are camber kits really needed with H&R sports springs???

 

[rominl]

Are camber kits really needed with H&R sports springs???

i believe so. ask austin, he has the sport springs and he has always been thinking about getting rear camber

 

[SimTypeS]

i believe so. ask austin, he has the sport springs and he has always been thinking about getting rear camber

Mine was within specs, and no uneven tire wear for months. They don't "look" like they have a camber problem, either.

 

[rominl]

oh that's nice my camber is quite obvious

 

[Austin519]

Jiggaman:
Hope our enormous PM conversation answered everything .

Austin519

 

[songoku]

Jiggaman:
Hope our enormous PM conversation answered everything .

Austin519

Hey Austin,

Can you also send me PM about camber kit? I think the cambers little bit off on my back. I have H&R OE with stock shocks. Thanks.

 

[Austin519]

songoku:
It shouldn't be much with OE's. You gotten it checked out at the dealership yet? The kit's nice...but I don't know if you need it.

Austin519

 

[songoku]

songoku:
It shouldn't be much with OE's. You gotten it checked out at the dealership yet? The kit's nice...but I don't know if you need it.

Austin519

So the kit is selling at the dealership? What kind?

I definitely need camber kit on the back. (negative camber on the back)

More info please, Austin. Thanks. :bigok:

 

[Austin519]

songoku:
Sorry I confused you. What I mean is have you gotten your camber checked out at the dealership? Because they can adjust it somewhat. As for the kit to buy...you CAN just buy a rear kit from jimster716...but if you ever plan on dropping the car a lot and have the cash...I say buy the whole thing. See if this helps ya...

http://www.acuraworld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2348&highlight=camber

Austin519

 

[songoku]

songoku:
Sorry I confused you. What I mean is have you gotten your camber checked out at the dealership? Because they can adjust it somewhat. As for the kit to buy...you CAN just buy a rear kit from jimster716...but if you ever plan on dropping the car a lot and have the cash...I say buy the whole thing. See if this helps ya...

http://www.acuraworld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2348&highlight=camber

Austin519

I got 4 wheel alignment about 2 weeks after I installed my springs. And they said there is no camber adjustment on the back.
So does it means that I take my car to the dealership and have them do the alignment again?

 

[Austin519]

songoku:
I wasn't sure if there was an adjustment or not. I assumed there was because they will correct your camber if it's messed up but :dunno:. Are you asking do you have to take the car back to the shop after you install the camber kit? No. You can, if you want it to be perfect. Or you could just ask the shop for the exact amount of camber you have now, and what is spec (I want to say -.5) and adjust the kit to that before you put it on. I would suggest the latter.

Austin519

 

[DuBs_miNus_one]

H&Rs are high quality. i recommend them. i've had them on for 2 years now.