- Staff
- #21
- 56,803
- 24,170
jrotax said that the front is not needed. He advised going with just the rear for better handling
DIY 2012 Honda Civic SI Sedan Rear Eibach Sway Bar Install
- Thread starter Royce
- Start date
12CivicSI
Well-Known Member
That's a good question..I installed it, tightened everything up then took the car off the jack stands, I will ask eibach tomorrow. I am curious myself.
12CivicSI
Well-Known Member
As far as I know most guys were swapping in a larger rear sway and a smaller front to improve handling on the previous gen civic. The rear sway bar did not need to be installed under load.
TJ___90
Well-Known Member
maybe go with the package?
mongoose221
Well-Known Member
also, just a heads up to anybody installing this:
MAKE SURE YOU GREASE THE RUBBER PIECES THAT CONTACT THE BAR AT THE BRACKETS!!!!!!
i didn't use enough when i installed this on my WRX and the sway squeaked everytime i hit a decent sized bumpin the road, i had to take it off and regrease it again, it was a pain in the arse!!
MAKE SURE YOU GREASE THE RUBBER PIECES THAT CONTACT THE BAR AT THE BRACKETS!!!!!!
i didn't use enough when i installed this on my WRX and the sway squeaked everytime i hit a decent sized bumpin the road, i had to take it off and regrease it again, it was a pain in the arse!!
Yeah. That.
Redshift will probably have a package deal out with struts/springs soon.
http://www.redshiftmotorsports.com/
Redshift will probably have a package deal out with struts/springs soon.
http://www.redshiftmotorsports.com/
bigbossin
Well-Known Member
just ordered mine
have you tryed with both stiffness settings?
have you tryed with both stiffness settings?
bigbossin
Well-Known Member
i ran lower holes and it was nice
Sinub
Well-Known Member
The little frame u took off, do u even need it or did u leave it off
MarkA
Well-Known Member
I just installed the 22mm Progress rear sway bar on my 2012 Si Sedan, using this DIY as a guide.
First off, I am not a "greaser" by any stretch. I don't even change my own oil. (I could, but it is so much easier to let the local Quick Lube do it). I have recently started taking my car to the track, and doing some of my own wrenching to make the car more track-worthy. What follows is some of my thoughts on the install.
Firstly, before you do anything, pull your car out of the garage and sweep the floor! You are going to be spending a lot of time laying on your back, and every little tiny pebble is going to be digging into the back of your head!
I took the rear tires off. It probably wasn't necessary, but I figured it would give me more degrees of freedom. If you are going to be tracking your car, you will be pulling the wheels off and on A LOT. So, it pays to have an easy method. I recently splurged for a DeWalt 18 volt cordless drill and impact driver set. You can buy an adapter that fits in the impact driver, and accepts a 1/2" socket on the other end. It makes getting lug nuts off and on very quick. For $30, you can buy a 1/2" drive torque wrench at Walmart that you can use to torque the nuts to the factory spec of 80 ft-lbs.
Jacking the rear of the Si is a bit of an issue. My (cheap) floor jack doesn't go far enough to lift the car far enough when you use the rear recovery hook as the jack point. So, I use the front, behind wheel well, jack point to lift the rear tires off the ground. I put the jack stand under the rear, in front of wheel well jack point. I take the tire off, and put the jack under the lower suspension arm. I use that jack point to raise the rear even further, so I can raise the level of the jack stand for more clearance to work under the car. I then let the car back down onto the jack stand.
I have gotten into the habit of using a block of wood between the jack and the car. Some jack points are not quite flat or even, so it provides a little cushion. Make sure the wood is oriented so the grain is being compressed, not split. To get the wood, I went to my local home improvement store. In the back, they trim lumber for customers, and have a bin of scraps they will let you have for the asking.
As this thread points out, there are several pieces of plastic under the rear of the car that need to be removed. They use very cool little press connectors, in addition to 10mm screws. To remove the connectors, you pry up the central button, using a small screwdriver, and the whole thing then pops out easily. I tried getting the old sway bar out without removing the brace that's under the gas tank, and couldn't do it.
It was no big deal getting the old bar out. The threads on the end links were quite rusted, but with some PB Blaster, it was only moderately annoying to remove the nuts. The Progress sway bar comes with reinforcing plates that go where the end link attaches to the lower arm, so you wind up having to take both nuts off each end link. The PB Blaster sprays pretty far, and from under the car it can be hard to tell exactly where it is going to go, so make sure you don't have anything in the line of fire that shouldn't be sprayed. In retrospect, it would have been worth it to buy a pair of upgraded end links, just to have less rusty threads.
In addition to the Progress sway bar, I bought the "Energy Suspension" greaseable bushings, as suggested by Nix. You only need "one", because they come with two bushings per packet. I ordered "two", so I now have an extra pair, if anyone wants them. The grease connector on the left bushing doesn't have a lot of clearance between it and the rear of the fuel tank, but it does fit. I don't know if you'll be able to get a grease gun in there, though.
Installing the new bar went without a hitch. It comes with reinforcing plates, and the option to drill a second hole in the mounting plate for a second bolt. I was planning to do that, but my drill is too long to fit the space needed to drill in the proper direction. So, no second bolt. Also, while every other bolt in this project is either 10 mm or 14 mm, the bolt for the reinforcement plate is 13 mm. You will also need a 13 mm open end wrench to hold the nut while you tighten the bolt.
So, I put back the brace, shield, and plastic covers removed to get to the bar, put the wheels back on, and went for a drive. Using the "freeway exit ramp test", cornering is much flatter, and the car feels more "tight" overall. It's probably placebo effect, but I still like it. The real test will come the next time I'm on the track, hopefully later this month. Turn 7 at Watkins Glen is a 180 degree right hand turn that starts up a long hill. If you are slow on the entry to the turn, you can't get that speed back until you get to the top of the hill. In the Si, if you try to enter the turn too fast, you just plow straight ahead, enjoying the understeer that the stock Si is famous for. If a thicker rear sway bar lets me enter that turn a few mph faster, I should be able to trim a few seconds off my lap time. In fact, that one turn was my main motivation for the rear sway bar upgrade.
Summary: even for a newbie car mechanic, replacing the rear sway bar was not hard at all. It seems obvious now, but cars really are just lots of things bolted to other things, and if you have a decent set of wrenches, some capacity for problem solving, and some patience, you can do quite a bit yourself.
First off, I am not a "greaser" by any stretch. I don't even change my own oil. (I could, but it is so much easier to let the local Quick Lube do it). I have recently started taking my car to the track, and doing some of my own wrenching to make the car more track-worthy. What follows is some of my thoughts on the install.
Firstly, before you do anything, pull your car out of the garage and sweep the floor! You are going to be spending a lot of time laying on your back, and every little tiny pebble is going to be digging into the back of your head!
I took the rear tires off. It probably wasn't necessary, but I figured it would give me more degrees of freedom. If you are going to be tracking your car, you will be pulling the wheels off and on A LOT. So, it pays to have an easy method. I recently splurged for a DeWalt 18 volt cordless drill and impact driver set. You can buy an adapter that fits in the impact driver, and accepts a 1/2" socket on the other end. It makes getting lug nuts off and on very quick. For $30, you can buy a 1/2" drive torque wrench at Walmart that you can use to torque the nuts to the factory spec of 80 ft-lbs.
Jacking the rear of the Si is a bit of an issue. My (cheap) floor jack doesn't go far enough to lift the car far enough when you use the rear recovery hook as the jack point. So, I use the front, behind wheel well, jack point to lift the rear tires off the ground. I put the jack stand under the rear, in front of wheel well jack point. I take the tire off, and put the jack under the lower suspension arm. I use that jack point to raise the rear even further, so I can raise the level of the jack stand for more clearance to work under the car. I then let the car back down onto the jack stand.
I have gotten into the habit of using a block of wood between the jack and the car. Some jack points are not quite flat or even, so it provides a little cushion. Make sure the wood is oriented so the grain is being compressed, not split. To get the wood, I went to my local home improvement store. In the back, they trim lumber for customers, and have a bin of scraps they will let you have for the asking.
As this thread points out, there are several pieces of plastic under the rear of the car that need to be removed. They use very cool little press connectors, in addition to 10mm screws. To remove the connectors, you pry up the central button, using a small screwdriver, and the whole thing then pops out easily. I tried getting the old sway bar out without removing the brace that's under the gas tank, and couldn't do it.
It was no big deal getting the old bar out. The threads on the end links were quite rusted, but with some PB Blaster, it was only moderately annoying to remove the nuts. The Progress sway bar comes with reinforcing plates that go where the end link attaches to the lower arm, so you wind up having to take both nuts off each end link. The PB Blaster sprays pretty far, and from under the car it can be hard to tell exactly where it is going to go, so make sure you don't have anything in the line of fire that shouldn't be sprayed. In retrospect, it would have been worth it to buy a pair of upgraded end links, just to have less rusty threads.
In addition to the Progress sway bar, I bought the "Energy Suspension" greaseable bushings, as suggested by Nix. You only need "one", because they come with two bushings per packet. I ordered "two", so I now have an extra pair, if anyone wants them. The grease connector on the left bushing doesn't have a lot of clearance between it and the rear of the fuel tank, but it does fit. I don't know if you'll be able to get a grease gun in there, though.
Installing the new bar went without a hitch. It comes with reinforcing plates, and the option to drill a second hole in the mounting plate for a second bolt. I was planning to do that, but my drill is too long to fit the space needed to drill in the proper direction. So, no second bolt. Also, while every other bolt in this project is either 10 mm or 14 mm, the bolt for the reinforcement plate is 13 mm. You will also need a 13 mm open end wrench to hold the nut while you tighten the bolt.
So, I put back the brace, shield, and plastic covers removed to get to the bar, put the wheels back on, and went for a drive. Using the "freeway exit ramp test", cornering is much flatter, and the car feels more "tight" overall. It's probably placebo effect, but I still like it. The real test will come the next time I'm on the track, hopefully later this month. Turn 7 at Watkins Glen is a 180 degree right hand turn that starts up a long hill. If you are slow on the entry to the turn, you can't get that speed back until you get to the top of the hill. In the Si, if you try to enter the turn too fast, you just plow straight ahead, enjoying the understeer that the stock Si is famous for. If a thicker rear sway bar lets me enter that turn a few mph faster, I should be able to trim a few seconds off my lap time. In fact, that one turn was my main motivation for the rear sway bar upgrade.
Summary: even for a newbie car mechanic, replacing the rear sway bar was not hard at all. It seems obvious now, but cars really are just lots of things bolted to other things, and if you have a decent set of wrenches, some capacity for problem solving, and some patience, you can do quite a bit yourself.
Last edited:
MarkA
Well-Known Member
Here's the Progress 22 mm rear sway bar next to the stock, 15 mm rear bar.
Here's the difference between the bushings that come with the Progress sway bar (top), and the Energy Suspension greaseable bushing. Despite the fact that the greaseable bushing is HUGE compared to the other, there is plenty of room for them. Getting my torque wrench onto the upper bolt of the left bushing was a challenge, but doable. I wonder if, when they design a car, they consider where wrenches will fit?
Here's the difference between the bushings that come with the Progress sway bar (top), and the Energy Suspension greaseable bushing. Despite the fact that the greaseable bushing is HUGE compared to the other, there is plenty of room for them. Getting my torque wrench onto the upper bolt of the left bushing was a challenge, but doable. I wonder if, when they design a car, they consider where wrenches will fit?
Great to hear Mark! Thanks for the comparison pics.
It was definitely a tight fit! I actually threaded it through upside down originally. I thought about taking the gas tank bracket off, but I actually had a full tank of gas. I ended up disconnecting the axle-back and pushing it up a little bit. Gave me just enough room for clearance. One thing I think that helped was getting the car as high as possible in the air on the jack stands as well as removing the tires.
You can find Moog for $60ish or less and wouldn't need to put the car on jack stands. Just jack it up and remove a tire.
I ended up drilling it from the rear of the car at a slight in and up angle from underneath the car. Worked out great.
Bombshock
Member
Yes you should always torque sway bars, and in fact most suspension/steering components while under vehicle load. good job on doing this!
Pauly99to17
Well-Known Member
Should car be under load when doing this?
Load or no load. Doesn't matter.