Brakes, clutch, engine and other GENIUS' wanted in here.....kids step away
 

..yeah so here are my issue's....

first issue is my clutch/engine...i noticed that recently that when i down shift from 3rd to 2nd i feel this vibration like my car is going to stall but not close..not like a deep hard vibration but i could say it feels very much like if you had your car rolling on first gear and you shift into 3rd instead of 2nd, the result is a jerky vibration and then very slow increase in revs..right....what does this mean? i had my clutches installed at 125km's and its only at 155,000km as of today.

what needs to be looked at?


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second being my brakes..i have a 96 si....i want better ones so i either need to go big brake kit or i could simply go with rear disc brakes..

big brake kits..expensive and then i will need new rims..no mood for this...

i would rather get rear disc brakes...so how much am i looking to spend here now?...non abs ofcourse and 4 bolt...

what parts do i need??
please also post prices for labour approximates as well.


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slight mods to my car..nothing too ricey or weird looking...

would like my headlights in the front black or darkened but not affect the lighting of a stock bulb on to the surface the light is projected onto.

if anyone has parts available or know where i can get somehting decent that would be great.

as for projector knock-offs...how good are those? i have seen some on ebay that sorta look like BMW fronts...do they work or look as well as the pictures make them seem to look??


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also looking for a short ram intake for a 96 honda civic Si sohc vtec
please email me at russeld@sympatico.ca

thanks in advance for your input everyone.

Russ


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getting rear discs will not make your braking better. what's the sizes of the stock disc of the 96 si? same size as the sir? if so just get some aggressive pads like hawk HP+ and call it a day. don't spend $$ on a big brake kit if your car is just a dd. if you use a big brake kit you won't be able to use your stock steelies for winter because the rotors will be so damn big. rear disc parts go for around 250 complete? i got my integra brake conversion done on my car for about 300 bucks.

10.3" is the size of your rotors, I believe.

I would recommend brembo blanks with EBC greenstuff pads. That is the set-up I will be running. A few people recommended it to me.. they said it's awesome for daily driving and still stops pretty damn well. Rear discs are a waste IMO, I would just upgrade the fronts.

Now if you're running serious power.. I would go with a better set-up.. but for a daily driver ebc pads and blanks will do fine.

As for your headlights.. I have a pair of projectors I'm selling. I'm not sure if you are interested. $200 if you give me your OEM's. You mentioned you wanted to darken your headlights.. a lot of people "smoke" their EK headlights. I believe there is a write-up on the DIY section.

EDIT: here is the link
DIY

If your looking to get better braking. You might want to upgrade your tires to something that has a more aggressive tread.

For a short ram intake. Well just get a cheap ebay one and go to Cdn Tire and buy a K&N cone filter. Also here's some good information on intakes TPRMAG

braking:
upgrading to rear disc is very useless because braking applications are not set 50/50. and all rear disc conversions come with abs however you dont have to hook it up.

headlights:
black em out yourself. aftermarket projectors dont have a good beam pattern and a good cut off

short ram:
waste of money. get cold air atleast. imo i wouldnt modify a dseries unless your plannin on building it up. but its your car your money.

not modding my civic for performance but i was hoping through trial and error and general knowledge that allowing an engine to breath better will give me better fuel mileage..

i hate modifying civics coz its pointless and i have been through it and i'm too old for it.

what do i need to get better fuel mileage..right now i get about 380-400 per gas tank.

is this normal..anything i should check or replace or should replace.

thanks for all the input guys...

short ram and cold ait will give you basically the same amount of performance gain. short ram is cheaper, jus get that.

any opinions about the engine clutch part????

got any pricings?

EBC....mmm is there any specific model...does ebc make clutches by any chance?

they sound familiar..i think they also make motorcycle clutches...am i right?

I wouldn't even bother with the rotors. If your mechanically inclined changing a set of rotors is not hard, thefore I suggest this set-up.

EBC greens up front on an overseas brand of rotor. People here will scream hen they hear me say that but, :shrugs: . You can get the rotors for $20 each and they actually last for awhile. Mine have lasted almost a year with my EBC's. Oh and EBC's are less than $100 and as long as you break them in they last for awhile. Keep your stock drums, mine have over 300,000K and still have life left, plus you don't have to worry about calipers seizing and what not.

Personally I would stay away from ebay lights they have a lot of problems and melt, plus you get bent over for the shipping. Look for a quality set of used lights like what was posted above, yes they cost more but they are worth it. Or just run those damn blue bulbs like everyone else, can't bet them join them right?

Short-arms are generaly a waste of money and probably won't see a perfomance or gas mileage increase. Just upgrade you filter or remove the airbox and run your stock one, it's the same thing.

putting an air intake would technically rob a little more gas.
reason? people tend to accelerate etc more just to hear the noise etc....

better gas milage = complete tune up that will give you the most available....400 km per tank is pretty low what do u rev and shift at?

from what i hear short ram sucks in hot air thoo.
i rather have it sucking in cold air.

im not gonna get into a whole debate about it but air is not stationary in the engine bay, it comes from under the hood and is not that hot, plus sucking air from a hot road in the summer is no better. cai has more distance to travel so air heats up in the tube, since it does go through the bay aswell, plus it has more bends to decrease velocity. wai has minimal bends for increased velocity and the air temp is similar when it reaches the engine. its all in your head. if you want the same performance for less money, get short ram, if you wanna be able to say i have cold air, get cold air, its a matter of preference, but the 0.1 difference between the 2 is not worth the difference in price.

not driving around with your foot to the floor everywhere you go = better fuel mileage.

as everyone else said about the brakes... don't bother with rear discs. fronts do most of the braking anyway.

try some heel and toe action when down shifting. if you get the same problem then you may want to look into it further. otherwise, try to be more clear with describing the problem. you are making it a bit confusing.

in regards to the breaks, all you need to stop better are hawk hp pads, brembo blanks, and some stainless steel braided lines.. you dont need to swap to a rear disc. Drums are easier to maintain.

as for your engine doing that vibration..it can be two things...engine mounts may be shot, or it could be something in your tranny. Stop downshiftng..you can use the brakes to slow down. A brake job is way cheaper than a new tranny..trust me..i've had to take mine out a couple times already.

Vibrations = possible engine mounts, it would be considered normal if you have light weight flywheel, or a very graby clutch.

Brakes = I find the best combination to be drilled or sloted rotors, SS brake lines and HP+ pads. Rear disc conversion if you can do it cheap enough. :thumbup:

for daily driving dont go cross drilled or slotted..there is not use, and they will eat your pads up so fast u will be broke just buying brake pads..especially if you get rears rotors.

if you do get read discs u should ugrade you master cylinder too, so that your rotors in the back do more braking that your drums used to do.


ive herd good htings about brembo blanks, and hawk pads, and your tires does make a big difference as well, shi!tty tires= Sh!tty braking.

400k's a tank? My 98 Si was getting 500 minimum, so you might need a good tune up.

now that pisses me off knowing i get such bad mileage..i'm doing full freakin tune up this weekend..plugs wires..fuel filter..air filter..

am i missing out on anything?

what part are you confused with?:confused:

how much for these hp pads or hawk pads? and how much are the brmbo blanks????

what are the best brand of plugs and wires?

not looking to get the best looks out of these cables..no fancy smancy colors..no chrome or any type of bling..lol

just the best cables...do'n't even care about performance just looking to get INSANE FUEL MILEAGE!

Clutch problem can be related to alot of different issues.

1) possibly engine mounts depending on how violent the shake in the engine
2) If part of the clutch material has seperated (ie broken rivets) then your clutch will develope alot of heavy vibration and when under load for awhile it will slip very easily.

With brakes, you get what you pay for. If you want decent DD brakes just do cross drilled rotors on Hawk, or another form of performance pads.

If you want circuit then big brakes are the way to go if you experience alot of brake fade under high speed corners.

Rear discs will help your braking distance, but the most dramatic effects will be realized by modifying the front brake portion of the braking system.

I have a set of Front GS-R brakes for sale for $100. The setup is complete with hubs, calipers & bearings, but you will require new pads & rotors.

GS-R brakes have a larger diameter then stock brakes but will still allow enough clearance for a 14" wheel. An excellent & inexpensive brake upgrade.

I have a shop in pickering if you are looking for a spot to have everything changed over.

PM me if your interested.

OEM, cap, rotor, plug wires, spark plugs, fuel filter, oil filter and tranny fluid. Grab some fresh oil and coolant from canadian tire and then have a mechanic change all that stuff for you if you cant do it yourself.

anything OEM is best for your car.
no aftermarket company will beat it unless they specifically targeted fuel milage.

why would he need cross drilled for dd? not like he's going fast enough and brakes enough to benefit from the cooling effect of those rotors. just grab blanks because they are cheaper and hawk hp pads. there's 3 different types of hawks i believe. there's the more aggressive than stock street pad, hp+ which is a streetable/autox pad, and an all out race pad. for your application, just get the street pads because you won't need hp+ or the race pads. but if you track your car then that's a different story cuz the hp+ will hold more temperature.

If your not going to go with cross drilled or slotted rotors, then I would just get any blank rotors. Not to say that Brembo's are crap, but the questions is do you need them? Every time you change your brake pads, the rotors should be machined ($20-30). Removing material from your rotors, can cause them to warp easier. So rather then machining them, just get new ones. :cheers:

vented rotors rust from within right? the brembos are zinc plated inside out so wouldn't that mean they prevent the insides from rusting out as fast as normal stock ones? i have brembo slotted rotors on mine but i want to try the blank ones next because mine warped pretty fast.

CAD coated rotors are definetly beter, and what your saying is true they don't rust as fast. But like I said, if you change your pads and rotors at the same time everytime then you should not have a rusting issue.

As for the warping issue, I would probably go with somthing like Power Stops (drilled + CAD coated), or Bear Rotors. We've been using them for a long time and have had no issues, even with Hawk Blues under track conditions. If you wanna save $$$ then go with Rototech's they are cheap and the work well (no issues yet) but they are not coated. Which in my opinion is ok if your not using them in the winter. If you want you can even high heat paint them if you mask properly.

:cheers:

Thank You, same way I put it. They are unnecessary for the majority of people. At under $20 each can't go wrong.

:thumbup:

thanks for the info

Read this.

http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1437507

bald tires now...on a dry warm day wouldn't it stop better than tires with deeper threads?

reason i say this is cause because a bald tire will have more rubber touching the ground than a brand new tire.

i know its an extreme but isn't it right..more rubber touching the ground more friction it will cause therefore stopping faster?

^ thats sounds correct to me

however maybe bald tires dont grib aswell because they are too smooth

example: a big flat peice of metal vs. a jagged peice of metal, which will cause more friction.

i know thats very extreme and metal is nothing like rubber

^^^^true^^^^