I recently received a set of Megan lower front h-brace and lower rear tie bar for my civic Si. I have always been a huge fan of chassis braces for my Hondas, but I was skeptical of the effectiveness of this mod because of the stiffness in the new civic chassis.
The installation was straight forward. Basic hand tools, a jack and a set of jack stands, would be all you need to do this install. The only difficult part of the lower h-brace installation is the pair of exceptionally long 17mm bolts, which holds the front sub frame of the car to chassis. The rear bar installation is quite easy. The only exception is with a fitment issue for the rear valence around the lower rear tie-bar. I was not willing to give up the factory rear valance for a lower tie bar, so I trimmed the rear valance a little bit and it fits perfectly around the rear bar.
My current suspension setup is a set of Megan Coilovers, which are set at front 13 and rear 17 for street driving. A fairly mild alignment setup with a little bit more rear toe. I am also running a Progress rear sway bar with a factory front sway bar and factory end links.
After installing the strut braces, I noticed an improvement in tracking and a substantial increase in stiffness in the front and rear end. When taking high speed sweeper, I found the vehicle was more stable. And with quick direction changes, the car seems to want to turn in quicker; not actually turn quicker, but react quicker to the changes in direction. With stock suspension I can not imagine the difference being that noticeable but with aftermarket shocks and springs, the difference is definitely noticeable.
The stiffness in the rear is definitely improved. I immediately noticed that the rear suspension was not flexing as much. My rear suspension problem with the Megan coilover rear springs was amplified. Due the lack of suspension travel with the current rear springs, the rear suspension “bangs” when it runs out of travel. Now this problem occurs more frequently, which leads me to conclude that whatever travel I was getting from the rear end flexing is no long happening due to the rear lower bar holding the rear suspension from flexing. I hope my replacement rear springs will arrive soon, but that is another post. The rear end is somewhat “twitchy” on high speed sweepers. I may need to stiffen up the front shocks or soften the rear shocks to compensate for the “twitchiness” of the rear end.
All in all, I think this is a worthwhile mod, but not a first suspension mod. I already have a Carbing upper tower bar on order, and I am looking for upper rear tower bar options. Hopefully, the Carbing bar will get me even more high speed stability and quicker turning response.