stupenal

Hey guys-

I come from a bmw background but I've decided to ditch the bmw for a newer, more comfortable, larger, economical, and cheaper to maintain most importantly, honda. I was about to go with the prelude because of its stock handling and 200hp vtec h22....but damn preludes are small, mostly in bad condition, and yeah....small. My sister owns a 98 AV6 EX in white....its a great car so I decided to get one for myself.

My old car:

1992 e36 325i 5spd blk/blk
27/20mm sways, eibach pro kit, tokico illuminas
intake, exhaust, short shift
OEM m3 front/rear bumpers
OEM clears
axxis ultimate brake pads
several sets of 17s (I think i've owned around 10 sets of wheels...and tried 15 different types of performance tires...)

New car:

01 Satin Silver 5spd i4 EX-L
Every possible option except rear wing
1 owner car (49 yr old female)
80k miles
exceptionally clean inside and out

I've done a ton of searches on this website (yes...i used the search button) but its nice to have someone guide me as to what direction I should go in.

Questions:

Can anyone tell me the stock front/rear sway bar size for my car? I'm looking to upgrade the rear bar to either 04 TL (20mm?) or 02-03 TL/CL-S (19mm?). I've heard the front swap is not really necessary for the AV6, but what about the i4?

What is the size of the stock OEM 15s? Right now the car runs on 195/55/15 tires....I'm thinking on going thicker to a 225/50/15 if possible...or 215 if 225 is too wide. Is the stock rim 15x7 or 15x6.5?

Besides the front strut bar and sways from the TL and CL, what other parts can be swapped between the cars for a cheap, OEM upgrade?

Also, where is a good place to find a OEM/replica wing? I saw some on ebay for $135ish painted. I'm not too big a fan of fleabay stuff, anyone know other cheap places? Thanks guys, look forward to being a part of this community.

AcuraFanatic

Front swaybars will swap in from the TL-S or CL-S and you'll find quite a bit of benefit. Comptech may make some stuff too, not sure. Been a while since I looked around. h:

Stock rim size is 15x7.

Swappable parts between the CL-S/TL-S are more common with V6 models, I think the swaybars are the only thing. You can probably do some interior bits too.

As for the wing, I had a site that had all OEM stuff at wholesale prices, let me try to find it.

sherwood

5 bux says he directs you to majestic auto parts

jschmid

Welcome. I'm a BMW fan myself, my buddy is an E30 freak, and I've driven a couple of his in autocross, rallycross, and as a spare car when I needed (he's got about 5-6 right now lol). I'd love an E46 but don't know if I'll ever get one because of the cost of maintanance issue, etc.

Anyway, hope you like your new car. They can be made to handle pretty decent.

To answer your questions I know for sure the rear sway bar is 16mm, I have replaced mine with a 19mm TL-S bar. I remember what the I4 front sway bar is, but I know the TL-S, or new TL 6speed bar will be proportionally bigger like the rear. As to whether you replace the front or not, depends on if you want to try to cut out a bit of understeer, etc.

I just have the rear TL-S sway bar, and that seems to be what most do, but MrChad here on the board did his rear bar to TL-S, then later did the front as well, and he said he's glad he did.

Or you could get a complete set from Eibach, Comptech, etc if you want to step it up a bit further.

The stock wheel size unfortunately is 15x6. And the stock tire size is 195/65/15 for the I4.

I have 225/40/18 on 18x7.5 for most of the year and use some 16x6 previous gen CL wheels with 205/55/16 for winter. You'll find that we kinda got screwed with the 4x114 lug pattern. The 6th gen V6s and all new 7th gens have the 5 lug pattern which allows for lots of larger Honda/Acura wheel swaps.

There are a lot of parts that could swap over from the TL-S/CL-S. One nice cheap functional mod in addition to sway bars would be the upper front strut bar for around $40-50. I have it and it's great.

With the H&R sport springs, Koni adjustables, the Type S bars, and some sticky rubber the car is a lot more fun to drive.

For the wing look online, might get a decent price at www.handaaccessories.com

Good luck.



15x6. It would be nice if it was 7" though.

AcuraFanatic

Damn, I thought it was wider than that. Like I said, been a while since I was Accord savvy, I gave up lol.

Sorry for the misinformation.

ericjackson

honestly i hate egay. but i got my stock wing off of ebay. unpainted. because you never can tell if it will match up or not. but anyways. there is a place called spoiler depot. they sell on ebay as well. anyways. mine was perfect. and actually the led light messed up from the vibration of the speakers in my trunk. and i called them. bam. one is in the mail as i type this. so imo, there a good place to buy from

stupenal

I'd rather put on both front and rear, even if the car will still understeer. Overall the handling should be tighter with thicker sways in front and rear.

As for the interior, what other acura bits can be swapped?

I saw spoiler depot on ebay, I know several bimmer guys buy replica m3 spoilers from them with good results, most likely I will go with them for mine.

As for the interior, i'm thinking about using brown bread (wannabe dynamat for cheap) to make the car more soundproof. I'm not used to the raspy 4cyl engine. Does anyone know how to apply that type of sound deadening material? I've never worked with it before. Any good links?

jschmid

Probably quite a few things...but one useful swap is the TL-S/CL-S steering wheel. This won't make as much of a difference for you since you already have a leather wheel but for us LX guys going from the molded plastic wheel to a leather/half perforated slightly thicker wheel is a great upgrade.