Just thought I'd introduce myself. I just picked up an '04 RA on Saturday, and I absolutely love it! She has her issues, but nothing seems wrong mechanically. She even came modded. So far as I can tell, it feels like the suspension has been upgraded and lowered, a short throw shifter added, and it has an exhaust that's too raspy for my tastes. There may be more, but I haven't had the chance to dig too much yet. I doubt I'll do much exterior-wise, I like the clean, stock sleeper look.

So how can I go about figuring out what's been done to the suspension? That's my one weak point; I don't know much about them. I'm figuring if I pull a wheel off I can just look and see what brand of what was put on, right?

I used to own a '96 silver Eclipse with minor mods (intake, exhaust, 97-99 side skirts, painted interior, other random interior parts), but the engine blew in her, so I've been driving a hand-me-down '94 Corolla until it was the ham in a 4 car pile-up sammich.

I've been reading the forums for the last few days and getting acquainted with the community before I posted, but without further ado, here's my new girl!

 

Welcome! Your car looks clean! Post some engine bay pictures if you can.

As for the suspension, from the pictures anyway, it looks stock to me. The rear sits lower than the front. You could pull off one of the wheels and see if there are aftermarket springs or anything installed. But the way its currently sitting looks stock IMO.

You should try finding the rear bumper lip. It will complete the proper look of the car and make it stand out (even if just a little) from the base models.

 

Nice welcome to most unknown car scene lol, had a guy ask me the other day how the gas mileage was in my v6 .....I told him as good as a 4 cylinder

 

yeah looks clean...was it in a collision? cause the rear bumper looks brand new and doesn't appear as though a lip was ever there...you're among few having the front lip with no rear, most people it's the other way around

i'm with bakuro, she looks like she's sitting stock...you don't have to take the wheel off, once you jack one corner, as if to take the wheel off, you should be able to see the spring...tein are green, eibach and swift are red...not sure about others...stockers are black as per usual.

these cars stock suspension setup is among the best in its class for the time...similar handling to a sentra SER spec-v of the same vintage...so it might be bone stock and just handle better than your eclipse, cause a 2g is a heavy pig, and you really feel it on stock suspension. what trim was your 2g?

also the stock shifter IS the Evo 8 stock "short shifter".

nice car though man...***be sure to inspect the timing belt***
If you need to know about modding, there's many of us who are "in the know"...

cheers.

 

Thanks guys. Aside for a door ding or two, there's not much wrong with the body. The carfax was clean, no accidents listed, so unless it wasn't reported, it's the original bumper. I hadn't noticed it was missing the lip, I'll have to check pics and see if I want to add it or not, I kinda like it the way it is. I'll try and get some engine bay pics tomorrow, it's as clean if not cleaner than the exterior.

I was thinking it was the stock suspension, but my wife and a mechanic buddy thought it was lowered, lol. Not that it really needs to be any lower, IMO, I like it where it is. I've torn down an engine, but I know very little about suspension systems. Guess it's time to learn, right?

I'd like to to do some more performance mods down the line when I have some more money. Doubt I'll go turbo, but anything NA is fair game.

The Eclipse was just an RS, but man I loved that car.

Thanks again everyone for the warm welcome and the excellent info. I'm looking forward to taking part in the community here.

 

LMAO Nice. I had a kid in a civic at McDonalds ask me if my car was an evo. I didn't even bother explaining what it was I just said no. He then asked if it was fast. I replied with, "nope. slow as hell..." lol

Where have you been hiding at anyway? lol



Before I put on my Teins everyone asked me why i only lowered the rear end. LOL now that it is lowered no one mentions my stance... weird huh? haha Doing suspension and handling mods on this car can really bring it to life. I have done quite a few of them myself and I absolutely love it. Granted there are maybe 5 or 6 things left that I would like to try doing, but none of them have I seen attempted on the Ralliart platform yet.

Oh and about the lip thing. You can check out some of the threads in the Show and Shine section and you'll see what we are talking about. Your rear bumper has to be a replacement for some reason because it doesnt even have holes from where it would have had a lip at one point. Anyway its up to you. Again welcome!

 

Nice ride man!

Yeah that rear bumper doesn't look to be the stock one our rides come with. Likely the previous owner was rear ended and the settled it outside of insurance. It makes sense that the person who hit your RA didn't want a ding on their insurance and offered to pay for the fix out of their pocket.

As for the shocks, your ride looks stock as others are saying.

Welcome to the forum and congrats on that clean lookin whip!

 

Woot! Another RA owner! I always get excited when I see new "RA brothers". I think your car is nice and clean and SHINY as a **** lol. What's the mileage on her? Your suspension looks like mine. If you do a search, you'll find out WHY the rear sits lower:

1) Our fenders are trimmed that way. The rear wheel well is trimmed lower than the front so it looks like it's lowered in the back.
2) Rear sag. Maybe your shocks/struts are gone in the rear? Getting it looked at is your best bet.

As for the rear bumper--that's not stock. If you take a look at all of our stock rear bumpers, you'll see that there is a lip attached to it and that's the factory default for our 2004 Ralliarts. Check out my "GARAGE" through my profile or Google "2004 Ralliart" and you'll see what we are all trying to say.

If you need help with anything, we are ALL here to help! Even the ones who don't know that much *cough* ME *cough* lmfao. I learned A LOT about cars in-general in this forum. If you look at my "I just joined EvoM" posts, you'll see how I had ZERO knowledge about cars. Now, I can KIND OF throw some advice here and there. This is an amazing community, my friend.

WELCOME!

 

Welcome, welcome, and welcome! Glad to see a new guy, just when I was saying yesterday that the community is getting slim.... POP! Yay!

 

Whew, my motherboard died, so I've been computerless until today. I do see what you guys are saying about the lip. I'll have to dig around and see if I can find a lip that's not too pricey so it matches all the way around.

She's got 113,000 miles and change on her, so not too bad for a nearly 10 year old car. There's a few scuffs here and there that a good detailing might buff out, but no major scratches thankfully. The interior though is, well, not rough, but not mint. Some of the driver seat springs in the seat back are broke and poked a couple holes in the material, the trim is a bit scuffed, the driver side carpet is shredded, the only key I got with her is a cheap cut key that doesn't even work the trunk, and there's an appallingly bad Insignia stereo installed. No remote key fobs either, but I found a guide to program them myself so I can at least avoid Satan on that (is MMCC still called Satan nowadays?)

I haven't forgotten the engine bay pics either, I'll get those tomorrow morning. Thanks again for making me feel so welcome here =)

 

I came up with a simple fix for the seat springs, you need strong hands or big pliers...I had the same problem...where the wire broke, I bent the ends into loops, and then tied the loops together with aerospace grade lockwire, I didn't borrow from work...

 

I had the exact same idea for the seat springs, lol. Glad to know it will work, and I've got a bunch of wire that I didn't borrow from my old work either, that should do the job. Thanks!

 

Your cars looks clean. Welcome 😀

 

Welcome bro! Car looks really nice man! if you have any questions, feel free to drop by and get some advice. You have no clue how much this forum helped. Before I joined I didn't know what a throwout bearing was. Now I'm on my fourth tranny install on an Evo and learning to tune soon. If you have the will, there is so much to gather and learn my man!

 

Double post.