mrclean55

Well I took my civic to dealer about the bad control arm design.I bought the car 3 years ago after the technical service bulletin came out and did not know about the problem when I bought car.I missed the letter from honda to reimburse me for tires because i never got letter.The original owner probably got it and trashed it.The michelin pilot tires only had 20k on them in rear and two inches of tread on insides of both were bald.Vehicle made a roaring noise on some roads and when I told dealership they said it was road noise.Haha!They never even told me about the service bulletin, just rotated tires over and over.Finally I went to an alignment specialist after reading internet stories of this design problem.You could look at the rear of car and see how much camber was off.Tires were leaning in on inside edge real bad.So the specs came back and camber was off -3.6 on left side and -3.0 on right.It should be between -.6 to -1.0 at the most.Honda dealer offered to sell me 2 new control arms with new design and labor at $500.What a bargain!This new arm with (C) stamped on it still only brings camber in -1.00 and I needed-2.0 so I passed.I bought 2 adjustable control arms off Amazon for $125,got 2 new michelin defenders, and labor for alignment $325.At least I know the problem is fixed now.And I don't trust big boys at Honda anymore.I used to think they were the best but not true.I sent two letters to Honda Corp. and Honda dealer here in town in Louisiana and nobody offered me squat.The car had 70k on it and warranty was gone so I guess that had a lot to do with it.But still I learned before I buy another car to check out the TSB from dealer.

rd2smoker

Yep, first time I took a step back I could see the rear camber was off. Firestone said something like 3.1 L.R 3.2 R.R And yes it eats rear tires if you don't rotate all the time, I thought it was a cool twist so I never thought much more about it.... especially after the 2" drop

I also NEVER heard anything about the "fix" and I was OCD about looking for re-calls and I got letters from the dealership for 5 years, know the guys there well and never heard a thing (Not that that really means anything)...so ... interesting. Got a link to an official Honda-statement?

rd2smoker

Found this.

Client Settlement Site > Home

it was final in 2014 so that explains me not knowing about it, I sorta went off-grid...

I have an 08 and this is for 2006-2007 so might want to make some calls if you wanna stay 100% OEM. Id just go on ebay get some that adjust and skip the HASSLE of back and forth with the dealership, but that's just me.