Ah ****. My GSR winter beater was out of commission waiting for a fuel pump, so I had to drive my B20 DC4 for a while. The whole reason I bought a winter beater, was the fact I can't fit a winter rim over the AEM big brakes.

So I'm driving to work on bald Kuhmo tires, stop to get some food, and pull out. Slid right into the curb going about 5-10 mph.

The result...the caster is way out of wack. The car does pull to one direction, but the camber and toe don't seem to be off by that much. Just the caster, which is non-adjustable. Thank God my Omni upper control arm doesn't look bent.

So what should I replace? Lower control arm and radius rod? Give me your opinion.

You can see the wheel is pushed back towards the door...



And my GSR for wheel well reference:

 

Well you won't know what's damaged until you get under there and look. It's possible that even the subframe where the LCA bolts on could have been deformed a little bit. Hopefully that's not the case.

And there are no radius rods, unless you have some kind of aftermarket traction bar setup.

 

I looked under it, and it's hard to tell. I'd have to pull the pieces and lay them next to new ones to see any noticeable bend.

By radius rod, I was referring to the piece in blue:

 

Just to add my 2 cents, when I took my old teg into a curb (at about 10mph or so) a few years back, the two parts I bent were my radius rod and lower control arm. The lower control arm didn't even look that bent, but when side by side with the good one, you could tell. As for my radius rod, you could def tell it was bent. BTW this was on my 92 teg. Got both the parts used for $50 and it fixed everything.

HTH, good luck man.

-- Kevin

Oh and I woulda posted a pic off of http://www.acuraautomotiveparts.org/ but the search isn't working so I couldn't steal, I mean borrow, a pic like I usually do

 

G2's have a slightly different front suspension that has regular linear front lower control arms (like the white part in the image above, by itself) and then radius rods that go up to the front near the radiator support.

G3's have what is pictured above, and those 2 pieces together are usually referred to as the lower A-arm, but sometimes is simply called a lower control arm.

But yeah that's most likely what is damaged if the upper control arms are fine.

 

I did the same thing in my EM1. Took it to the dealer for an alignment and camber and toe were unchanged????? I replaced the lower control arm and lowered the vehicle. After I did that I noticed a scraping/knocking sound. Turns out the CV joint was toast. So check your axle.

 

I think the upper ball joint gave enought to keep the actual arm from twisting. I just hope the actual mounts on the frame arn't twisted at all. That would suck.

I was planning on getting new wheels in the spring, so I think I might just do a ITR conversion. I saw a 4x114 on ebay with 15" wheels for 450 buy it now, plus 275 shipping. Seems like a good deal.

Anybody know what's needed? It looked like it came with the front LCA / A arm, rear trailing arm, front and rear struts and springs, and some rear piece the strut bolts into (along with all calipers and rotors).

 

i did that once... but i was going ~45 mph



i miss my crx


Modified by SlowJim at 11:52 PM 2/15/2005

 

Patrick -

Yah I kinda guessed that G2s and G3s were different, because of your first post, and the pic below it.

I just wanted to add my 2 cents so he didn't think he damaged too much, because most likely, it's not major damage. Or for his sake at least, it's not!

Thanks for the info though regardless

-- Kevin

 

bump & fixed pic