Thought i would share one of my customers' cars with you Element guys. He informed me that his rear camber was progressively getting more negative as time went on. After some inspection this is what i find:






A new subframe and some reinforcement:





How common is this? Anyone seen or heard of this? The tearing occurred on both sides.
His Element is lowered with GC coilovers and is sitting on 20" 5Zigen wheels.
I suspect the damage was due to the weight of the rim/tire combo.

 

damn, my element isn't lowered, but i'm gonna take a look at my rear subframe for the hell of it. I haven't heard of any other people experiencing this problem.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hionvtecxda6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">damn, my element isn't lowered, but i'm gonna take a look at my rear subframe for the hell of it. I haven't heard of any other people experiencing this problem.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I went on an Element board (forgot the name) and just did a quick search for subframe or rear suspension and nothing came up. The car sounded horrible when u drove it...it would creak like no other.

 

I run 19's and 20's on my crv and it has no problems. Are the upper arms hitting the body?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by luciferi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I run 19's and 20's on my crv and it has no problems. Are the upper arms hitting the body?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I did find evidence that contact was made bewteen the UCA and the body (nothing major, but contact nonetheless). At the time it was difficult to tell if it was a result of the torn subframe. What i really need to do is drop the shocks out and raise the rear suspension until it lifts the car up. I will talk the owner into paying me to do that, lol.

Either way, it shouldnt be coming into contact with the body. Size of rims and lowering shouldnt cause this and the bumpstops in the shock and the length of the shock itself should prevent this. Correct me if im wrong?

 

I am lowered 5" with shorter shocks and my uca hit the body. The crv body is a little different though. It looks to me from the pics that the tear is happening when it decompresses. Maybe, too stiff of springs or the uca arm too short. What shock/spring and uca are you using? The uca angles are stupid when the car is low. Actually the whole suspension design is pretty stupid.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by luciferi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I am lowered 5" with shorter shocks and my uca hit the body. The crv body is a little different though. It looks to me from the pics that the tear is happening when it decompresses. Maybe, too stiff of springs or the uca arm too short. What shock/spring and uca are you using? The uca angles are stupid when the car is low. Actually the whole suspension design is pretty stupid.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The car is lowered a decent amount. You can kind of see the car in the background but i will snap a pic of it tomorrow.

Judging from the numbers on the springs, the spring rate seems very low. KYB shocks are in the back. UCA's are the Eibach type which have adjustability for camber. If anything, the UCA is now longer b/c they have been adjusted to correct the negative camber and were already adjusted before the tear occurred.

 

I work at honda and no ones ever ordered that part here before. so it must not be too common..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ChickenH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I work at honda and no ones ever ordered that part here before. so it must not be too common..</TD></TR></TABLE>


Thanks for the info.