Hey
Quick question was working one of my cars lowering it. I got to the last strut and the bottom bolt will not come out. I am using an impact gun and still nothing. IDK whats up its the 3rd car i've dropped in the last day and a half so i am pretty upset.

Basically what should i do? CUT the bolt off? I was thinking either that or just go an get another rear strut and just cut off the bottom forks of mine?

LMK what u guys think

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mister Jew &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hey
Quick question was working one of my cars lowering it. I got to the last strut and the bottom bolt will not come out. I am using an impact gun and still nothing. IDK whats up its the 3rd car i've dropped in the last day and a half so i am pretty upset.

Basically what should i do? CUT the bolt off? I was thinking either that or just go an get another rear strut and just cut off the bottom forks of mine?

LMK what u guys think</TD></TR></TABLE>

a fellow orlandoian!
frozen LCA bolts are quite common on hondas, especially if theyy were from up north.

what i did on my 93 hatch and on other cars as well, i just dropped the LCA (and sometimes strut) with the frozen bolt and replaced it with another one with new bolts.

 

bolt oil always helps

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CAM0FLAG3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">bolt oil always helps</TD></TR></TABLE>

if a impact gun isn't working, neither will oil.

 

This happened to my friends prelude when we were doing his LCAs, what we did was put the car on a lift and used a breaker bar to unbolt it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TRi*EK4 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This happened to my friends prelude when we were doing his LCAs, what we did was put the car on a lift and used a breaker bar to unbolt it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yes that can work, but those are exception to the rules. most of the time the head breaks of the bolt, then you are back to doing this:
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by philosofy1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
i just dropped the LCA (and sometimes strut) with the frozen bolt and replaced it with another one with new bolts.</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

Hmm, ic i guess i just got lucky

 

It's probably seized onto the bushing, meaning you have to get a new one pressed into the LCA.

 

idk maybe i should just drop the LCA and just get a new LCA and strut? i dont drive the car so it doesnt really matter just dropped it today since i was dropping my si an gsr. thanx though for all the info guys i appreciate it

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EK_B &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It's probably seized onto the bushing, meaning you have to get a new one pressed into the LCA. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Ding ding ding, we have a winner!

 

I'm having the same problem on my eg hatch. The right rear will not move even with bolt oil and an impact gun. I was thinking of taking it to a place where they can try and loosen it for me.

 

wow, when i did my 95 the bolts seized in the bushings. but i didnt have that much trouble. i was at school and one of the other kids broke the bolt for me after i told him not to mess with it because it was goin to break. go figure. so i had to replace the bushings. i dont want to do that again w/o a lift. and i was afraid of taking the whole control arm off incase the other bolts wouldve broken.

 

How much did that cost you?

 

the bushings were $25 each from honda. i had to get one for each side. but they were a pain in the *** lol. next time ill spend the extra $50 for after market control arms.

 

You are going to break the bolt one way or the other. Just buy any bushings than need replacing and plan on doing that.

 

Use about a 3 + foot breaker bar (never failed me), if that doesn't loosen it hopefully it will break it off for you

 

yea mine froze as well. I had a bitch of a time getting it out. The head snapped. I dont really remember how i got it out tho. The bolt that connects the lca to the rta is also frozen on mine. I need to get that loose so i can swap my lcas.

 

Good luck with that, that bolt is gunna break. Break it real quick and get to the drilling, thats what i have done numerous times because for some reason, this tends to happen alot to older hondas...

 

damn. i think you guys need new impact guns.

 

I was using a fairly new gun. If its frozen, its stuck regardless of what you use. I gonna try and take it to a shop and have them deal with the headache.

 

Like I said earlier, use a breaker bar. **** get a 1.5" diameter piece of steel pipe (or anything that will fit around a socket wrench handle preferably 1/2" drive).make sure its at least 3 ft long, put around the socket wrench handle, stand on it (may take some slight hopping) and break the bolt loose. I've worked on numerous hondas with frozen bolts and not once have I had to use a torch or drill out a bolt because of this method. **** most the time I don't even have to stand on it.

 

when i run across this problem i try to just remove the strut and lower control arm as a unit. the lower control arm to body and to knuckle are usually less likely to break. this doesnt work of coarse if you are changing the strut, only if you are changing springs.

 

last time i tried to bang it out with a hammer and i damaged the bushing and ended up replacing the bolt and bushing. damn

 

Unfortunately, I can't stand on it because its the right rear lca or passenger side rear lca which turns counter clockwise. I will try and get a large breaker bar.

 

like i said before get a better impact. if your impact doesnt loosen or break it its to weak.