So i had a nasty clunk in my front end of my 90 Civic Si, after looking over everythign i came to the conclusion that it was the rack end bushing. So i swap it out, put it back together and crawl underneath the car to re-install the clamp that holds the inner tie rod boot on, and low and behold i find a crack all the way front to back on the crossmember, has anyone else seen anything like this? What a pain in the *** it is to get out too!

 

Yeah it is pretty common, it happened to me in my CRX. I replaced it with a used one and car was good.

 

I rebuilt my entire rack and pinion and am still getting the clunking. I ahve replaced cross-members before. They are very weak in the EF chassis cars. Im going to check for crack when it goes back on the lift.

 

Weird, I replaced it years back when i hit a curb in the winter, this is why i was so surprised to see it was [freak]ed again. Maybe i will weld some extra support into it..Think a lower tie bar will help stop some of the flexing and prevent it at all?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by stillsmokey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Weird, I replaced it years back when i hit a curb in the winter, this is why i was so surprised to see it was [freak]ed again. Maybe i will weld some extra support into it..Think a lower tie bar will help stop some of the flexing and prevent it at all?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Is it rusted or something?

 

It's kinda in bad shape underneath the sway bar mounts, but where it cracked there is no rust at all. I'll snap some pics later.

 

...these aren't cracking out of nowhere tho right? there was some sort of rough road or accident involved correct?

 

No, there was no incident since i swapped in the new one. It's been stored inside for 4 years, and the new one was installed maybe 6 months before i stored it. I'm running a b18b turbo, could the combination of a heavier engine, high horsepower be the issue? I don't want something like this to happen again..

 

I should probably also mention that i've got an aftermarket front cross member on it as well, maybe that is exerting extra stress on the front end?