I’m putting this here because I believe its EF/ED specific rather than the suspension forum.

A while back, I remember reading a thread regarding Integra rear lower control arms. Apparently some people where having problems with this “pushing” the wheel out a little farther than it was originally. I can’t find this thread anymore.

I used Integra rear lower control arms when I did my rear brake swap years ago. My passenger side rear tire sits almost ½ and inch farther out that my drivers side. The car has never been in an accident. I can only conclude that this has something to do with the Integra Control arms that came out of the junkyard with my brake swap.

Is there anything else this could be, before I go and pick up some civic LCAs to swap this back with? Anyone else experience this? Any ideas are welcome, as I’m stumped. This is causing me tons of headaches as my passenger side rubs around hard corners with someone in the car.

Help!

 

you should never use any control arms from another car.

other than your subframe being damaged, are you even sure the two trailing arms are the same? integra trailing arms put the rear wheels further out, i think. they could also be damaged anyway.


so put the stock arms on regardless. its not correct otherwise.

 

Tyson

I think this was the gist of that thread as well. After tons of people using them, some were finding that there were some diffrences, and theat they did stick out a little more. Its odd that mine is only doing it on the one side.

I am positive there is no damage to the car. Maybe I just dont remeber but I used the stock LCA on one side and the teg on the other? I sure hope not, but I really cant remeber.

Ill source out some stock LCAs and hopfully that will solve the issue. If anyone has anything else to add, please post up. Anyone else experience this and can verify?

 

which integra did you get the rear brakes from?

 

If I rember correctly, it was a 92-93 LS. It was so long ago its hard to remeber at this point.

 

yeah, dont use those control arms at all.

not entirely directed at you, but why do ppl use controls arms from another car? when doing brake swaps, just use the knuckle and trailing arm. dont swap anything else!

 

I think if i remeber right it was becouse we were lazy and under the impression they were the same. Live and learn I guess?

Are the 94+ cars closer or somthing? I remeber reading over an over again that the teg arms where the same as the EF/ED civic. Am I way off here?

 

yeah, DC/EG control arms are the same length... from what i've measured. but DA are definitely different.

 

Bringing this back from the dead. Still looking for a solution, here’s what I can confirm.

Rear LCAs are the same left to right, look to be the original DX arms the car came with.

Looks like when installing the brake conversion, trailing arms from the Integra were used (I can see the yellow dot from the auto wrecker on both of them). Visibly, the trailing arms look the same both left and right.

I measured the length on the upper control arm, and they seem to be the same also.

Visibly nothing looks damaged, and being the third owner of the car, I am 99.9% sure the car was never in an accident. No signs of welding from anything can be seen on the chassis in the area, or any sign of any previous damage.

So why is the passenger side wheel sticking out farther than the driver side, enough to cause rubbing?

1) Is it possible that I have two different generations of rear trailing arm assembly from the Integra (I didn’t pull them off the car myself), like 90-93 vs 94+, and if so, could this cause one side to stick out farther than the other? Is there a visible difference in the trailing arm that I would notice?
2) Is there something else that anyone can think of to measure or check to be the cause of this?

This is a real problem as during spirited driving, the passenger rear tire is getting chewed up. It gets really bad if I have someone in the car with me. Any constructive ideas are welcome!

As a side note, it is not the wheels, as I have gone through several sets with diffrent tire combos, and get the same result.

 

yeah you got it from a wrecker they could have got one trailing arm from one car and one from another to make a set. usually the labourers in the back removing parts dont pay attention. one time we ordered a h22 trans and they sent over a b18 trans...another time we asked for 88-91 ef vents and they sent us 87 style vents....

maybe you can get a frame inspection from a collision shop or an alingment shop to rule out any frame issues. the rear subframe where the lca bolts onto, i know can be removed by drilling out the spot welds and re welded, so it could have been done early in the cars life and unbeknowst to you....or it could just be a mish mash of parts....

good luck to you and i hope you post the results.

BTW i have a few extra sets of rear disc trailing arms if you wanna check them out to see if there the same as yours...one of them is off a crx, i have another set thats on my crx which is off of a da but i used the ef lcas and toe.

 

Wow, thanks for the offer. Ill hit you up in a PM!

 

take the rotor off. the hubs should be visibly different if theyre from a different car.

double check the front compensator arm. see if theyre the same too.

 

Make sure that the bolt that hold the hub/bearing asmbly aren't funky looking "out of center" (when I did my sedan'z rear swap,one of the trailing arm'z I installed had been pulled from a wrecked car obviously,and had wheel all sitting stupid after I installed) After I removed it,and went over everything in my head,I looked at the main center bolt and it was wack! out of center.Went + pulled another one and replaced and everything looked normal then.Definitely didn't notice until installed,but like I said-it made the wheel waaaaay crooked and shiz! (juzt a thought)

 

Maybe what happened was they couldn't get one of the bolts off the knuckle/LCA; so one side has Civic LCA and the other side has Integra LCA?

 

Bigz, I dont think thats it, but good looking out.

K2e2vin, Im thinking thats totally possible too, altough im not sure how to tell the diffrence at this pont.

Tyson, Good idea, Ill check the hubs tommorow. I probally should have thought of that sooner. Im not sure what you mean by "front compensator arm"?

 

toe arm.

the DA lower control arm is visibly different. the shock bushing is much closer to the outer bushing. it would be obvious if they were not the same. and the car would not sit evenly if they were different.

DC/EG arms are nearly the same. bushings are stiffer on a DC tho.

 

i did a rear disc swap on mine too came off of a DA, mine always rubbed/chewed the passenger side tire as well, you can tell the wheel sticks out just a little bit further than the driver side, i had 15x7 +35 offset wheels with 195/55, i have since put 195/50 on it and cambered the wheels in more and it hasnt rubbed since, also im pretty sure my car has never been wrecked and it had the factory lcas and toe arm

 

LCAs are definitly the same.

Ill do some more mesurments today and see what I can come up with.

 

I’ve gone over and through this several times, checking the bushings and doing as many measurements I can, still coming up with nothing.

The plan now is to do a whole 91 CRX rear brake swap. Trailing arms, disks, ect. All from the same car, everything included but the e brake cable.

This should just be a bolt in deal (if I remember right, correct me if I’m wrong?). I’m going to swap all the bushings for new (ES kit) before they go in. Anything else I should look for on CRX units before install?

I’m crossing my figures this solves the issue. If not, The only other possibility is the body, in which case I’m not really sure what I’m going to do.

 

dont use ES.

theyre not better, but worse.

just replace with stock bushings. better overall.

 

Tyson

I’ve read some of the comments on the ES kits, and also spoken to the people I know personally using the ES kit. I have also seen the commentary on the “binding”.

The car is not a daily driver, and I do understand the difference between a ruuber, hard rubber, and a poly bushing, and I’m pretty sure I know what to expect when they go in. To tell you the truth, I’m kind of looking forward to it. Other than the increase in road feedback (less cushion) and the possibility of “binding” (although out of everyone I know personally using the kit, none have experienced this), any other reasons you don’t like them?

The main reason I’m doing the bushing swap is because I not only want to have fresh bushings in there because of the age of the originals, but to also rule bushings out for certain as the problem I have with the one side being out farther than the other. If I absolutely hate them, Ill move to a stock bushing setup again. I have had the kit sitting around for several years without using it so I figure I might as well put it in.

Any other thoughts?


Ill pic the CRX parts up this weekend, and once the bushings all get pushed in, should hopfully have the install dne shortly afterward.

 

they wear out quicker.

but i would say using new stock rubber bushings would be closer to ruling out any bushing issues.

 

+1 for rubber.

The polyurethane bushings still require more maintenance than rubber; as it relies on grease to keep it from binding or squeaking. IMO, if you're going that route, might as well get some spherical bushings.

 

The cars turning into my wanna be weekend racer, but not a full on race car! Spherical bearings might be a tad too hardcore for me. ; )

Point taken Tyson, and your probably right, but Since I’ve had them for so long I’m going to give them a shot. I really don’t think a bushing is the issue, but if it is, these should at least give me and idea.

I do appreciate the advice though.

If anyone else has any other suggestions or points that may help me solve the issue, any insight is always welcome.

 

Take it to a body shop with frame rack? Honestly sounds like your best bet right now.