Hi guys,

I've been beating my head against my ITR for two weeks trying to get my right rear shock out, with no success. I replaced three of the shocks no problems, then this last one I had the problem where the bolts were seized to the bushings. I was taking out the upper control arm bolt and the bolt that holds the bottom of the shock to get it out, and both of these were seized at the bushing. They were really seized too - my very strong impact and a week of PB blastering could not get them loose and I finally ended up breaking stuff (on the control arm the weld nut broke and on the shock the bolt broke.)

Using a cutoff tool I have finally gotten the upper control arm out, so that's no problem. But now I'm trying to get the shock bolt out and it's killing me. I'm putting in new shocks and I have a new bolt so I do not care what gets destroyed. If I turn the bolt and watch from underneath I can see that the whole bushing turns with the bolt, but the part of the bolt sticking out of the weld nut does not turn, so it must be broken right where it meets up with the part of the LCA that has the weld nut attached.

I tried taking the LCA out, but one application of PB blaster plus the impact wrench did not get those bolts loose, and I really don't want to have this same crap happen and end up replacing my entire suspension so I'm afraid to go that route. My cutoff tool uses 2 7/8" wheels so I'm having trouble cutting the wshock bolt from underneath since the wheels are too small. I have a reciprocating saw but I can't really fit it under the car.

Any suggestions? Should I just work on taking out the LCA with PB - i.e. people don't typically have this problem with the LCA bolts?

Really any input would be much appreciated.

 

heat can help.

We got annoyed with the last chassis that had this problem and junked the chassis instead of dealing with it. Obviously not an ITR chassis

 

This always happens on anything with a few years on it. The bolts sieze to the metal roll pin and then tear the rubber since they act as one instead of the bolt being able to spin. When you install the new setup, antisieze all of your bolts, if you haven't done it already, take the side you did apart and put it on the bolts to prevent headaches in the future. You can use a reciprocating saw, but like you said, may be a hard angle to get at. Rotozip probably best bet with a larger diameter wheel.

 

This happened to me. My friend just pounded the living daylights out of the bolt. It came out within a few whacks. Just make sure to get a friend with good accuracy.

 

Man...that car must have seen a lot of salty roads, but even then I've never had a problem with getting the lower control arm itself off (with the shock still attached)

But, I'd recommend you buy a new control arm and all new bolts for that side anyways. So, use any method you can to get it off.

 

Thanks for the tips everyone. I will put anti-seize on it and will go back to the other side and do the same.

Yeah these bolts haven't been touched since the car was new, and it has lived in the northeast all its life, so that's 10 years of salt.

Has anyone tried using a angle grinder with a 4.5" cutoff wheel for this to cut the bolt out from underneath the control arm? I have a cutoff tool (the kind that looks like a straight die grinder) with a 2 7/8" wheel but I can't put bigger wheels on it (it's only a 3/8 arbor) and the wheel isn't big enough to reach far enough to cut the whole bolt. It seems like a 4.5" wheel should work, so I'm curious if anyone has done that.

What exactly did you pound on? lol I can't figure out a way to pound on it. The part of the bolt in the nut isn't attached to the part of the bolt that's seized, since it's broken, so pounding on that will just mess up the threads.

Why do you say that? I know the regular integra guys do that because the shock bushing is part of the control arm but in my case the shock bushing is part of the shock since it's a Type R. Are you saying that because of the two bushings at the ends of the LCA?

I wonder how much having the bolt seized to the bushing on those bushings (if they are - I haven't tried very hard to get these out so maybe they're actually OK) actually affects the car? Has anyone ever heard of the bushings at the ends of the LCA doing the bushing seize thing?