2000 Civic DX Hatch

I just got the car a few weeks ago and I bought tein stech springs, front camber kit, rear camber kit, bwr rear lower control arms, bwr subframe brace, and beaks tie bar.

I got the front installed smoothly with little problems. The rear is a whole other story. At this point, the head of the driver's side bolt that mounts the shock to the lca is snapped off. The head of the drivers side bolt that connects the lca to the hub is snapped off.

On the passenger side, the bolt that hold the upper control arm to the hub is snapped off.

I pb blasted each bolt and bushing for days before attepting anything, knowing it was going to suck. Before I got the chance to use heat, I tried the breaker bar. I thought the bolts were breaking free, but the heads were twisting off. The problem bolts right now are the ones that connect the upper and lower control arms to the hub. The ones that connect the lcas to the subframe loosen fine, as does one of the shock bolts. Frankly I dont care about destroying the shock forks or any of the bushings, as I'm replacing both upper and lower control arms, and I have extra shocks.

I'm attacking the bushings and bolts with mapp tomorrow and hopefully I cant melt the bushings enough to make some progress.

I took it to les schwab (takes a lot for me to go there.. hate them) to see if they could do anything for me, and while yes ultimately they could, they cant use 3rd party parts. So I would be paing out my *** for les schwab to get genuine honda parts installed plus $90/hr, that I'm replacing anyways. Tomorrow I'm also going to call around and see if any independant shops can help a brother out... if I can't do it myself.

Has anyone else had this much trouble under the *** of a ek?

PS> Yes, it took me breaking 3 bolts to stop and recalculate, as usual I'm learning the hard way.... I don't need more flak.

 

I had alot of trouble when I lowered my EJ8 and replaced the struts. It had 105k on the car and I'm assuming all original suspension. It seemed like every bolt was siezed up. After pb, heat, and impact they came loose with no snapping. As you mentioned, if you have trouble yourself check out independant shops. They will often do smaller jobs to help you out. **** Schwab.

Good luck.

 

Had the same problem with my ek when I replaced everything down there I ended up just cutting out the lca's with a cutting wheel I think that might be a little easier than melting the bushings out and if u got new lca's then it doesn't matter what happens to the old ones hope this helps good luck man

 

The outer lca bolt got me when I was installing new struts. I was doing the rear brakes too and had to remove the drum assembly down to the spindle so I could get to it with a cutoff wheel. The busings aren't available from honda anymore so I had to get the whole arm and got new bolts too. Also when I reinstalled I used anti-sieze on all the bolts.

 

Well-

I got the shocks out, and got the lcas both hanging by the spindles. I used a sawzall to get one of the shocks out, the other came out easy. I didnt think of a cut off wheel until I saw the guy at the machine shop use one to cut the welded nut off the pita shock... that i brought him. I didnt get any further today but I am going to sears first thing and getting a right angle grinder aand some ish for it. Any chance to buy a new tool a jump on it. I'll be grinding the welded "nuts" on the top and bottom of each spindle too... joy. I desperately hope I can get a big enough wheel to not have to take the hub apart.

My new lcas were suppose to be here today..... but they aren't, so looking like best case is monday before its on the road again. Gives me time to track down some good sturdy nuts and bolts to replace the factory bs.

 

Just had a front and rear swaybars installed on my '96 CX hatch. The front LCA's, forks and everything went in without a single glitch. The rear was pretty straight forward too. No real problems except for bolt that holds the shock to the left LCA. That one was totally seized to the bushing. Straight forward for the shop that did it for me. They just torched the bolt out.

The shop used anti-seize on all the proper bolts to ensure we wouldn't run into any issues in the future.

WOW...swaybars are way cool on a hatch!!!

 

All suspension bolts deserve a good slather of this stuff:

 

That they do. Also trying to remove rear suspension bolts without an impact wrench is more or less a waste of time. They'll nearly always break. An impact gun will break up the rust first. 1/2" drive electric impacts can be had pretty cheap these days as well, and work surprisingly well.

 

if your in a pinch liquid wrench is way better than pb blaster. but the best and cheapest penetrating oil is one you mix yourself.
you mix 50/50 acetone and automatic transmission fluid.
this had been clinically proven and tested to be the BEST penetrating oil out there. if i find the link ill post it. its all i use when working on suspensions anymore. you wont even need heat. take all bolts out by hand without a breaker...lol
i am not kidding great stuff
adam

 

here is a link to the test. i have read the original article in a machinist magazine at work since i work in a machine shop. i tried it and it works amazing.
only thing i can say bad about it is i put the stuff in a trigger squezze spray bottle and it ate the seals in about 20 minutes. their are spray bottles out their that are made for chemical use. mine was not. also it separates fairly quickly so you have to shake it before each and every use
adam



http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/89...se-winner.html

 

Did you soak them with PB blaster every 6-8 hours for a few days?

I did that before I did my full suspension and had no problems with any seized bolts.

Also, you can return your camber kits if you would like to save some money. Unless you're absolutely dumping your car they are about worthless. OEM camber arms are much more reliable.

 

Interesting Ive never heard of the home brew, I'll have to try that the next time.

As for the camber kit, I really dont feel like buying new tires every 5k miles. I'm only doing s techs, but I can already see the camber is off... what is your definition of worthless?

 

If you have your car aligned properly after lowering it you will be fine. Toe is whats going to cause you to buy new tires every 5k miles, UNLESS, you are slamming that car on the freaking ground.

Camber mixed with toe out, will chew your tires to bits in no time, camber alone simply wont do it. Unless like I said, you slam the car.

Camber kits are basicly worless on a street car, unless your slammed.

On top of that, Camber is not a bad thing.

But, sence we're on the topic of worthless, can you post pics of the BWR stuff? and the hardware you got with it?

 

1-3 degrees of camber will not destroy your tires. Normal tire wear will occur long before the camber has an effect.

Toe will destroy your tires. Camber actually makes the car more stable and handle better.

 

Both LCA to rear tailing arm bolts seized on me as well as the driver side strut to LCA bolt.

Heated them up with MAPP until they were a glowing red color, and then took a big wrench and turned them out from the back side.

 

Ok well I'm glad everyone is showing interest in my camber.. ha. I may go lower in the future, i may go for flush, and i dont like the tucked or cambered wheel look... just doesnt look right to me. At ay rate, now I have a lot more suspension options.

98civicdx- Why do you say BWR is worthless?

Back to original topic- got the lcas out, got the new upper control arms in. There is still half of a bolt sitting in the bottom of the knuckle, turns out it was just my bushings that siezed to the bolt. I'm going to try and get it out but worst case I'll just cut the welded round nut off and use nuts and bolts.

Just waiting on new lca's now.

 

thats where i stopped reading

 

These cars are infamous for that, that's what I was getting at in my first
post.

I've had to grind off welded nuts so many times on these things. Using nuts
and bolts instead like you are saying is perfectly fine to do.

Glad you got this sorted out

 

The camber thing manily comes down to opinon, however, most places/people will tell you need camber kits which simply is not true.

If you want camber kits then by all means buy camber kits. They just are not required.

I say BWR is worthless due to their lack of quailty control, customer service, and their ability to make and sell poor quality parts.
There is a couple threads, where they promissed to post shock dyno's, which they never did. The would say these things, and then basicly vanish, and then pop up and act like noithing was ever said or promised.

BWR products, are a very low qualitly knock of highier quality parts. I would really like you post pics, of EVERYTHING, bushings, bolts,nuts, the brace, and your input of how everything bolted up, and how long the bushings last before they fail.

I really don't want to turn this thread into a argument, and get it locked. So I'll finish with this, In my opinon BWR parts, are crap.


EDIT- Also, simply using Nuts and bolt will work just fine. DONT FORGET ANTI SEIZE!!

 

ill shoot some pictures when i get the chance.

I havent had a car worth playing with in some time, so i hadnt heard about bwr much. However not following through on info is a far cry from making a shitty product.

I dont really consider thier subframe brace to be a knockoff. Its quite a bit different in apreance to the ASR or F7 units, might as well call F7 a copy of ASR. Yes I know F7 is very high quality, I'm not saying otherwise. A subframe brace can only be so different from the others, at least it has a different design.

At this point, i really just need to get my car back on the road. I knew better than to tear into it before all the parts were here too.

 

Does anyone know a honda part number for a nut that will be compatible with the lca bolts? I'm going to honda tomorrow to buy 4 or 5 bolts, although I will probably swing by tacoma screw to see if they have some equivilent parts for less then $12 a pop.

 

I really didn't go into detail as much as I could have. I didn't want to wreck this thread.

My friend had their coilovers, and they failed rather quickly. After calling BWR and spending a long time on the phone with quite a few people, and getting the run around we realialized the warranty they came is a lie. They will NOT honor the warranty, cliaming that we installed the coilovers wrong, and that is what casued the shock to blow. How this is possible is freaking beyond me.

The brace is a copy and a ASR, mixed with function7, but a low quality part. They are made in tiwian, and I highly doubt they have any qualitly assurance. They even imited pulling their turbo kits for a time, claiming quality issues. The few people I have seen talk about the turbo kits, explain how they do not fit right, and how they to modify the parts just to fit the car. That is not quality, nor is haveing a coilover blow, and only be a few months old.

Sure, things happen and shocks blow. However a company refusing to honor it's warranty on a product bearly a few months old is crap.

Take koni for an example, sure they have had shocks blow, and leak in the past, but they offer a LIFETIME warranty to the orginal buyer. That shows quality, and a company that is not scared to stand behind it's products. BWR, wont even post shock dyno's, after the cliamed for months they had them and would post them. Does this show a company that is not scared to stand behind something the made?

In my opinon it does not, it shows a company that does not care, and simply wants to sell things. BWR doesn't care about giving the customers the best.

I am not trying to bash you, or your choice of parts. If you think BWR parts are ok, and look good then by all means buy their parts. It is your money, your car, do as you please.

 

Well hell thanks for the input man. I didn't do a whole lot of research when choosing brands, it probably would have altered my decision. That said I will for sure post some pictures of the brace when I can.

For anyone who may read this in the future, the shock tower bolts for the rear shocks will fit the lca bolts well.

I'm going to use up some of my mobile 1 grease in place of true anti sieze.

 

I've also read that acetone and transmission fluid is the best, with test results to prove it.

I'm so glad my car grew up in the south, I've taken all those bolts out and reused them several times. I hope everything works out with your new suspension set up!

 

That should work fine, or that loc tite stuff.

Thankfully I didn't have any issues with broken bolts on my car, just the normal not wanting to brake free at first.
In the past on my friends car(from canada) I went, went the bolts didn't come out and when the bolts broke, and when we had to drop the entire trailing arm to do it. Lol

Good luck, and I am awaiting pic's