I was looking under my 98 yesterday and noticed that the rear lower control arm bolt that joins the control arm and the spindle had the head sheared off. I bought another bolt and tried to replace it today but, I have no way of getting the rest of the bolt out of the hole, since it is threaded into the forward side of the spindle, instead of having a nut. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can remove the remains of this bolt?

 

You mean the bolt connecting the rear LCA with the trailing arm? Good luck with that. That one is usually even harder to replace than the shock bolt because of the confines around the RTA and the brake dust shield.

Are you located anywhere that gets considerable snow with salt applied to the roads regularly? If so that bolt may very well be fused in there, and you may have to end up cutting the LCA to get it apart, and replacing it with new lower control arms.

You could try heat, and/or try drilling the bolt out with something like a bolt extractor. But I'm betting the bolt is stuck so badly that anything you try to use (extractors, etc) will end up stripping themselves out.

 

It is the bolt on the LCA closest to the rear tire. I am going to spray some penetrant oil on it tonight and hope that a bolt extractor gets it out. I live in Georgia but, I am not sure how long the car has been in the south. Thanks for the help.

 

It took me about 4 hours to get the bolt out yesterday. The bolt extractor broke off in the bolt. I had to cut the LCA bushing at the trailing arm with a sawzall and then use vise grips to back the bolt out. It was a royal pain. Of course the replacement bolt that I bought didn't fit. I will have to go to the local Honda dealer and buy their $18 bolt.

 

Those bolts are notorious for seizing inside of the bushing sleeve. Did you replace the bushing?

 

I sure hope your dealer isn't charging $18. The bolt retails for $8.45 and can be had for $6 + S&H from online dealers.

Why didn't the bolt you bought fit?

 

first. don't freak out. there's a simple way to remove it.
what you wanna do is get a socket and big breaking bar on the front side of the bolt, where the nut is welded to the trailing arm. use the breaking bar and bust the welds loose from the trailing arm. now you're basically left with a cap screw sitting in the bushing sleeve. try turning it with a wrench only enough to see if it's fused to the sleeve. you want to avoid turning the sleeve in the bushing here. if it isn't fused, just punch it out. if it is, heat the sleeve red hot then punch it out. it'll come out.
if the bushing is mangled, replace the lca.
just use an oem nut and bolt for the trailing arm to lca.

 

I bought a generic bolt of the same length and diameter but, the threads were different. One of my friends has a bunch of Honda bolts laying around and should have one that fits.

I am replacing all the suspension bushings with poly Energy Suspension bushings.

 

Coat that bolt thread in anti-seize and put her back in. You shouldnt have a problem again with it

 

oh hahah... I remember back in 2002 when I first installed my suspension I bought some high strength bolts of both the correct diameter and pitch from Pep Boys to replace the shock bolts, just in case. Ended up never having to use them.

 

I tried the bolt on the right side yesterday and it appears to be seized as well. I won't be working on the right side for a couple of weeks, so I sprayed some PB Blaster on it. Hopefully the PB Blaster will penetrate enough that it will come out. If not, I am going to buy a torch as a back up. I hope that it doesn't break like the left bolt did.