Hey Honda-Gods,

I drive a 1996 Honda Civic Sedan, the EX model in Canada, the LX elsewhere. Recently I went to put in a set of new springs, no big deal, have had the shocks out twice before so nothing that I wasn't used to.

Anyways, long story short, looking at the LCA from the back, the bolt that holds the shock on snapped off at about 1 cm from the head, leaving a good 6-8 cm left inside the hole. Yes I soaked the thing in liquid wrench first and all that. The bolt attaching the LCA to the hub is hopelessly rusted in there, and the one connecting to the lower sub frame came out no problem.

So clearly I would very much appreciate any suggestions on how to pull this off (or out I should say). Another thing is that the car has bilstein shocks on it with the nut welded to the back of them, so I'd rather not mess with those.

Thanks guys

 

Drill it out. I had to do that to my set.

 

^x2

no honda god but i broke a bolt head off of the subframe/lca mount years ago.
Tried several things to try an back the bolt out, nothing worked for me.
In the end had to drill it out also, had to replace the bushing in the lca along with it all.

 

Drill. Had to do that back in January.

 

get up between the shock for and the LCA with an angle grinder and cut through the bushing and broken bolt. Remove shock. Remove broken piece of bolt from welded nut on shock or cut the nut off and use a regular metric nut. Replace LCA bushing and bolt.

Don't try to get the other bolt out if you don't have to, you can't purchase the two end bushings individually from Honda, you need to buy the whole LCA (about $90 in Canada) only the middle bushing is available on it's own.

 

^That's how I've done it in the past.

For the control arms, IIRC Hondapartsunlimited.com has them for about $67 a peice. OR, you could just replace the bushings...

http://www.energysuspensionparts.com....asp?prod=8308

http://www.energysuspensionparts.com....asp?prod=8904

good luck.

 

The states have 96-00 ex sedans as well

 

yes but our ex sedan would be their acura EL.

 

Yea what everybody else has said, drill it. I just took my LCA off to have new bushings pressed in and the bolts you're speaking of are REALLY in there. I don't think any kind of easy out is going to work.

 

ahhh gotcha

 

i dont know if u have a welder but what i did was weld a small washer to the bolt like a plug weld then welded a nut to the washer thats like basically reparing the bolt and then go slow and take the bolt out. i also recomend investing in a map gas tourch and heat the nut on frozen bolts will really help remove them. just be carful not to burn any bushings

 

Why not replace them with some bling?

 

Because junk.

Aftermarket LCAs (save for function7) are junk, the bushings suck.

 

Hmm I like mine. They've been trouble free for about 2 years now. The skunk rear camber arms on the other hand are squeaky as hell.

 

Skunk2 rear camber kits are one of the most annoying things in the world.

Several of my friends have them, one of which I drive a lot. Those things make me mad.

 

Care to provide RECENT facts about this? In the past we all know Skunk2 had issues, but the newer set produced is a lot better, and in fact they make them easy to replace.

 

it's not just the lower control arms. ball joints are well known to tear/fail quickly. They don't have nearly enough greese in them, the bolts holding the ball joint in snap all the time.
The rear camber kits are so freaking noisy it will drive you nuts.

Not to mention, their coilovers are bouncy as fu*k...

I could care less if the new bushings are better, (I still doubt that) the products in general are just poor quality.

 

We are discussing the LCA, nothing else. We have enough debates based on Skunk2.

 

Quite frankly no, I don't. That said I suspect in another year you'll still see people complaining about how Skunk2 still doesn't know how to make bushings. If they'd make them out of hard rubber like OEM or Hardrace they'd probably last.

Also, this really wasn't about Skunk2, it was a blanket statement about aftermarket LCAs (Function 7 excluded)

 

Last off topic post.

 

^ Thank you

Those bushings are utterly destroyed.

 

Wow, first picture I've seen of the "new bushings" skunk2 re-designed after all the issues they've had with the old variety.

Skunk2 bushings STILL tearing apart. Those new bushings only came out a year or so ago, if that long.

 

Those bushings don't even look like rubber, they look like hard plastic...

 

From some images they look as though they are installed incorrectly. Those I have seen were from people installing them and tightening the bolts while the car was still in the air. The final TQ should be when the car is on the ground. Just that alone will destroy the bushings. Buy hey it is the internet so I am sure the Skunk2 haters will disagree no matter what..lol

 

How can you POSSIBLY tell that? BTW You only have to clock RUBBER bushings not poly. So your information and assumptions are ALL incorrect.