Recently picked up a 99 accord sedan 4 cylinder for my son. I had 4 new tires installed and the tech mentioned that the front lower arm had some play in it. I took it home and removed it and went up to the local auto parts store and could not find a replacement. One place mentioned I could by bushings only from the dealer. So after looking on the internet for a couple hours I'm confused?

All of the replacement arms show a solid non adjustable arm on both the front and rear lower arms. The ones on my vehicle have adjustable front lower and solid (non adjustable) rear.

Help! What am I to do? Has this been modded? Damage do to an accident? I have seen some raybestos replacement parts but both arms are adjustable?


What gives? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Accords do not have an adjustment for camber. Installing adjustable arms allow this. This would also allow for more Toe adjustment.
It could be due to;
spring sag which would lower the car putting camber out of spec, or
overall worn bushings which would require replacement of the suspension links five/side(10 total), or
possibly accident damage.

Look at the bushings on the other links, if they look pretty well worn/cracked/distorted it may have simply been the cheapest way to maintain or 'fix' the suspension at the time.

Look for damage to the subframe, or witness marks of where it attaches to the body. If it appears to have been moved at some time this may have been the easier/cheaper option.

Look up specs for the original ride height of the rear suspension. If it has settled/lowered over the years from a combination of spring sag and worn bushings, a replacement and labor costs would have been more than simply replacing a suspension link.

 

Thanks for the reply, after more research I have come to understand that this is an acceptable band aid. Thanks again.