95 Civic EX coupe.
I need to replace pretty much every bushing on all 4 lower arms of the car. I have two questions: 1. do I need to get the front lower arm bushing clamps (the ones at the very rear of the arm)? They seem like they have no play in them at all but might I as well since I'm going to have the arms off anyways? and 2. Is this something that I'm going to be able to handle doing myself? I'm having a hard time justifying having a shop do it because it would be super expensive and I've yet to hire out a job besides alignment. I usually do it myself so that I have only myself to blame when it goes wrong. Have any advice for me?
Thanks friends.

 

Yes I would replace the rear bushings on the front arms as well. Its not a bad job. Most of the times you can buy a whole new lower control arm with new bushings for about the same price, or not much more than just buying the bushings. That way you dont have to bother with pressing them out and the new ones in. As far as the rear goes, same deal, you can get new arms with bushings pretty cheap. The only part that may give any trouble is if you replace the big rear trailing arm bushings. But again, not a bad job. They make a tool to do it with but its like $135 bucks. When I changed mine, I was replaced all the rear arms at the same time, so I just pulled the whole trailing arm off, tapped the big trailing arm bushing out with a sledge hammer and installed the new ones without having to buy the tool.

 

you can burn or drill out the old rubber and then carefully hacksaw out the metals bits.
i went with the energy suspension bushings which press in easily by hand:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Energy-Susp...oAAOSwjvJZTByD

and bilstein shock bushings which needed the big c-clamp and adapter kit free rental from oreilly or similar to press them in . you'll need some pipe to use as a breaker bar on the c-clamp to make life easier.

 

Luckily I've already done the trailing arm bushings. I rented the tool and it wasn't so bad. I've bought the bushings from rock auto, and they were an average of $8-$12 each, so a lot cheaper than pretty much anywhere else I looked. Much cheaper than buying new arms.

 

I've got an impact gun for the c-clamp that I'm hoping should make short work of pressing the bushings in and out. I might "rent" that $100 tool from Harbor Freight, or who knows, maybe I'll just keep it if it's high quality enough. Usually when I rent tools from autozone or oreilly's there's some fitting or adapter missing somewhere and it kinda sucks.

 

If you live in a rust-prone area you may find that you will spend a lot of time on bolts that are seized. Suspension bolts are notorious for this problem.

 

 

 

Thanks man. Do you know whether it has the right adapters to do the lower ball joints up front too?

 

 

I'm having a little trouble pressing out the middle bushing on the rear lower arm. What size socket did you guys use to get it out? The kit doesn't come with the right size adapters. Unless I'm doing something terribly wrong. I've had to use sockets for every bushing I've pressed out so far.