Hey guys, I've been having trouble finding the rear lower outer bushing for the lower control arm. I know the strut bushing and the subframe/ trailing arm bushing are different, with the inner and outer being longer and skinnier but I can't find them for sale. Are these bushings the same as another one I can buy? Looking to avoid the generic 2 halves on a sleeve type bushing thats causing my issue in the first place. Oem type control arm.

 

Hardrace Civic EK REAR LOWER ARM BUSHING(HARDEN RUBBER) 6PCS/SET – Velocity Shop (hardraceusa.com)

The reason that you're having trouble finding the oem bushings is because they are only sold in the complete arm - which are surprisingly cheap, to the point of it not really being worth the time of pressing bushings on old arms.

 

x2 on buying new arms, I was also shocked at how affordable OEMs were for my Civic

 

thank you all, hopefully i can figure something out because i got 4/6 bolts out in order to do my coilover install and im not super confident on the other subframe and trailing arm bolt coming out nice. On one side the bolt got stuck through the trailing arm and snapped, and spent weels trying to fix it 😬

 

'Old cars are fun and simple to work on' they said....

 

This is what I suspected.. the Lower control arm was never meant to be preserved and have us replace the bushings, nor was it ever meant to be separated into the two pieces that it is (to make it easier to press out the bushings. I noticed that the Factory service manual provided no procedure for the bushings to be taken out nor for the control arm to be seperated in two (ie take the two bolts out with torque specs) nor did the Honda parts diagrams for the lower control arms show the bushings or the two hold together bolts for the lower contrl arm.

That being said, is it possible to take the nut and bolt out of the lower control arm to replace the bushing ? There seem to be two pinned bolts that aren't meant to be removed. Is that correct ?

 

Are you talking about the front lower control arms? The rears are a single stamped piece.

 

Yes I am talking about the front lower control arms.

 

Oh. I'm pretty sure everyone who replied to this thread thought you were talking about the rears. Aftermarket bushings are still very available for these.

Just an FYI, the fronts are really tough to press out a lot of the time.

 

Am I correct that we aren't supposed to replace the bushings on the front LCA's In particular, I am trying to replace the bushings on the front LCA's for my 1997 civic, and it would be really helpful if I can seperate the two piece control arm, but it doesn't seem like that was intended per the FSM and parts diagrams. Will separating the LCA pieces violate the structural integerity of the piece ?

 

No, it's done all the time. They are just bolted together. There's not really any secret sauce there. Honda just only aver sold the arm as an entire assembly, as far as I know.