hey guys i've lowered civics and **** before and i have always broke the rear lower control arm bolts, and i have always have had to remove the control arm and beat it out, is there an easier way?? there has to be, i need some help.

 

if u can get torch heat the control arm up and then take it out. it work for me

 

I just used PB blaster or WD40 and a breaker bar. If thing's get real funny, use a pipe.

 

I just dropped my car and both of the rear bolts were frozen and broke even after I heated them up. Make sure to find out if your dealer has bolts and bushings in stock before you start. I don't think there is an easy way to do it on higher mileage cars.

 

When it comes to stuck or frozen bolts, an impact wrench owns a breaker bar + pipe any day of the week. The repeated impacts do a MUCH better job at coaxing the bolts loose w/o breaking them than does sustained high torque applied to the bolt, which is what happens when a breaker bar is used. If you're at all worried about the bolts breaking, either find someone w/ an air impact wrench, or use an electric impact wrench. I used a 12V electric impact (and PB Blaster of course) on my 8 yr. old bolts and they came out w/o issue.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PatrickGSR94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">When it comes to stuck or frozen bolts, an impact wrench owns a breaker bar + pipe any day of the week. The repeated impacts do a MUCH better job at coaxing the bolts loose w/o breaking them than does sustained high torque applied to the bolt, which is what happens when a breaker bar is used. If you're at all worried about the bolts breaking, either find someone w/ an air impact wrench, or use an electric impact wrench. I used a 12V electric impact (and PB Blaster of course) on my 8 yr. old bolts and they came out w/o issue.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I tried this and the LCA bolt still broke

&lt;--------------- is because it took me 10 hrs to do my suspension install

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FrostyDC4 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I tried this and the LCA bolt still broke

&lt;--------------- is because it took me 10 hrs to do my suspension install </TD></TR></TABLE>

wow I don't know if I've ever seen an impact wrench break a good sized bolt like those on suspensions. Usually they can withstand the very short repeated applications of torque much better than the sustained high torque applied by a breaker bar.

Hey, it took me and a friend 13+ hours to do our first suspension install on my old car.

But that car had eVil Mac struts all around, and I had to disconnect all my brake lines to get the struts off and then reconnect them and bleed all the brakes.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PatrickGSR94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">When it comes to stuck or frozen bolts, an impact wrench owns a breaker bar + pipe any day of the week. The repeated impacts do a MUCH better job at coaxing the bolts loose w/o breaking them than does sustained high torque applied to the bolt, which is what happens when a breaker bar is used. If you're at all worried about the bolts breaking, either find someone w/ an air impact wrench, or use an electric impact wrench. I used a 12V electric impact (and PB Blaster of course) on my 8 yr. old bolts and they came out w/o issue.</TD></TR></TABLE>
i'm not blessed with air tools

 

i've never had that problem b4 and i've done it 3 times!...guess i'm just lucky! good luck w/that though!

 

i broke the passengers side rear w/ a breaker bar and didnt even attempt the other side w/ it. I tried to use an impact wrench on it too and it still would not come out, but it didnt break it either

 

ok guys the bolt are broke, how do i get them out of the lower control arm????

 

im not trying to steal this thread but you might run into this problem as well. after you get that damn LCA bolt you obviously have to pull out in the whole shock assembly. now if you are replacing everything then you have it easy. but if your just replacing the springs the you have to try to brake loose the 14mm bolt ontop of the strut. the "socket" ontop of the strut is a 5mm allen wrench. now when i got to this, this is where everything just stopped. stripped out the allen wrench and now i can't get my springs off. well if anyone has an idea for this, please shed some light on this. also this is for the rear shocks.

 

help me guys , i have no more ideas

 

You can try cutting the bolt on either side of the bushing and then punching it out or drilling it out. Either way, it will take some time....