sshiny007

I recently purchased a 1994 Honda Civic that needed a lower control arm bushing replaced on each side. I initially considered taking it to someone to do the work, but decided to give it a whirl. I knew that my car needed the lower control arm bushings because Sears does a free suspension inspection. They wanted to charge $360 (parts, labor and alignment). Now I'm not gonna go into a whole lot of detail as to how to replace the bushings, but I'm gonna describe how I "pressed" the bushings in myself using the follow:

spare car (I had to use a Honda CRV so it was high enough)
jack
four scraps of wood

I went to my Honda CRV and pressed the bushings in using the jack against the jacking point on my CRV. I used two scraps of wood to lay under the bushing housing and on top of the bushing so that it didn't "shoot" back at me. I also used the other left over two scraps of wood to go "around" the housing so that when the bushing was pressed into the bushing housing, it "popped" in and stayed there.

Good luck and be careful. I take no responsibility for this information. Enjoy.

gsrhatch2356

very canny, congrats. you can buy a press for like 400-500 bucks so if you have alot of friends or see your self doing more presses in the future you may consider getting one and charging your friends for a press. pays for it self over time

sshiny007

Thanks. I was going to take them to a shop and have them done but decided to give this a try first. I should've taken a picture but I wasn't even sure that it was actually going to work.

CRX T-Si

Never knew the weight of car on one side was enough pressure to press out the bushings....very intersting. I'm not gonna do that but very interesting that it could be done that way. By the way did you get the whole bushing kit?? The one that Hardrace sells is awesome and are very similiar to the Mugen ones.

2 ton hydraulic press is only $129 last time I checked and I got mine for $149 cause Harbor freight was out and I had to get it from Northern tools.

sshiny007

I bought a kit from A&A Auto Parts that had all of the front bushings. My brief write-up is only for the installation of the bushings. Taking them out is a bitch in itself.

I used the rear tow hook on a Honda CRV to press them it. To remove the bushings, I used a saw, chisel, hammer and a ton of time. I just tried this method first to see if that would help. I planned on taking them to a shop if it didn't though.

Simkin314

Holy crap... seriously? $150 for a press versus sshiny007's Sears estimate of $360? That is downright crazy!

I guess that includes diamond studded bushings or something...

sshiny007

Sears' price was outrageous. Here's what I ended up paying:

Bushing kit, $45 (polyurethane)
Alignment, $109 (1-year unlimited)

I saved that difference and bought a 182-piece Craftsman tool box.

CRX T-Si

Actually his quote for the bushing work is a good quote for a shop to do it. Since we all like to work on our cars we buy the tools necessary to take care of it.

Reason why I got a press was because my wheel bearings were bad and the machine shop charges $50 for each side so why not get a press to do other things later that might require a press.

CRX T-Si

oh you got them poly bushings, I thought you got them OEM type bushings.

Not sure why you need to use the CRV to press the Poly ones in but hey you got new tools...lol

Simkin314

Nice. Good job on your ingenuity by the way. That CRV method sounds pretty clever.

You got that right

I only have a manual press right now (Arbor press), I would like to pick up a hydraulic press eventually.

sshiny007

To get the OEM bushings out, I cut the flared tip off one of the ends and them smacked the hell out of with a hammer. To get the metal ring out I had to cut it with a hacksaw. Take the blade off of it and then reattach it inside the sleeve. Saw away!!

Simkin314

I cut out the center piece with a saw bit (drilling from both sides)... then hack sawed it just as you did.

b18cKoupe

that sears price is actually pretty good, I had a quote for 890 for one contol arm bushing and a tie rod plus an alighnment. I ended up redoing the entire front end myself with brand new oem honda stuff(wheel bearings, upper and lower ball joints, inner and outer tie rods, axles, all the control arm bushings and all new sway bar bushings) for about the same price. It was all pretty tired with 200k and I got a little carried away on the new parts lol. I rented a press from autozone for the lca bushings and used a hole saw and sawzall to get the old ones out.

itsnotfast

I have a friend whos a tech at an Acura dealership and he removed old bushings and pressed in new ones for $40.. parts included. I only needed one bushing on each LCA though.

gillette_matt

i just did this on my del sol actually. My girlfriends father owns a machine shop so he used a lathe and shaved just a tiny bit off on one side, just enough so it would sit flush inside and stop shifting around and then pushed it straight in with a hydraulic press. Whole process took like 10 minutes, it was awesome seeing that I had already wasted an hour trying to do it by hand in a crank table press to no avail.

DaveBCRV2

Old thread...but useful tip...so thanks!