I bought this car a little over 7 months ago. Its is a 96 Civic EX Coupe. The previous owner had been in a small accident and was hit in the left front. We got a great deal on it, and it had already been fixed so we bought it. Just Recently i noticed that the left front wheel was slightly further back in the wheel well than the right front. Im suspecting a castor issue, that when it was hit they put a right side upper control arm instead of a left upper control arm. Supposdly, swapping control arms will induce 2 degrees of castor on a civic.

Any other suggestions as to what could cause the wheel to sit further back?

Should I, if the upper control arm is the problem, replace it by itself or should i buy other stock parts also? If so which parts?

Please help me quickly!!!

Thanks in advance

 

If it's the wrong upper control arm, just buy a new one. They aren't that expensive and are really easy to change.

Another problem would be frame damage. If the lower mounting points were damaged, they could still hold the suspension arms, but cause wicked alignment issues.

I would check the upper control arm first.

-Alex

 

it's possilble that they installed the wrong control arm, and it's also possible that the LOWER control arm may be bent. Frame damage is also likely. The only way really to tell, would be to get the part number off the suspected control arm and compair it with the part number on the other control arm, if they are the same, there is your problem. (I'm not totally sure about it, it's been a while since I've done an upper control arm, but there should be and "L" for left, and a "R" for right stamped on the control arm somewhere, don't hold me to that...) If you can get it to an alignment shop and have them set it up on the rack, thats the easiest way to tell if something is bent or broken. Hope I helped...good luck with it...

 

yeah i agree

 

Ok thanks for the input

I just took it to a shop and they checked everything, nothing is bent or broken but somehow the caster is off.

I was under the impression that castor was not adjustable on a 6 gen civic so how do i fix it?

Does having the wrong upper control arm affect the caster or is that a myth?

Thanks

 

The lower control arm could be bent and it's also likely that the suspension sub-frame is bent. I don't consider it likely that the frame itself is bent unless it was one hell of a hit. There is a little wiggle room in the sub frame (about 1/2 a degree) if you loosen all the bolts that hold it to the frame.

Mike

 

The upper control arms are probably different. They are most definitely different on the 5th Gen civics. I was looking through the pics that I took when I replaced my upper control arms (the only way to change the upper ball joint) and there is a significant difference.

-Alex