My 92 Civic needs the rear struts, and brake pads replaced, although I'm not a mechanic, I figure by doing it myself, I can save the shop bill, and get everything done at once. I've changed the front pads, is there anything tricky I should keep in mind while doing the rear pads, and especially the struts? I don't want to be half way in completeing the job, and have something unexpetedly stop me from finishing it. Thanks for your help.

 

the bolts holding the strut to the lower arm are usually rusted/frozen into the bushings, and a real pain.
soemtiems they come out okay, but sometiems you can not even get the bolt out of th ebushing at all...
check to see if they will turn and come out, but do not use a breaker bar at all... they have a tendency to break the bolts head off... trust me

good luck.... choose wisely!

 

apply Liquid Wrench or PB penetrant to bolts at least overnight to make your life easier.

D

 

Right on, I broke my bolts last week. Both the bolt and the weld. Absolutely 100% don't do anything until you check that out, you may need to cut or drill out the lower LCA bolt & the sleeve that it goes through, which might possibly mean replacement of the LCA. If anything, a set of LCA's is probably cheaper and worth the time, because you can unbolt the upper & inners and leave the lower bolt as is. Doing this will require that you compress the springs to remove the LCA via the bottom of the car. Good luck & Don't even touch the fronts until the rears are done.

Rich

 

Okay, I've seen spring compressors in action, but don't have a clue as to what the procedure is with them, when removing the lca. I wouldn't mind replacing the springs, lca, struts, and drum, as they are 10 years old, not well kept, and rusting. Thanks.

 

Maybe you should reconsider and replace your SHOCKS, and not your struts, since you don't have STRUTS When changing my rear pads I ran into problems pushing the piston back into the caliper. You can't just push it, you have to twist it and that was hard for me b/c I had clearance issues with the tiny calipers Is that frozen bolt problem on Civics only? I replaced my shocks a few months ago, and the originals had been on the car for 173,000 miles. They weren't harder than usual to remove.