So I attempted to install my suspension today..

[al-ti2d]

and i only got half way finished :(

the front was easy as cake.. but the rear is where i ran into trouble.
the bolt holding the strut in the rear refused to come off.. i tried for a good 2 hours to pry it off but NOTHING worked. i probably need to go to a shop and have them break the bolt and replace it...

has anyone else had this problem before? now my car is riding with it's ass up high in the air and face down in the pillow.... :rofl:

[Quadrifoglio]

Did you heat it up?
You could let it soak in in WD-40 overnight if its rusted on there.
How about using a lot of leverage?

[Supa Dexta]

beat me^

Not sure which bolt you mean, at the wheel or in the car? If it's clear of rubber and paint, heat it up and lace it with penetrating oil.

[al-ti2d]

its the bolt that holds the strut to the LCA. i just searched it up on honda-tech and discovered that this bolt is a BITCH and a half to undue.

i never tried heating it up because i don't have a torch or anything.. but i soaked it in alooooot of WD-40.. i think my only option is to just get the bolt broken and replaced.

[CivicTunr]

try using a impact gun.

[EK 2.0]

Or if you have a large breaker bar...hit it with hard fast jolts of force...not pulling long and hard on it...I hope that makes sense...:confused:

[al-ti2d]

i had air tools and everything. trust me, i tried everything there is except for heating it up.. this bolt just wouldn't budge though. in the end, i just ended up with a stripped bolt that looks like shit now. :banghead: :whipped:

[sk3tchb4g]

buy new rear lower controlarms heating them up and breaking them loose could destroy the bushing, be prepaired for the worst and just change them anyways.

[Quadrifoglio]

Since its stripped now I'd say if you're skilled enough to not hit your threads you should just grind it in half. Not actually as bad as it sounds.

[al-ti2d]

wouldn't i be able to just take it to a shop like speedtech and have them break off the bolt and replace it for me? i have nothing at my place that could break off a bolt, and i'm not confident enough to even attempt that anyways, but i'm sure a shop could do it easily for me right?

[donz]

That's happened to me. I wouldn't use heat because that will fry the rubber bushing before you get the bolt off. In the end I had to drill out the bolt.
The part of the bolt that is frozen is the part inside the bushing, you should be able to take the threaded part out easily. after drilling almost the entire lanth of the bushing.
Honestly it's pretty hard to get the bolt out if you drill it, and I had air tools too, which didn't work for me. If I were you take it to a shop, any shop will be able to get it out for you. It ended up taking me almost a day, really not worth the time, unless you have nothing else to do.

Ohh new bolt at honda is about $8 each

When you but the thing back together, go get this anti rust lube stuff. It's silver colour and a couple bucks, but you will be able to get it that bolt off if you decide to change things up... totally worth it!

[johnboy27]

Cut the head off of it and then put an impact on the other end with an easy out on it(good quality easy out) have somebody hit it hard with the impact while you use a hammer and punch or an air hammer on the other end and try to drive it threw the bushing. While you have it apart go to Honda and pick up 2 new lower shock mount bushings( they are only 18 bucks each) and lube the new bolt up with a ton of antiseize or copper coat and bolt it back together.

[al-ti2d]

thanks for the input guys!
i'm just going to go have a shop take the bolt out for me.. then my car can finally be evenly lowered

[Doozer]

It's a different car, but I had a similar problem on my car when I was installing my suspension - a nut was seized to the bolt for the rear struts. Except we didn't know that, and the impact wrench got the nut off and took the bottom half of the bolt with it.

No problem, we could just unscrew the rest of the bolt from other side, but turns out that the other side was buried underneath the rest of the car: and the only access was to remove my rear deck lid (where the speakers are), which you have to remove the entire back seat and lower roof panels to get at.

We finally do that, and find there's no "other end" to the bolt ... it was actually one of the few bolts that was welded to the frame of the car. So we ended up having to drill it out, and use a new bolt through the hole.

A 30-second job of unscrewing and rescrewing a bolt took about 2.5hrs because of that. But a shop should be able to take care of your problem, and if they snap the bolt like I did, it's better that they deal with it than you!

[funkedelic]

i would say use a hammer, i had problems with the front and my rear was a breeze, haha good luck man.

[CLiVE]

heat the bolt up, and then touch it with paraffin wax. Works like a charm. This is what the shop will most likely do.

[rc2002]

Welcome to Honda.

This is a very common problem. I've never had luck drilling it out before but I've found that heat works really well if you're planning on getting new bushings anyway.

Make sure to go to town with the anti-seize when you go to put it back together so that you don't end up in the same situation again.

[gpomp]

screw the new bushings. you can get new aluminum control arms for $100-150 these days...

[al-ti2d]

yea i was told that i might as well just buy new LCA's all together while i'm at it.. are Megan LCAs any good?

[Scope951]

when that happened to me i just layed on my side and kicked the socket wrench and it gave, my impact and everything failed.