The new bolts may be some what expensive but worth every penny IMO

 

they not to bad for the exact bolt size you need!
you dont wanna cheap out and buy standard bolts. the factory bolts are hardened and fit perfectly no guessing. order all 6 of the bolts IMO if you ever might do any more suspension work. which if your buying nice LCAs im guessing your going to do future work on them already either it be springs or new struts you could still go thru this hassle again IF YOU DONT ANTISEIZE THE CRAP OUTTA THEM NEW BOLTS AS WELL!

you could reuse the old bolts that are still good BUT IMO its best to go ahead and replace them with brand new ones. lets face it those stock bolts already have 10+years on em they lived a long life its just cheap insurance.

 

I'm going to be installing some tokico HPs on my car the next time I get a break from school. I will definitely order 6 lca bolts and new lca's before I do.

AhxHourt, did you drill the seized bolts out, or did you cut them like addiction2bass recommended? If you cut them, what did you use and where did you cut exactly? It sounds like you know exactly how many bolts you're going to need, but if you end up buying more than you need, let me know if you want to sell me any.

Sorry to jack your thread, but I'm thinking about ordering new lca's online from hondapartsnow. Can anyone tell me if this the right part for a 1997 dx: "Honda Part 52350-S04-000 Genuine Honda ARM, RR. (LOWER)." If so, would this also come with the bushings? Also, what does the "RR" mean? According to their catalog, the same exact part seems to be used on both sides. Is that right?

 

RR typically means Right Rear. so LR left rear be sure to order both sides.
and ifyou buy the bolts from a honda dealership... just keep your recite and you can always take the parts you dont need back!
but ya never know some people have no problems pulling theres off. but those are mostly southern or cali vehicles.... road salt is hell on these hondas!
sometimes ya luck out and sometimes its hell. just cross your fingers the bolts dont snap! and be sure to antiseize them all over really good when putting them back in. helps out tons! first time i did my 99civic suspension it was ruff with several bolts ALMOST SEIZED but luckely most of them broke LOOSE before breaking OFF i only had one bolt that was seized and it was on there really hard but luckely i could work around it with it being the outter bushing.
if the outter or inner bushing is seized you can still work around them and just leave the LCA on the car, just as long as you dont break the bolt head off of course.

to remove the struts the easiest way and try to bypass these bushings is first off try the struts bushing. if it comes out your golden even if both the outter and inner bushings are seized. what you do is remove the strut bolt of course as well as the top 3 strut nuts from the inside trunk, then remove the upper camber arm from the car... again that arm has a bushing prone to seizing as well so remove the 2 bolts that connect the arm TO THE CAR not the knuckle, and then with the top camber arm unbolted from the car simply have a friend put there foot on the drum or rotor which ever you have and simply have them push down just enough so you can slide the strut assembly out from the car. and simply do reverse to install the new strut, but still antieze that strut bushing bolt you removed
and if your lowering the car and wanna be cheap if no more than 2inches drop then simply some washers behind the upper camber arm will space it out enough so your wheels dont look arched in hardcore but if much lower then you want longer bolts to compensate for the washers thickness. i think i used 3washers on each bolt when i had my Stech springs.



thats the best way ive done mine since mine where seized and i was to lazy to remove them since the rubber was still fine.
just dont have your friend throw all his weight on the hub pushing it down to far or you MIGHT tear the rubber bushing apart. see the bushing is 3 parts, outter metal ring/then rubber/then its the inside metal ring the bolt slides thru. if you rotate the rubber to far from twisting it you can seperate the rubber and then it could start poping and moving around.
i had that problem on my old 94 civic with the front strut fork bushing that seperated from age, kept poping and was annoying as hell and hard to find the problem. only thing that gave it away was the inside metal sleeve was sticking out one side more than the other from it seperating and that sliding back and forth was making the poping noise every now and then.

 

thanks a lot! good job on the diy's in the interior section (visors, headliner, and door liners) btw. Right now, I'm collecting parts for a whole list of projects I want to do over christmas break.

 

Yea i only ordered 2 which are the ones i broke, shouldve ordered all 6. and yea im gonna load it up with antiseize lube. Im gonna order the other 4 when i go back up to maine. cuz im leaving on weds.

 

I did wat addiction2bass recommended i cut out the bushings cuz the drilling is waay to long and could hardly go in the bolt. so u should rather get new LCA or get new bushings like addiction2bass said. and new bolts and use ANTISEIZE LUBE lol.

 

if the center bushing is seized you can keep it on the car and replace it with a way reaper showed me. it works great when you cannt press out the old bushings.

first cut off the bolt on both ends of the LCA and remove the strut. all you need is a cordered drill and maybe 2drill bits because you have a high probability to snap a drill or two basically you just get a drill small enough to fit between the two metal shafts and only hits the rubber insert. basically you just chew out the rubber all the way around by drilling a whole bunch of holes thru it and once you have enough holes drilled get some plumber pliers and grab onto the metal shaft on one side and crank on that sucker to spin it and break the rest of the rubber out and if you cannt spin it and break it loose than bust out the drill some more.
and once you get the center shaft ripped out simply bust out a hack saw or recipsaw and cut the outter metal bushing sleeve just deep enough to go thru the metal sleeve only. you dont wanna cut the lca itself. and what i did one mine before was i cut a section out which seemed to make it easier to knock out with a hammer and chisel.
i had pictures when i cut em out for another member from a EG civic with sway bar BUT i deleted them about a month ago from my forsale folder on photobucket. sorry.
and this way works best with if your going to use those ES bushings since you can slide those inplace with a C clamp to replace the old stock bushings
i have a press but i was having problems getting the LCA in the press flat so it kept poping to the side and would just not press out so i used the drill press and vis to hold it inplace and keep drilling it out. but drilling it out can be done just as good with it still on the car since the car holds it inplace
i think reaper was his own thread about how to replace the bushings. i think he also torched em out as well but torching can be a messy job with all the black smoke and stank!

 

Thanks. I'm going to get new bushings. I can get energy suspension bushings (lca and rear struts) off amazon for about $60 shipped. I'm going to follow reaper's lca installation/removal diy: [https://www.hondacivicforum.com/foru...d.php?t=54835]. Does anyone know if I will be able to feel the car handle any better with new energy suspension bushings compared to 13 year out stock? I need to eventually start a build thread and mention all the HCF DIY's I use (there's going to be a lot!).

 

unless your stock bushings are junk you probably wont feel a difference.
the main bushing ive heard that will give you a better feel is the trailing arm bushing on the rear. ive never done one myself but i know all the vehicles ive had those stock bushings never looked that great and new stiffer rubber compared to dry cracked rubber should feel better
but if the bushings look good and the bolts come out i wouldnt mess with them myself unless you really wanted to.....