i have changed rear shocks on 2 different 92-95 civic sedans. When i did the upper bolt on the LCA always break and then its a bitch to get out. i also read on forums that it happens to alot of people. just the other day i had to remove the shocks from a car i put shocks on because the car is dead and the shocks are new so i figured ide take em. but anyways....one of the bolts broke and i was f'ed because i didnt have the tools needed to remove the broken bolt. but i noticed that there was another bolt at the bottom of the LCA that goes to the back of the brake drum. if the upper bolt on the LCA is prone to break. why dont people just take put the lower bolt on the LCA. it seemed way much easier and they did not break. just curious.

 

What?

All I know is that the bolts on the rear lca's are known to freeze up and snap. When I installed my coilovers, I knew this was going to be an issue, so I had already got new bolts from Honda and Blox lca's.

 

the red circled one is the one that always breaks..why dont people take out the blue circled one that seems much easier.

 

ALL 3 of the LCA bolts are prone to breaking. I have broken 2 on my car, a shock bolt on a friends '95 hatch and another on a friends '99 SI...

I actually broke the one you are pointing out on my car along with one of the shock bolts. There's really no way around it except for heat but you'll likely damage the bushing doing that. Most people will just try to get it out and if it breaks then just drill it/air hammer the rest of it out.

 

Ohhh. Gotcha. Thanks.

 

ya they all break the same... your just lucky if any of them come out without breaking...

if you EVER have your bolts out before you put them back in ITS HIGHLY RECOMENDED you slather up the bolt with some ANTISEIZE! just be sure to do the whole bolt... most people think they seize on the nuts BUT they typically seize right into the bushing on the mid shaft.
and basically it seizes right here.


making the bushings steel shaft and the bolt one piece with it being stuck so hard!
so lather up. IMO on a civics rear suspension bolts.... you cannt have to much antiseize.LOL and i put even more on my bolts. i did both sides all the way down the shaft. (o wait that sounds dirty)


i went thru hell on my old 94 civic with just about EVERY rear suspension bolt was seized and had to be cut off! HUGE PITA. 3 of the 4 bolts that hold the rear toe adjuster arms inplace where seized and made it a huge hassle to cut them all out.

i tried strong air impact gun we have and they snap and ive even tried the air chisel and still never worked so i had to cut them all out.

and my 99 civic had one LCA bolt seized but i was able to work around it.... it was the outter lca bolt.

 

mine broke on the shock on both sides when i tried to change my suspension

 

^^^^^^^...my bolt on the shock broke when i was gonna change the shocks....what will i have to do it take out the bolt....? and what tools...?

 

If yours broke off like 94civichatchback's and have the stock shocks on there, you can break the tack welds on the nut that the bolt threads into from the shock. Just use a breaker bar, it shouldn't take much force. Once you break the nut loose, you can actually turn the nut which brings the bolt out from the other side. If you run out of threads you can try a punch and a BFH to bang out the rest of it.

That's one way, the other alternative is cutting the bolt which is difficult. The bolt takes a while to cut through depending on what you use and you run the risk of cutting into the bushing...

It's always a PITA.

 

well quite a bit of work.... depends how bad..... are your outter bushing bolts stuck as well or can you remove the whole LCA?
if you can remove the LCA its easiest to just have the old bushing pressed out and a new one pressed in. to replace the old bushing.... either use a cut off grinder wheel to cut the bushings shaft to free the strut from the LCA.
but if you cannt pull the LCA off the car then still cut the bushing free from the strut and remove the strut, and with a drill just start drilling out the rubber part of the bushing until the center shaft can be pulled/twisted out. and then with a hacksaw or sawzaw cut the bushings outer sleeve thats left in the LCA and make a pie cut basically taking out alittle section and with a junk flat screw driver or chisel and hammer knock out the shell.
and then the easist thing to do would be buy some energy suspension strut bushings with a vise or some pliers to squize the urethane bushings into the LCA with it still on the car.
it can be done...
i havent used ES bushings myself. i was able to pull my whole LCAs off and press out the old bushings and press in new OEM bushings. but the OEM bushings cost more! and you need a press or pay a shop to press em out and in.