kamandor

Here's the details of my ridiculous situation.

Car: 2004 Civic Si Sedan
- Attempted to install Eibach Sportlines on stock struts on my driveway. Successfully installed front two springs, and just the rear driver's side spring.

DISASTER STRIKES:
- Rear passenger side lower strut bolt (17mm) which passes through a bushing then through the lower control arm just simply wouldn't budge/was seized. My friend and I worked on getting it moving for over an hour, pulling as hard as we could with a variety of tools and techniques, when finally the head of the bolt snapped/sheered off.
- Now we have a sheered off headless bolt through the bottom of the strut, and the 'nut' side is the type that is welded directly into the bottom of the strut frame, so it's immovable.
- We cursed the situation for a while in shock, then went to my neighbour's and we collectively decided that our only option is to drill out the bolt remaining inside the bushing. He lent us a powerful drill with all sizes of bits.
- Successfully drilled out a good half to 3/8ths of the bolt inside the bushing. We stopped when the drill bit started to get close to the bushing. Just now we stopped for the day because we'd been working on it since 9am. (with a few breaks in between)

MY THOUGHTS:
- At this point I don't care about salvaging the bushing, because the bolt is seized in there so incredibly badly right now anyway. My main concern is avoiding having to cut off the welded nut attached to the strut, since then I'd either need a different bolt set-up or risk damaging the strut itself. I also want to avoid having to remove the whole lower control arm (since the bolts may be equally seized) or worst case having to flat-bed the car to a mechanics.

MY IDEA:
Use a reciprocating saw and cut the bolt on the sides between the bushing and the strut (a very narrow area) thus 'freeing' the strut and allowing me to either drill out the bolt inside the bushing, or replace the whole bushing. Then I would drill out the remaining seized piece of bolt inside the nut.

I will try to add pics, but I just wondered what you all thought. My friend and I can probably get this done tomorrow but if there is ANYONE in the Meadowvale/Sheppard area (near Pickering/Rouge River) that is around on Saturday tomorrow and could help, I would HUGELY appreciate it and would be happy to provide some cash/beer for the trouble. Feel free to call me this evening if you have some helpful thoughts.

Cheers,
Rob
416-627-6773

kamandor

Here's the details of my ridiculous situation.

Car: 2004 Civic Si Sedan
- Attempted to install Eibach Sportlines on stock struts on my driveway. Successfully installed front two springs, and just the rear driver's side spring.

DISASTER STRIKES:
- Rear passenger side lower strut bolt (17mm) which passes through a bushing then through the lower control arm just simply wouldn't budge/was seized. My friend and I worked on getting it moving for over an hour, pulling as hard as we could with a variety of tools and techniques, when finally the head of the bolt snapped/sheered off.
- Now we have a sheered off headless bolt through the bottom of the strut, and the 'nut' side is the type that is welded directly into the bottom of the strut frame, so it's immovable.
- We cursed the situation for a while in shock, then went to my neighbour's and we collectively decided that our only option is to drill out the bolt remaining inside the bushing. He lent us a powerful drill with all sizes of bits.
- Successfully drilled out a good half to 3/8ths of the bolt inside the bushing. We stopped when the drill bit started to get close to the metal bushing lining. Just now we stopped for the day because we'd been working on it since 9am. (with a few breaks in between)

MY THOUGHTS:
- At this point I don't care about salvaging the bushing, because the bolt is seized in there so incredibly badly right now anyway. My main concern is avoiding having to cut off the welded nut attached to the strut, since then I'd either need a different bolt set-up or risk damaging the strut itself. I also want to avoid having to remove the whole lower control arm (since the other bolts may be equally seized) or worst case having to flat-bed the car to a mechanic.

MY IDEA:
Use a reciprocating saw and cut the bolt on the sides between the bushing and the strut (a very narrow area) thus 'freeing' the strut and allowing me to either drill out the bolt inside the bushing, or replace the whole bushing. Then I would drill out the remaining seized piece of bolt inside the nut.

I will try to add pics, but I just wondered what you all thought. My friend and I can probably get this done tomorrow but if there is ANYONE in the Meadowvale/Sheppard area (near Pickering/Rouge River) that is around on Saturday tomorrow and could help, I would HUGELY appreciate it and would be happy to provide some cash/beer for the trouble. Feel free to call me this evening if you have some helpful thoughts.

Cheers,
Rob
416-627-6773

kamandor

My bad somehow double posted this: please delete.

toofast

iTrader: (2)

hey...i want to install my lowering springs too....but my problem is how to get the coilover sleeves out of the blown struts???....
btw how did it all go.. what would u rate it out of 10...delete the bolt problem....

thumbs up for ur hardwork

seanv98

Honda Automotive Parts

Which bolt is it? It looks like you'll be able to buy a new bushing and press it in.

1PhatCX

this happened to me before too, i used a grinder and cut the bolt between the strut and bushing, pulled the strut out and hammered out the rest of the bolt/sleeve in the bushing, had another sleeve at home and put that in, then just heat the nut on the strut and use vice grips to get it the rest of the way out. when putting it back together put anti seize on the bolt where it goes thru the metal sleeve

05CivicSi

You can get a new bolt and bushing fron Honda. Bushing 52622-S5D-A01 $17 and the bolt 90181-S84-A00 $4. You will need to have the bushing pressed into the shock. Same thing happend to me, but I torched it out.

loudsubz

you can do it with a large socket and hammer and save some money

you could also try a powerful impact wrench, sometimes they just need some back and forth action to let loose.

05CivicSi

I used the bigest I could get my hands on, and a 10' pole as a cheater with the car on a hoist...it didn't budge. Anyhow he's got it off now so all he needs to do is push it in. That and pray the other side is not siezed too.

1PhatCX

reading his post, he was doing the last shock, so after this hes in the clear

skrewz

Well, this happens a lot. Nuts get rusted to the metal part of the bushing from inside, and the only way to get it out, without setting the car on fire, is by cutting through the bold on both sides of the bushing. I don't see how removing the control are would be any help though. I'm not sure where you might be able to get another bushing for the strut though, mainly because struts are relatively cheap. At this point, my advice would be to replace the strut, and if you replace only one side, make sure you find a used one.

I bought shocks from a Japanese parts vendor for $40 last fall with springs, I'm sure you can find them for cheaper.

You might have more luck with the passenger side since that side is less prone to rust and corrosion because we drive on the right side of the road (hope that makes sense to you)

kamandor

Hey it's actually: Honda Automotive Parts

It's bolt #17 there and bushing #7, I believe.

Thank you to everyone for the advice. I'm not 100% sure which method I will use. I have to get the parts first before I can proceed much further. I called four local dealers and only one of them had the bolt, all of the dealers were out of bushings... (figures with my luck today )

kamandor

When you torched it out, did you damage the threads inside the welded nut?

d16y8

This has happened to me a few times. I've cut through the bushing to remove the control arm and grinded off the welded on nut, which you may have to do if the threads are seized as well. I've used a reciprocating saw as well and its a bit tricky, as it tends to catch and the blades quickly wear out. Anyways its not a big deal if you cut off the nut, you can get those grade 10 bolts and the nuts for them from Honda. Throw on a little thread locker if it will make you sleep better but I didn't on my car, and its still all tight.

bseries_el

i got one. let me know if you need them. but Im pretty sure that you've totaled your bushings on your rear lower control arm. but anyways, heres my way of changing the springs without taking the struts out of the control arm cause we all know that they do seize and sometimes you get lucky if they're not.

1. I recommend that you just drop half of the spindle, which means that you just unbolt the lower control arm from the frame, unbolt the upper control arm, and then unbolt the two bolts on the big bushing.

2. Now that you've done everything, you should be able to drop the spindle by unbolting the struts and it should go all the way done, Make sure that the car is jacked up high enough so you can just drop the spindle along with the struts.

3. Now pull the strut towards you without unbolting the bolt so now you can put your spring compressor on and remove the old springs and put the new ones on.

4. So basically to put it back on, you just do it the way you took it out.

And voilaaaaaaaaaa.... now you've just lowered your car without the hassel of buying a new strut or breaking a bolt on your lower control arm.

doggy69247

simplest way is sawzall the bolt off from the inside boath sides try not 2 dammage the try 2 not mangle the bushing tho


and then u can work on gettin the bolt out in a shop or out from under a car were its easier

seanv98

seized bushings and bolts are such a huge pain in the ***. Most dealers won't carry them in stock but it will only take about a day for them to get them in.

kamandor

Ok I found a dealer with the bolt, unfortunately it's up at Kennedy and 407, but I don't care, I need to get my car back on the road.

I'm going to keep searching for the bushing.

seanv98

Where do you live? Try family honda, and classic honda in brampton. Also try acura dealers, the bushing should be the same as the 1.7EL.

kamandor

Hey guys thanks for all the advice. We ended up using a reciprocating saw to cut the bolt on both sides, then we had enough of the bolt remaining to use vice grips to spin out the rest of the bolt on the captive-nut side. Basically everything went as perfectly well as it could have. I am HUGELY grateful for that!!

I bought a new bushing from Collins Auto Parts in Scarborough (151 Nugget Ave), the people there were all hugely helpful. Then I picked up the new bolt from Markham Honda, way up at Kennedy and 407. It was a bit of driving in the morning (coming from West Rouge) but all totally worth it because we finished up the job an hour ago.

The car looks great, although I definitely need a camber kit in the rear, it's pretty bad. Would anyone have any recommendations for a camber kit? The front 'looks' fine but I'll have to see how it drives. The rear wheels are definitely tipping inwards and jiust tucking under the fenders.