new suspension on the civic

We may earn a small commission from affiliate links and paid advertisements. Terms

The front struts are essentially the same as the rears except you have to remove the brake line off the bracket on the strut and the fork from the bottom of the strut. The fork will only go on one way as there is an indentation on the rear of the strut and a notch for the fork to sit against. Also before you take the old ones apart make sure you notice how the top (strut mount) is oriented to the strut itself or you are going to find yourself having to compress the spring several times to get the top lined up where it needs to be so that the fork will line up with the lower control arm.
Suspension_028.jpg


Also make sure the bottom of the springs are where they need to be. Here is a picture of the spring against the stop.
Suspension_038.jpg
 
Once you have the bushings all pressed in and the strut assembly rebuilt.. everything basically goes back on in reverse. Here it is put back together.
Suspension_044.jpg



And here is most of the wornout parts i replaced although I left one of the tie rod ends out on accident but you can see how torn the boot was on that one laying there. If you look at that bushing second from the right up top that looks shiny you can see thats the one I had to cut off.. bolt is still seized in there.
Suspension_047.jpg
 
Ok and last of all some before and after photos.

Front before:
Suspension_002.jpg


Rear before:
Suspension_003.jpg




Rear After:
Suspension_049.jpg


Whole car shot After:
Suspension_050.jpg
 
Ok so I ran into an issue.. yesterday when pulling into a parking lot I heard a sorta loud pop noise from the rear, then it makes a creaking noise every now and then. I had someone kinda bounce the car while I was looking at all the bushings and it looks like the left rear compensator bushing slipped or popped out a little. We had some issues pressing these ones in because they kind of deformed a little so we flipped them around and pressed them in that way.. seemed to work great but now this. Wondering if I should put the old ones back in or do you think the arm is stretched from having bushings pressed in and out of them. New compensator arms with bushings cost 35 apiece from majestic plus shipping. I dont really want to pay close to another $100. Any ideas? Im actually thinking about maybe spot welding the bushing to the arm so that it doesnt move anymore.
 
Last edited:
Ok so I jacked up the car today and it looks like the right side is fine but the left side.. the side that slipped look like the inner bushing some how is flush on one side and but is about a mm off on the other side.. And then the other bushing slipped out so that it is about 2 or 3 mm too far to one side. So it doesnt look like it will come completely off the bushing (hopefully) however the arm is now up against the car itself and is now rubbing against the car. I tried prying it and hitting it back into place but it wont budge. Its looking like I may have to just buy new complete arms from honda...another $80. So that means the whole rear trailing arm has to come off again. Hopefully it will be ok until I can do that... and hopefully Les Schwab wont charge me again for another alignment..

Im also still trying to get ahold of PIC Performance about my front upper control arm bushings as well as the trailing arm bushing issue I had but they still wont answer the phone. Im starting to get really pissed off now. It's been over two weeks now and Ive only been able to get them on the phone once and then he never called me back like he said he would (that was on july 10th..it is now the 20th). Im getting to the point now where I want a partial refund or something because this is getting rediculous.
 
Last edited:
Ok well I got the left compensator arm off.. its worse than i thought. One of the bushings just fell out and I was able to just tap the other one out. I dont know if i should just put them back in and weld them in place or just reuse the old ones and weld them. One of these seems like my only option now. If I put the new ones back in I might be able to tack weld the ones on the right side of the car without removing everything and then everything would be the same. Dammit.
 
So I just ended up tack welding the old bushings back in place and then completely filling the gap between the bushing and arm with JB weld. Hopefully that will hold it in place for good. The right side arm is still fine, ill just have to get new arms eventually and just stick with oem bushings in there. Still havent heard from PIC.. it is now aug 3, by my count thats 25 days now.
 
Well its march now and everything seems to be ok. Car finally settled down to where it should be for the stock springs. Never did hear back from "PIC Performance". I ending up calling my credit card company and they removed the charge from my card after they did an investigation. I will say this. I would never do business with that company again. I honestly do not know how they are still in business. I could bitch all day about them all day but I wont. If I had to do it again I would probably go with the hardrace bushings instead.
 
Back
Top