Replacing rear control arm bushings

I need to replace my rear control arm bushings on my all wheel drive
Honda 1999 CRV.
I would like to know if this is a hard/challenging job?
Please advise any links with steps on how it is done or information on
how I can do this.


Thanks

 

I am curious: How do you know they are bad? Lots of off-road driving
so on paved roads, the deterioration is noticeable? Lots of winter
snow salt driving?

Replacing control arm bushings is somewhat a generic job; the make of
car matters little, based on reading DIY sites. I replaced all the
lower control arm bushings and the Trailing Arm bushings in my 91
Civic a few years ago. Here is my own DIY site:

http://honda.lioness.googlepages.com/suspensionrenovation

Note the long discussion about freeing control arm bolts. This is the
first hurdle.

From my reading, I really think OEM bushings are the way to go, unless
you are trying to soup up your car and have the time to mess with a
possible poor ride.

From the parts diagram at bkhondaparts.com , I think one of the
problems is going to be getting new OEM lower control arm bushings. I
do not see them sold separately. A new arm all by itself costs only
about $70. If you can find the bushings sold separately, I expect they
will run about $15 each. This is the price for my Civic's. It is not
clear that finding OEM ones will be so easy. Figure at least another
$20 to (hydraulically) press the old ones out and the new ones in.
Plus count on the shop who does the pressing to get it right, though
it is not that big a deal. You can also try pounding and peeling the
old ones out and the new ones in. See my site for some of the agony of
this.

I am betting the trailing arm bushing is available separately. It was
for my 91 Civic; it just took some research to get the right part
number and find a Honda dealer online that would sell it to me. I
bought an "in situ" Honda trailing arm bushing extractor off Ebay for
much less than what it would cost to have a shop do the TA bushings.
Worked great. But I am not sure the same tool will fit the CRV's TA
bushings.

There's a post in the thread here http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2211801
showing a guy removing the TA bushings on his CR-V that might be
helpful.

Otherwise, I would just say replacing these bushings by one's self is
a job either for the dedicated-with-time-to-spare car enthusiast or
the frugal consumer with another means of transportation while the
work is being done.

 

wrote in

Take it from me: The DeWalt DW-293 electric impact wrench will get those
bolts out in a few seconds, guaranteed. I absolutely love mine. The cost is
about $200 or so, and worth every single penny.

 

I just borrowed my neighbor's compressor and wrench. Since he uses it
to rivet his homebuilt airplane (the compressor, not the wrench), I
figured I had more than enough umph. But I've also seen great praise
for the DeWalt.

I first tried a breaker bar, but couldn't fit the long one in the
tightiish space.
--
- dillon I am not invalid

When you wish upon a falling star, your dreams come true.
Unless it's really a meteorite hurtling to the Earth which
will destroy all life. Then you're pretty much hosed no
matter what you wish for. Unless it's death by meteor.

 

Like most DIY-ers, I have no compressor. None of the neighbors I'm friendly
with have one either.

The beauty of the DeWalt is that you don't need any compressor at all. Any
120V electrical outlet will do.


PS: I think you need to add another space character after the double-hyphen
in your sig. It's currently not compliant, otherwise my XNews would have
stripped it off.

 

Okay, thanks. Nobody else has mentioned it, but that may just be
because they're using Outlook Distress.

Is this any better?
--
- dillon I am not invalid

When you wish upon a falling star, your dreams come true.
Unless it's really a meteorite hurtling to the Earth which
will destroy all life. Then you're pretty much hosed no
matter what you wish for. Unless it's death by meteor.

 

Plus a person wielding a breaker bar just is not going to deliver the
high power the impact wrench will. This power (high energy per second,
after all) is key to breaking these bolts free. I expect you know this
but just to discourage anyone from trying the breaker bar route, if
the impact wrench is at all affordable. I am thinking of all the
control arm bolts seized to their bushings when I did my 91 Civic's
control arm bushings using only a breaker bar and subsequently
requiring the bolt to be cut out: 8 of 16.

 

Nope.

How many space characters do you have? Should be two.

 

Hmm, two spaces. Just replied to myself and, boom, it shows up. I'm
using the current (well, almost, 5 is out now) Agent.

I'll contact Forte and see what they have to say.

Thanks again.
--
- dillon I am not invalid

When you wish upon a falling star, your dreams come true.
Unless it's really a meteorite hurtling to the Earth which
will destroy all life. Then you're pretty much hosed no
matter what you wish for. Unless it's death by meteor.