Suspension Springs & Shock Absorbers

For a 91 Civic LX Sedan, 157k miles, original springs and shock absorbers:

1.
If a car definitely has one "failed" suspension spring, do people here advise
replacing both this one and the one on the other side, even if the other side
appears to show no damage?

Or, given the age of this car and that for most of its life it has been driven
in the winter-salty Northern U.S., would many of you old hands just say: Splurge
and replace all four spring and shock assemblies?

Or just replace all four springs, if the shock assemblies appear fine?

Here's the situation:

The rear left (= driver's) side is lower than the right side by 3/4 to 1 inch. I
am almost certain that this is due to having a very large, overweight person
sitting in the car's back, left, passenger seat briefly about 2.75 years ago, as
the next day it looked tilted as I describe above. It has remained so ever
since.

The rubber casing at the top spring coils in the rear left is broken in a few
places. The metal beneath looks fine. On the other side, the rubber casing
appears to be intact.

The noises from the car don't seem particularly bad. There are some creaks when
I get in and out to drive it, but otherwise, nothing leaps out at me as
particularly suspect. (I am a slim person; 120 pounds or so.)

I hope to drive this car in comfort (physical and financial) for at least five
more years. I'd like to break 250k miles on it. I do my own repairs on it.
Recently I learned how to replace (and participated in same) a MacPherson strut,
including overhaul using a spring compressor.

2.
Advice on which spring compressor to seek is also welcome. I have the general
idea of these but am not sure Autozone's loaners will be sufficient.

3.
Lastly, can I get away with Non-OEM springs, shocks, and bushings, given that I
expect to keep this 42 mpg car only about five more years?

TIA

 

if a spring has "failed", the coil wire has fatigued and broken. unless
you have just a few inches fail off one end of the coil, [unusual] the
whole thing will collapse and the suspension will drop to the bump stop.

the #1 candidate for what you describe is crash damage. unfortunately,
the crumple zones, both front & rear on this car, when activated, will
change the shock tower height. if you disassemble both rear
shock/spring assemblies, chances are, the free length of each spring is
within 1/2", factory spec.

there is a small chance that the springs have taken a "set", but that's
really rare because it requires yielding, and the springs operate well
within their elastic zone.

final possibility is that the rubbers for the mounts have at some point
been disassembled and put back wrong. or that excessive pounding has
somehow fatigued them. the rubber on the coil you mention is simply to
quiet the coils when they touch - only on the rears as they have a
"progressive" spring rating.

anything works provided it fits the coil, and the rears on the '91 are
/real/ tight. the best type of compressor is where the ends of the
spring are compressed, not rolls of the actual coil.

much cheaper to go with oem from a junk yard. it's hard to get non-oem
that don't lower 'cos that's where the market is with civics.

 

Jim, today I did some more probing. I got stuck where the manual says to remove
the lower strut mounting bolt. This 10 mm dia. bolt connects the bottom of the
strut to the lower control arm. I PB Blastered the bolt yesterday, both ends.
Put more on today, but it's not like it was seeping down around the threads. I
tried both ends of the bolt. The bolt head required a 14 mm socket. The nut
required a 19 mm socket. I tried a 2-foot breaker bar. Went slowly, played with
it for a half an hour or so, started wondering if I had to take the load off the
joint. I kept trying and of course sheared off the bolt head...

The car was on two jackstands at the usual jacking points. The manuals I read on
this said nothing about special placement or compressing the spring.

Did I mess up? Should I have somehow unloaded the joint where the bottom strut
bolt is?

I think I'm going to make this a one to two month project. Lotta bushings there
look awful. The bolts are going to be tricky freeing up...

The ball joints seemed fine on both sides.

I'm still puzzling over the tilt. The springs seem to be the same length, when
compressed. The distances from the top of the springs to the lower mounting
bolts are likewise very close.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Well, engineering-wise, "failed" means the part isn't doing everything it was
designed to do... but I don't want to get into a fight.

The worst crash I've ever had is being rear-ended, but the only notable damage
at the time was the muffler breaking loose a day or so later. This was years
apart from the event I suspect caused the tilt (when a very heavy person sat in
the left rear).

I took off both rear wheels today and measured the compressed spring height.
They were very close; approx. 1/4 inch difference, tops. This contrasts with the
approx. 3/4 inch difference between the heights of the chassis at the rear of
the car.

They've never been disassembled.

Tapered springs. Okay.

Don't lower what? Or did you mean "go lower"?

 

no, you did the right thing. the thread points into all the oncoming
crud on the road, including salt, so it wicks in & locks that thing
solid i'm afraid. iirc, you came from up north and now live in the
perfect car country, arizona, so get "new" shock/strut assys from an
arizonan junk yard and they'll be perfect.

if you're going to drop the lower control strut from the main trailing
arm, you will need to jack up the trailing arm to a position close to
where it is in normal operation - otherwise you'll turn the bolt ok, but
never get it out once it clears the threads.

if you want to replace the bushings, the "honda method" is to replace
the whole arm - can't buy all the bushings seperately. however, i
believe you can buy oem rubber bushings for integras, and they're
identical. another option is to get the mugen honda bushing set from
king motor sports. they're harder & firm up the ride a little, but
they're natural rubber and never squeak, unlike urethane. you need a
proper fitting bearing press to replace them - the journals are mild
steel, so just whacking them with a hammer ruins them.

the only one that makes a real difference is the big one that hinges the
trailing arm. check them with the arms lowered - i bet you'll be
surprised how badly cracked they've gotten. again, honda don't sell
those bushings, but i believe you can get them for integras [sic] and
that saves ~$250 /each/ for the trailing arm assemblies. or again, get
mugen honda ones.

yeah, unfortunately, that knowledge /does/ come from experience. it's a
lot of work & a couple of skinned knuckes to replace all the springs
only to find the old ones are identical to the new, and the car still
sits funny when you're done.

no fight here caroline. i just doubt it's the springs. they rarely
yield, they just fatigue & break, and even that is pretty rare in hondas.

compressed height is a function of the shock travel - need to measure
free height.

sorry, i mean spring with a shorter free length that lower the ride
height of the car. like the ricers always have. most all aftermarket
springs for civics lower the car to some degree as that is the nature of
demand.

to repeat, if you really want to replace springs, it saves a lot of time
& effort getting assembled coil/shock assemblies from a junk yard. but
check the relevant free lengths of your existing springs first - if
they're the same, or within 1/2", the diffence between the 2 new springs
i bought to "fix" my problem, you'll see no difference in ride height by
replacing them. unfortunately, my helm for the '89 [should be the same
as yours] doesn't specify free lengths, so i can't help you there, but
the free length of a single [good] spring i have in the garage is
12.75". again, within 1/2" of this should be fine.

finally, if for some perverted reason the coils ever were replaced, the
two variables affecting spring rate are length of wire & diameter of
wire in the coil. double check the diameter by using an open ended
wrench. i think they're 11mm wire on the rears, 12mm on the fronts.

 

Yes, the car was driven for over half its life up North. I am in the West but
have never said what state, yada yada...

Wow to all. I'll start investigating what's available in my area. At least I
have nearby a good junkyard with some Civics my Civic's vintage in it.

Yes, I think I saw this one yesterday. Even without lowering the arms, it looks
awful.

This helps a lot! Mainly, mucho dinero (much money) saved! Thanks!

Okay. Good to know!

snip

Okay, though for the archives, I'm the original owner, have never had a major
accident; the only minor ones were being rear-ended pretty strongly a couple
times; and am certain the car's suspension has never been worked on until now.

If I ever figure out why the car tilts, I'll re-post. But I think it will take
weeks before I find a solution, if I find one. (And I note your doubt I will!
Fair enough!)

Again, many thanks. You've taken a load off my mind on a number of counts. Pun
intended.

 

Caroline wrote:

as far as i've been able to determine, the bushings for all civics, 88
through 2000 & all integras, 90 through 2001 are the same. look for new
stuff without the ageing - anything as old as your car will be shot.
that major trailing arm assembly is the same for civics & integas as
well. if you can find a recent one that's been crashed, those are a
good donor. just swap out the backing plates where the brakes mount
'cos they'll be a different size to your 91. i posted how to do that in
a thread titled "civic big brake upgrade - pt II". if the donor has
disks, you can probably sell the the disk plates for what you buy the
trailing arms for and get free bushings. and if you /really/ want to go
nuts, swap out your old trailing arms to urethane bushings and sell them
as an upgrade kit to a ricer for a small profit. blah.

 

Hi Jim,

Due to my battle with the lower shock absorber mounting bolt I started a new
thread soliciting input on 'creative bolt-busting; a second course.'

Meanwhile, I was at my favorite auto salvage yard today, preparing to just buy
two new lower mounting bolts for $4 each. The yard had a couple of
spring-over-shock-absorber assemblies (attached to the original, front-wrecked
Civic), too, 7k miles old and looked in good shape. The yard wanted $50 for the
whole spring & shock absorber assembly. Anticipating the worst with my bolt
removal efforts (e.g. bushing destruction likely), I went ahead and bought one
S&SA assembly and an accompanying control arm for another $15. I took all this
stuff off the old Civic in the yard myself within about half an hour, with the
limited tools in my car. Amazing how easy it is when the bolts aren't frozen and
are in excellent repair...

Not that I expect any of this to fix my car's tilt (per what you said). But I
thought I couldn't go wrong for this price, considering all the snow and salt my
original shocks, springs, and bushings have seen.

Thanks for the tips. Hopefully my bolt removal efforts won't lead to the need to
purchase a new trailing arm(s), but if I do reach this point, I'm keeping the
above in mind.

 

Some comments on the whole thread-

Hyper Suspension has a WHOLE bushing kit for the civics. I can tell you
the only part in the kit is a couple of pieces for the wagon. (because I
have a wagon!) The parts install is time consuming but worth it. I
believe they also sell partial kits. I got mine at Summit Racing in
Akron, OH

Yes, the struts are the same length because the "shock" part regulates
how long it can get. The spring rate has changed from fatigue so thats
why the car sags a bit more on one side.

Rusted bolts are a way of life. The only way NOT to break some is using
an acetylene torch. Others just dont get hot enough.

-Pete