Jack Sprat

I have a 09 Civic Si with 68K miles. one owner. I am now on my 4th set of tires (Cooper Zeons) and once again the rear tire noise is very loud. Local Tire dealer says tires are chopped out. all previous sets of tiers are also chopped out. I have read the TSB on 06 07 models for rear control arm but have seen nothing on later models except plenty of folks with the same problem and no good answers. So my choices at this point seem to be
a) buy a really good set of Michelins and hope for the best? or b) replace the faulty suspension parts with something better and replace tires with something less expensive?

ezone

Short answers:
Yes you can use the arms.
Yes, it can help a lot with the problem.
No, it can't CURE the problem.



The Si cars are not addressed by the bulletin for the modified upper rear arms (AFAIK). But if you research in a parts catalog, you should find the arms on your car are exactly the same part numbers as the original arms on the cars that the bulletin applies to. Therefore, the bulletin CAN apply to your car too if you want it to.

The arm (kit) in the bulletin will come boxed as a pair of upper arms, with 6 bolts. The car needs a pro alignment after the arms are installed, rear toe will be way off after changing them.

If you order arms from out of a factory parts catalog, you would only get the original parts and not the modified parts. The catalogs do not show the modified arms, only the bulletin does.

The modified arms can only REDUCE the tendency to chop tires, they cannot eliminate it. Customers neglecting tire care can cause almost any tires to go choppy.


Some thoughts:
How long did the original tires last? Michelins or Goodyears?

I see a lot of issues related to lower price tires, especially on large (16" and up) rims. The bigger the rim, the more expensive the tires. Then the owner wants the cheapest tires they can get. There is a price to pay for that.

You say you eat up rear tires, but how many miles do you rotate the tires at?

Check alignment, what are rear cambers and toes set at? (The new arms can reduce the neg camber by about 1-1.5 degrees.)

Put tires on that are less prone to chopping, and rotate the tires often. Like every oil change if necessary. (Every other oil change was the norm when doing 3k oil changes for most average people.)

Directional tread tires are usually more prone to chop than non-directional tread. Same for asymmetrical tread.
I always prefer tire tread designs that can be run any direction on any corner of the car.
I prefer Michelin too, but not the cheap performance ones.
Example: Michelin has some great tires, but the "Hydroedge" (for one) sucks when it comes to wear.

Symmetry, MXV/MXM series, Energy, and some others were all good wearing tires and came installed from the factory on many Hondas.


How hard do you drive the car? Do you NEED a bunch of rear camber for handling (very few people really do), or can you live with rear tire camber closer to zero?
I have modified original arms for the problem on several cars with great success (before the bulletin and modified arms came out).


You could have the tires flipped on the rims and run the opposite side of the tread for a while, just to get some more life out of the tires. If the tread design allows it.

HTH