Rep Power: 0

My mechanic recommended I replace my left front coil spring due to a clunking when turning or hitting bumps. I figured while I'm at it, I might as well do both sides, since the springs come in pairs anyway. I've got the strut out of my car, but for the life of me I can't get the center nut off either mount! I've been spraying it with penetrants for the last week, I've tried torching the thing (hoping to melt the vinyl liner) and I managed to twist up an allen wrench pretty good with a pipe, but both still refuse to move. Any suggestions for what to try next would be much appreciated, because I'm not sure what else I can do without risking trashing the whole strut.

 
Rep Power: 285

I think you misunderstood your mechanic, you should never need to replace the springs and they would not be the cause of a clunk. A blown strut, tie rod, or lower control arm bushings are more likely the cause.

Trying taking a candle (strange, I know), heating up the bolt and placing the candle against the threads allowing wax to melt down in between the nut and threads. It acts as a lasting lubricant. I also find allen keys quite useless on these, if that's what you're using, an allen key attachment on a ratchet works much better.

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks Mindbomber. Will definitely try the candle and allen attachment. I'm learning as I go at this, so you may be right about the springs being the wrong part of this puzzle. The mechanic definitely said it was the spring and stabilizer link causing the noise, but I don't know how reliable the guy is. On left turns, there's sometimes a scraping sound, and there is some rust developing on the springs. Could that ever be reason to replace a spring?

The mount and bearing are seriously rusted too, so that's another suspect in my book for the scraping. Does that make sense?

 
Rep Power: 285

Minor rust will no affect the performance of mounts or springs, it would need to be very heavy pitting to the degree it compromises strength to be an issue. The only suggestion I would have is to give the springs a light coat of rust inhibiting paint, if you want to be extra diligent.

Scrapping is often caused by a slightly bent brake rotor dust shield. It's possible that a strut mount bearing could cause scrapping, however.

 
Rep Power: 0

Hmm, you're right, the brake shield is bent. I'll try bending that back into place and see if it helps.

I gave the candle trick a try today, but didn't make any progress so far on the nut. I'm thinking of having a friend of mine go at it with his impact wrench.

 
Rep Power: 253

What color is the torch your using? (The can)

I believe the yellow can is hotter then the blue can.

Believe the yellow is MAPP.

Candle trick sounds interesting, going to try that next time.

Why not just replace the whole strut, as I am pretty sure that is what has gone bad.

 
Rep Power: 285

Correct and correct. MAPP gas (yellow) burns hotter than propane (blue)

 
Rep Power: 0

Mindbomber, you mention the tie-rod could be causing the clunk. As I was taking it apart, I noticed the tie-rod end on the problem side wasn't installed flush with the steering arm. Instead, it was twisted so that the underside of the end (the part where the ball goes into the upper part) was facing forward somewhat. The joint itself doesn't have any give to it and the nut was on tight(ish), but could the weird angle alone have caused an issue?

I also took a look at the control arm. There doesn't seem to be any give in the joints (is that what I should check?) though the polyurethane is beginning to crack. Would armorall or something similar help with that?

The strange thing about the control arm is, the join where the control arm and the knuckle meet is different on each side. Guess the left side was replaced at some point? I've put some pictures below. The problem side has a grease fitting... Just from poking the boot with my finger, it doesn't feel like there's any grease in there, so if I can get the rust off, I'm going to try to fill that. On the other side, the boot has completely broken through, so it obviously needs to be replaced. Do you guys see anything else that I should be concerned about?

 
Rep Power: 0

I should have said that I also replaced the sway bar link, which was worn, and haven't driven since, so that could fix the clunking, I guess. At this point I'm just confused why this mechanic told me the "spring is worn" if that's so unlikely to be the problem. Could he have meant it was incorrectly seated?

 
Rep Power: 285

If there is no play in the tie rod, it's not likely it's the cause of the popping.

The control arm bushings look good, I suspect they've been replace in the past. When they're gone the webbing will be torn. There's no much you can do to maintain them, something like armour all would just wash away.

There's a good possibility that the ball joints are causing the pop, given that neither have any grease left in them. If you look on youtube you'll find demonstrations of how to test a ball joint, tie rods too, it's pretty simple.

 
Rep Power: 0

Alright, that looks pretty straightforward. At this point I guess I'll throw the struts back on, lower the car, and test the ball joint. We'll see how it goes.

 
Rep Power: 0

Hmm, well I got everything put back together and check out the ball joints. Didn't see any play there. Unfortunately, lucky man that I am, the battery and one of my tires has gone flat, so I can't say whether there is any change in the noises.

One other thing. I replaced the boots on the tie-rod ends because they had cracked, but I really struggled to get them properly seated. I ended up poking the one side with a screw driver and ripping the outside of the boot a bit, and the other side isn't quite flush with the top of the seat, or whatever you call it. This must be a problem some clever person has solved. What am I missing? All the How To's I've found just say "put the dust boot back on the tie rod end" or something like that. Not very helpful!

 
Rep Power: 313

You should replace both ball joints, regardless of play. The boot at least because with no lubrication they will wear out fast.

 
Rep Power: 0

I've already ordered the boot for the ball joint and will consider replacing the ball joint too if this noise keeps up. Any advice for how to get the boot properly in place?

 
Rep Power: 253

Dont even try to replace the boot of the balljoint. Its not common practice. Just replace the whole balljoint.

 
Rep Power: 0

Ok, looking at the eStore, it looks like you can't order a ball joint replacement. Is that something I can get from AutoZone?

Having put everything back together and taken the thing out for a test, it seems I have made things worse for myself. There's a new scraping noise when I'm rolling straight forward, as well as a rhythmic bumping that feels like it would if there was dent/bump on one side of a tire. I can't tell that the bumping is coming from a particular side. When I reverse, the bumping and scraping go away, but turning in reverse now makes a terrible scrapping. Thoughts on what I might have screwed up?

 
Rep Power: 285

The ball joints can be ordered from Dezod.

I need to think about what might be causing the scraping

 
Rep Power: 0

Well, it turns out the scraping was coming from the locking tab washer thing on the nut side of the upper bolt holding the strut to the knuckle on the right side, which was at just the right angle so that it scrapped along the inside of the wheel when the wheel was turned. Having moved that out of the way, it seems to be back to normal, and the sway-bar end replacement definitely improved the ride. There's still a bit of a clunk from the left side on bumps, though, and I think I may end up replacing that strut. I've read that there is a known weakness in the OEM struts for 7th gen civics. Given that I can get either an aftermarket (ie Monroe) strut or a Honda strut for somewhere around $100 a pop, do you guys have any thoughts which would be a better deal, or is there something else I should consider?

 
Rep Power: 285

Monroe products are terrible, steer clear.

The budget 100% stock replacement strut I usually recommend is kyb-gr2. If you have a bit more to spend a want a slightly stiffer ride that will improve performance, tokico hp.

 
Rep Power: 253

Your "clunk" can also be from a bad balljoint.

I reccomend you change things in pairs such as shocks and balljoints.

Usually the other side is not far behind in terms of going bad.

 
Rep Power: 0

Great, thanks, I'll check the KYBs out.

 
Rep Power: 0

Well, I did have a look at the ball joints and they don't appear to be worn. But they did seem to be without grease for a while.

I took the car out and watched the strut while somebody else turned the wheel, and I'm pretty certain now that the left turn clunk I was hearing is a bearing/mount problem. The spring looks like it catches and begins to twist as the wheel turns and then eventually jerks into place. Which takes me back to my original problem of getting that seized nut off the top of the strut. While I've got the thing apart, if I ever manage to get that far, I will see if there's anything obviously wrong with the compression of the strut. If not, I suppose I should consider changing the ball joint first.