Rear suspension repair
 

Hi, I am new here. I need to help out my girlfriend with her 2004 coupe/auto/EX. Today she was run off the road and had to drive up a curb at roughly 40 mph, to the passenger's side. Impact popped both p/s tires and slightly bent both rims (will need to be repaired/replaced). Front suspension looks to be ok (probably needs a toe alignment adjustment) but the pass side rear has ~3 degrees toe out. Looks like the large control arm that connects longitudinally to the chassis has come halfway loose.

I am no stranger to car repair but I have never worked on Civic suspension. It looks like Honda connects the control arms using two pieces at each end so that the arm itself can break away and avoid damage in an accident. Im not sure what all would need to be replaced in the event one of these connections breaks, so if anyone has been through something similar I would appreciate a point in the right direction.

I don't have any pictures since this just happened and its dark, but I will try to get some tomorrow. Seems like it is just that one control arm that bent the connection brackets, but there may be more. Any advice on what to check for?

Thank you in advance for help!

John

Re: Rear suspension repair
 

i think you would need to replace the entire control arm. compare it to the other side and see how different it looks. if its completely bent, you will need a new one.

Re: Rear suspension repair
 

Well, after a day of searching online I couldn't find just the little pieces. Here is the ONLY thing(other than rims+tires) damaged in a 40+ mph drive up a curb:
Attachment 110465

Unfortunately, you can only buy a complete control arm which sucks since its obviously designed to break away at the two little connection bolts. I even asked if we were to pay the dealership the labor to fix it, if they would be able to just get the little parts and they said they would still have to charge for the entire control arm.

So here is what I ended up with. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being hardest) I say this fix is a 3. Not really any harder than replacing struts or brakes. It took me exactly 1 hour 45 minutes from jacking it up to letting it back down.
Attachment 110466

If anyone out there wrecks their car like this, I definitely recommend you try this fix yourself if you have done a brake job or a strut replacement. Save yourself a few hundred bucks :)

Re: Rear suspension repair
 

at least it was a quick fix

Re: Rear suspension repair
 

Its not that easy when ur car has been driven around snow and salt alot. Me and my dad had to use a sledge hammer to get mine off. After i changed that, my tire moved back like an inch and a half.