[DadsToy]

So I was doing some rear suspension work a couple of weeks ago which should have taken about half a day ... my car is still laid up.

The short story is that the rear-lower control arm bolts with the eccentric washers on the subframe were seized up solid. Both manuals I have say "remove the nut and slide the bolt out". Yeah, right.

I tried everything to get them out: impact driver, heat, liquid wrench, puller, BFH, etc... The BFH was a bad idea, since it just drove the bushing into the subframe, which now needs to be repaired.

I ended up cutting them out, after damaging the subframe, and smoking the rubber bushings along the way. So now I'm pulling the whole rear suspension subframe to make repairs.

Those 2 bolts with nuts cost more than $50 at my ford dealer! My manual says if the bushings are damaged, replace the whole control arm so I bought some Prothane suspension bushings as replacements (the rear kit lists at $180CAD).

All the other bolts came out fine except the two outside bolts for the lower-front control arm, which I will also have to cut out. I broke two 15mm 1/2" drive sockets trying to get those out.

My advice: avoid these bolts like the plague. Or, if your car is fairly new and you plan on doing rear suspension work, pull them as soon as you can and coat them up with Anti-seize compound. My car is a 2000 and 4 winters of salt-spray is clearly too late.

Off to climb under my car now ...

[P-51]

Par for the course. Cutting them off is pretty much the only way.

[ANTHONYD]

Yop same issue my car!

Bushings seized to the bolts, damages everything trying to get it out.

The guys had to PRE compress my rear spring to get them in.

Lot's of fun.

[Raine]

I was gonna say, Anthony's been there and done that too. Him and Simon fought with those bolts for half a day and got nowhere. I musta gotten lucky when I did mine

[nass]

yup I had the same thing, but only on the drivers side. We had to compress the stock spring to get it out, the lowered spring fit in no problem :)

[BrooksZX3]

yup, same issue here with my S2... spent four hours on one bolt but was able to successfully get it out sans damage. It only saw one winter at that point lol :rolleyes:

[DadsToy]

BrooksZX3,Aug 15 2005, 01:12 PM Wrote:yup, same issue here with my S2... spent four hours on one bolt but was able to successfully get it out sans damage.  It only saw one winter at that point lol :rolleyes:
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Yeah, I noticed that the replacement bolts have a zinc coating on them, presumably to prevent the seizure issue. I'm going to cover them with antiseize anyway.

Cheers, Thom.

BTW - Getting the old bushings out is also a PITA.

[ANTHONYD]

Mibe we tried 3 times.

The bushing wanted to seperate from the bolt. Apparently I would have had to replace the whole right rear side if we buggered the bolt. Not sure how much that would have costed.....but I'm sure I wouldn't have liked it. <_<

[guilty]

You salty Ontario kids have it pretty bad.. I didnt have any problems with any of the suspension bolts on my car.