Thinking about whole car bushing replacement

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PandaBear

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At 230k miles, the car is starting to feel "loose" and driving over bumps and imperfection is staring to be annoying. I'm sure The Critic can agree with me since his car has a lot more rubber life left than mine and he already not wanting to tolerate it.

I'm not going to replace this car (97 Integra), it is nice to drive and I know it is taken care of since I had it new. I'm thinking about either replacing control arms and mounts or just the rubber bushing with other rubber bushings (no Urethane bushing, I'm not racing this car).

Assuming that I can get the whole car's bushing in less than $200 parts (OEM or better), and can rent tool from Autozone for free, would it be realistic that I can replace the bushings myself and just bring it in for an alignment? I do not have an impact and I am not planning to buy one, but I might have access to a spare car and can let this sit for a few weeks at a time. My main concern about replacing control arm is cost and the after market parts may come with inferior quality rubber.

If a shop were to do it, how much would the labor be?
 
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Definite DIY project. A shop would have you bring Vaseline to ease the pain when they give you the bill for that.

Not having an impact for things like control arm bushings will be an obstacle. Otherwise, just watch out for bushings that need pressing in with a shop press.
 
Which bushings are we talking about?

- Control Arm
- Sway Bar
- Bushings in rear suspension? Is this 4-wheel independent? If so, some of those require a press.
 
Front:
Upper control arm: 3 bushing/ball joints ea
Lower control arm: 3 bushing/ball joints ea
Sway bar: 4 bushing/ball joints ea

Rear:
Lower control arm: 3 bushing/ball joints ea
Trailing arm: Huge bushing ea
sway bar: 4 bushing / ball joints ea

I probably missed a few here and there.
 
I would go for motor & transaxle mounts, and also any engine cradle, strut, and rear axle mounts you could find. If that's a VTEC Integra, that's a fun to drive, dependable car, unfortunately rust-prone around here.
 
You are right aftermarket bushings will not be of the same quality. They will be worse new then your current bushings. As for doing this job your self, you will need a press. Although you might be able to use a ball joint c clamp. You will need various spacers for pushing and removing, unless you really know what you are doing, this would not be for the faint of heart, although till you get done you might know what you are doing
 
For my Jeep I couldn't find the right press so I just used sockets with high strength bolts.

Similar to what you see here:
http://www.maxcooper.com/rx7/how-to/suspension/pillow_balls/index.html

I torched the hard to get ones out, worked very well. I then heated the arms up slightly (slightly hot to touch) applied silicone lube and the new ones slid in very easily.

Finding good long lasting replacements is a pain.
 
You may find that a good OE parts site may be able to sell you complete control arms (ball joint and bushing) for little enough that you may not be doing a lot of work with that press.

I have a 1998 BMW and I've replaced quite a number of suspension bushings and balljoints to preserve like-new handling as long as possible so your intentions aren't at all wacky sounding to me anyways.

There may be some mounting subframes and other such assemblies which may be hard to source, expensive, and hard to change. I don't know enough specifically about your vehicle to comment. My first "real car" was a 1990 G2 Integra so I'm an honourary member of the family :)
 
If the parts you are putting on the car + labor add up to a sum that is greater than the value of the car. You're doing something wrong.
 
I've done several urethane bushing swaps, and some of them are cake, some of them SUCK! It is very good to have tools, a torch, and at least a bench vice if not a hydraulic press. Also, removing things like control arms and other suspension parts really should use some impact or air tools or you are going to hate life.
 
I've been thinking about doing this for my mom's Dodge Dakota pickup truck. There's some "clunking" noises when you turn the stearing wheel, *feeels* like slop in the steering column.

Luckily rockauto has the bushings and ball joints seperately from the control arms. All totals to about $150. Check out ebay for bushing kits (Energy suspension is a popular company). I've heard to get the graphite bushings, so they never require greasing. The upper ball joints are riveted in, so that means some serious grinding before I can hammer them out with a punch.

There's a ton of tuner brands for the OP's Acura, so should be easy to source.
 
I'd get a cheap plug in electric impact gun, with a 200+ft-lb rating. And a set of impact sockets, you won't regret it next time you rotate tires.
Also I'd try to identify which bushings are actually bad, and just replace those, but I'm lazyish...
 
Originally Posted By: Steve S
Have you changed the shocks/struts?


Yes, took me 1 day with hand tools (1 tool doesn't fit and I have to pay firestone $50 to compress the assembly together).

If it is like shocks/struts, I think I can handle it.
 
BTW, I've seen people use fire to burn the old bushing out and then hack saw the metal collar, then use a ball joint press to press in the new bushing (lower control arm).

I'm not too sure about the upper control arm because they look like ball joints mounted upward, but IMO the sway bar bushing seems easy. There is a nasty one on the rear trailing arm that most people buy/rent a special tool to do on Honda/Acura.

My biggest concern is actually not breaking out the bolts (I've got a whole can of PB Blaster, 3-4 foot long steel pipe, breaker bar, and a spare car to drive around for a whole year) because there is no rust, but pressing the bushing in and out of the arm may be hard.
 
Originally Posted By: TJPark01
If the parts you are putting on the car + labor add up to a sum that is greater than the value of the car. You're doing something wrong.


Not that it's on topic, but not necessarily.

If the cost of parts + labour (not just this restoration project, but ongoing) add up to more than what he'd pay in payments + depreciation for a new car he likes, then he's doing something wrong.

Valuing the ongoing maintenance of a perfectly functional vehicle on the road strictly by its resale value is only one way of looking at things. Weighing what you're spending against what it would cost to replace the vehicle with something that makes you similarly satisfied is more accurate, IMO.

He likes his current car, it's reliable, it's paid for, and it's fully depreciated. He might be able to do all of this work for a couple of months worth of car payments if he replaced it. Of course some jerk might T-bone him the day after he finishes everything and his insurance company will still only value it at blue or black book value unless he puts up a fight.
 
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I would only replace what is needed.

I once made the mistake of refreshing the entire front end on my Cutlass after 120K. I replaced good parts with aftermarket parts. Some of the parts didn't last worth a darn.
 
Originally Posted By: TJPark01
If the parts you are putting on the car + labor add up to a sum that is greater than the value of the car. You're doing something wrong.


That's a common mistake. We'd all be better off if you didn't repeat the statement.
 
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