SUSP: Upper control arm replacement (pics!)

[TeamST_racing]

Can someone school me and tell me why One would want to replace the upper control arm?

What benifits does it have?

Thanks,
-Lam

[SteveB]

Can someone school me and tell me why One would want to replace the upper control arm?

Simplest way to new ball joints and bushings.

[wed3k]

im assuming it is really easy to replace the boots as well?
im going with the polyurethane boots included in my kit...
i wonder what kinda grease to fill it with?

[accordztech]

i honestly dont like those boots...if they dont fit right they just suck.

there is no point IMO unless urs is shot to hell.

[wed3k]

i honestly dont like those boots...if they dont fit right they just suck.

there is no point IMO unless urs is shot to hell.

good point but one of mine are ripped

[d112crzy]

did you feel a big difference afterwards?

[SteveB]

did you feel a big difference afterwards?

No

[Stealthman80]

I just got my upper left one changed last month, the damn part was 218$ and 1 hour labour, but it was clunking now its fixed and I didnt get an alignment and its fine

[AccordWarrior]

It's that easy?

:Kicks self for not diy'ing this:

Of course that was before I did anything to my car myself. I wish I knew how to identify suspension issues without going to a mechanic.

[deckeda]

Great DIY, Steve.

... The upper mounts don't come tight, and unless you want to yank the shock out, you aren't going to be able to tighten easily while on the car. Do it now, not too tight! I couldn't move my originals by hand at all. Not so good for suspension compliance! ...

Helms says 22 lb-ft for those upper bushing bolts. While not very tight, it explains why the OEM ones can't be moved by hand --- and also why the new ones shouldn't be either.

And don't worry about compliance. That pivot point is like melted buttah compared to the tremendous force of the car moving the control arm up and down. It'll pivot just ducky with those at 22 lb-ft.

When I did mine I tightened the new ones in about the same position as the ones on the OEM control arm so that the "at rest" position (if even necessary ...) approximated how the control arms would hang when the car sits on the ground. At the very least you'd want to have both bushing bolts pointed at the same angle before you tighten them so's you can get the assembly bolted to the car ... and just raise the LCA/knuckle assembly up to meet it with a bottle jack or similar.

LASTLY:
After you're all done, drive it awhile and then go back and re-check the torque on the bushing bolts (where they poke through to the underhood). Leave the car on the ground. It's important to have the full weight of the car on them when tightening.

I didn't know this, and incidentally had my car at a mech. a few days later for an unrelated issue. Even though I carefully used a torque wrench to tighten the critical bits (by the way, 47 lb-ft for the bushing bolts where they bolt to the underhood) he said they were "very loose".

Holy shit, from 47 lb-ft to "very loose" in less than a week --- the difference was that when I bolted mine up the first time the car was still on jackstands.

************************************************** ***********
A word about Arm-Can. I also used them (eBay). It's good stuff but one of my 4 bushing bolts was incorrect. The Accord needs ones that have two flat sides to properly fit through the hole underhood and one of mine had just one flat side.

I didn't notice it until trying to torque it down and wondering why it never poked entirely through the hole under the hood ... needless to say 47 lb-ft of torque bent it (!). Since I'd already attached the knuckle ... and me without a puller ... had to pound out the balljoiint, which ruined it.

Now I essentially needed a whole new upper control arm along with teh correct bushing bolt from them. Got it resolved quickly via email and they sent me a new control arm and bushing bolts gratis --- and I'd waited 3 months to install after buying and they didn't care.

[dwf137]

Just did mine, parts supplied from ArmCan. I had no probelms with mine, they came perfect.

Installation notes, watch the steering nuckle. It will want to fall outward once you seperate the ball joint from the nuckle.

I DID notice a difference in installing mine. I have significantly less body roll in cornering. Something to note though is that both of my ball joints were shot, and all of the bushings had significant displacement under small load.

[GreenMadness]

just wondering? did anyone else notice that the armcan upper control arms seemd like they had almost no grease in them?

before installing the lower ball joints they where dissasembled to inspect the quality of the part, the boots and joints seemed of vary good quality and where identical to stock (you can find some shady ass replacement parts... esp end liks) but there was only a modorate amount of redish grease?

where as the honda ones where packed with grease...

while the bottom ones where ok, i fear that the upper on may not have much of anything under the boot?