For anyone contemplating refreshing their EP3’s rear suspension, I thought I’d drop a few notes about my experience. Bear in mind that I’ve never pressed a bushing in my life and I’m now 61 years old.
The car’s a 2004 EP3 facelift on 87K that I’ve had from new, so I know the history and all parts are original. Having had the sills welded last year, replacing the rusted out rear crash bar and changing all the front suspension, I decided it was time I gave the rear-end some TLC. I wanted to replace all bolts, bushings, shocks, springs and control arms but wanted to keep it stock. The lower control arms of course are no longer available, so I bought refurbished ones from Vtec Monkeys. Whist doing the passenger side I noticed that the fuel filler pipe had corroded and that the attached rear bracket was eaten away by rust. So I replaced the whole assembly with a replica, the original part no longer being made.
I sourced original Honda parts and bolts from Tegiwa or Lings, shocks and drop links were Meyle, upper control arms Febest, springs KYB. Parts-Honda has very useful parts diagrams on their site but their high shipping charges to the UK preclude using them as a supplier.
The upper shock mount bushings were fine so I kept those and merely refurbished the paintwork on the mounts themselves. All in all, with the welding, front suspension, crash bar and rear suspension I spent around £3500 but probably saved half as much in labour charges doing it myself. Hopefully I’ll get a few more years out of the old girl yet.
Disassembly
First of all I would say don’t even start this unless you have a decent impact wrench which has variable strength settings. I am wary of the bolts snapping, making the job more tedious, so I was super cautious about applying too much force. I used a Makita DTW285Z which was up to the job.
All the work was done with the car on stands. I had the luxury of working in a dry garage – I wouldn’t fancy this on the drive in the rain as it took me several weeks on and off. Get yourself some knee pads too – you’ll spend a lot of your time on your knees! A useful tip during this period is to start up the car every week. Otherwise the inlet air control valve has a tendency to stick which results in erratic idling.
Having Plusgassed all the bolts for a couple of weeks before I started, I still had trouble. The first issue was cleaning the rusted bolt heads with an old chisel so that I could get a 6 point impact hex socket comfortably on them. Then, using a tighten/loosen/tighten technique and increasing force, I worked the bolts free. The only one that wasn’t having any of it was the bolt holding the lower shock bushing to the lower control arm on the passenger side. Absolutely no chance on that one, even after applying heat. It was completely seized. I ended up slicing off the lower shock section with a hacksaw. As I had refurbished control arms and new shocks that’s as far as I needed to go. If you want to reuse your control arm this part may be a show stopper unless you have the tools to deal with it. Fortunately the driver’s side bolt came out easy.
I had the usual trouble with the drop links – I’d messed about for ages with the ones at the front (stupid design for a car subject to rust, what with that 5mm Allen key arrangement), so this time I just hacksawed them off. I was fitting a new JDM antiroll bar anyway but you’ll have more fun here if you want to reuse the original ARB.
You need a special 10 point socket (Laser 5141 on Ebay) for the lower control arm inner bracket’s three bolts. These bolts aren’t available from Honda as they came with the original control arm. Vtec Monkeys have refurbished ones if you snap them/wreck the heads. It’s not necessary to remove these if you are going to reuse your control arm but my refurbished ones needed them swapped over.
The two rubber bushings on the knuckle (52365S9A004 and 52365S6M004) were easily removed with a 8.8 grade M12 threaded rod, long nuts, washers and suitably sized steel tubing offcuts bought on Ebay. The upper knuckle bushing (52395S5A004) was a complete pain – I had to burn out the inner core with a propane torch and then use a hacksaw on the outer collar. At one point I was convinced that this had completely fused with the knuckle casting – it was THAT tight – but I got it out in the end. It fought me all the way though; there is precious little lip on the collar to work on with a punch. I had similar issues with the inner control arm bushing (52364S6M004), although this time there was room to use a drill to perforate the rubber prior to pushing out the inner core. Again, a hacksaw was used to release the outer collar, taking care not to nick the casting.
With all the suspension removed I took the opportunity to wire wheel the arches, the whole of the underside of the back of the car and rear sub-frame before treating it with Bilt Hamber rustproofing products and underseal. The refurbished control arms were also treated inside to BH Dynax-S 50 cavity spray wax.
Reassembly
The two new rubber bushings went in okay. The inner control arm bushing also went in quite easy (after freezing it). I used a 39mm pipe to push and a 50mm pipe as a cup. The knuckle upper bushing was super tough to say the least but I got there in the end and no shop press was used. For this one I used a 39mm pipe to push and a 50mm pipe as the cup. Silicone spray was used to ease the rubber bushings and copper grease on the metal ones. By the way, I didn’t have to separate the bearing (or the ABS sensor) from the knuckle to achieve all this. The sensor is in real tight and you will likely destroy it trying to remove it anyway (after you’ve snapped the bolt holding it in of course!). I would add that unless you’re built like Arnold Scharzenegger, you’ll have absolutely no chance changing those metal-clad bushings with the parts on the car.
With the knuckle fully re-bushed it was time to reconstruct the rear end suspension. The shock went in first, then I offered up the lower control arm and inserted its trailing arm (the flat part attached by the three 10 point bolts) into the inner bushing housing located under the centre rear of the car. With this secured I could then bend the arm to capture the shock lower bushing and attach the control arm leading edge bush to the underside of the car. The knuckle came next – I used a rubber mallet to help insert its new lower bushings into the requisite sites on the control arm before sliding in the bolts. The camber adjusting bolt has to be inserted from the middle of the trailing arm facing rear. It’s a tight fit but with some fettling in eventually settles into the hole. With the knuckle supported by a jack I was then able to reroute the ABS cable up inside the car to secure the electrical clip and associated screws. This is trickier on the driver’s side on account of the exhaust heat shield but doable if you take your time.
Next came the rear upper control arm (RUCA) before swinging up the knuckle and joining it to the RUCA - much use of rubber mallet and screwdrivers to line up the holes for the securing bolt. Finally the brake disk and calliper was refitted, along with the hand brake cable and associated cable securing bolts.
After loading the suspension with the car’s weight, all the bolts were torqued to manufacturer’s spec. I’d taken pre-disassembly photos of the position of the camber bolts, so I replicated this on reassembly. All that remains now is to have the alignment/camber adjusted by the local garage.
The car’s a 2004 EP3 facelift on 87K that I’ve had from new, so I know the history and all parts are original. Having had the sills welded last year, replacing the rusted out rear crash bar and changing all the front suspension, I decided it was time I gave the rear-end some TLC. I wanted to replace all bolts, bushings, shocks, springs and control arms but wanted to keep it stock. The lower control arms of course are no longer available, so I bought refurbished ones from Vtec Monkeys. Whist doing the passenger side I noticed that the fuel filler pipe had corroded and that the attached rear bracket was eaten away by rust. So I replaced the whole assembly with a replica, the original part no longer being made.
I sourced original Honda parts and bolts from Tegiwa or Lings, shocks and drop links were Meyle, upper control arms Febest, springs KYB. Parts-Honda has very useful parts diagrams on their site but their high shipping charges to the UK preclude using them as a supplier.
The upper shock mount bushings were fine so I kept those and merely refurbished the paintwork on the mounts themselves. All in all, with the welding, front suspension, crash bar and rear suspension I spent around £3500 but probably saved half as much in labour charges doing it myself. Hopefully I’ll get a few more years out of the old girl yet.
Disassembly
First of all I would say don’t even start this unless you have a decent impact wrench which has variable strength settings. I am wary of the bolts snapping, making the job more tedious, so I was super cautious about applying too much force. I used a Makita DTW285Z which was up to the job.
All the work was done with the car on stands. I had the luxury of working in a dry garage – I wouldn’t fancy this on the drive in the rain as it took me several weeks on and off. Get yourself some knee pads too – you’ll spend a lot of your time on your knees! A useful tip during this period is to start up the car every week. Otherwise the inlet air control valve has a tendency to stick which results in erratic idling.
Having Plusgassed all the bolts for a couple of weeks before I started, I still had trouble. The first issue was cleaning the rusted bolt heads with an old chisel so that I could get a 6 point impact hex socket comfortably on them. Then, using a tighten/loosen/tighten technique and increasing force, I worked the bolts free. The only one that wasn’t having any of it was the bolt holding the lower shock bushing to the lower control arm on the passenger side. Absolutely no chance on that one, even after applying heat. It was completely seized. I ended up slicing off the lower shock section with a hacksaw. As I had refurbished control arms and new shocks that’s as far as I needed to go. If you want to reuse your control arm this part may be a show stopper unless you have the tools to deal with it. Fortunately the driver’s side bolt came out easy.
I had the usual trouble with the drop links – I’d messed about for ages with the ones at the front (stupid design for a car subject to rust, what with that 5mm Allen key arrangement), so this time I just hacksawed them off. I was fitting a new JDM antiroll bar anyway but you’ll have more fun here if you want to reuse the original ARB.
You need a special 10 point socket (Laser 5141 on Ebay) for the lower control arm inner bracket’s three bolts. These bolts aren’t available from Honda as they came with the original control arm. Vtec Monkeys have refurbished ones if you snap them/wreck the heads. It’s not necessary to remove these if you are going to reuse your control arm but my refurbished ones needed them swapped over.
The two rubber bushings on the knuckle (52365S9A004 and 52365S6M004) were easily removed with a 8.8 grade M12 threaded rod, long nuts, washers and suitably sized steel tubing offcuts bought on Ebay. The upper knuckle bushing (52395S5A004) was a complete pain – I had to burn out the inner core with a propane torch and then use a hacksaw on the outer collar. At one point I was convinced that this had completely fused with the knuckle casting – it was THAT tight – but I got it out in the end. It fought me all the way though; there is precious little lip on the collar to work on with a punch. I had similar issues with the inner control arm bushing (52364S6M004), although this time there was room to use a drill to perforate the rubber prior to pushing out the inner core. Again, a hacksaw was used to release the outer collar, taking care not to nick the casting.
With all the suspension removed I took the opportunity to wire wheel the arches, the whole of the underside of the back of the car and rear sub-frame before treating it with Bilt Hamber rustproofing products and underseal. The refurbished control arms were also treated inside to BH Dynax-S 50 cavity spray wax.
Reassembly
The two new rubber bushings went in okay. The inner control arm bushing also went in quite easy (after freezing it). I used a 39mm pipe to push and a 50mm pipe as a cup. The knuckle upper bushing was super tough to say the least but I got there in the end and no shop press was used. For this one I used a 39mm pipe to push and a 50mm pipe as the cup. Silicone spray was used to ease the rubber bushings and copper grease on the metal ones. By the way, I didn’t have to separate the bearing (or the ABS sensor) from the knuckle to achieve all this. The sensor is in real tight and you will likely destroy it trying to remove it anyway (after you’ve snapped the bolt holding it in of course!). I would add that unless you’re built like Arnold Scharzenegger, you’ll have absolutely no chance changing those metal-clad bushings with the parts on the car.
With the knuckle fully re-bushed it was time to reconstruct the rear end suspension. The shock went in first, then I offered up the lower control arm and inserted its trailing arm (the flat part attached by the three 10 point bolts) into the inner bushing housing located under the centre rear of the car. With this secured I could then bend the arm to capture the shock lower bushing and attach the control arm leading edge bush to the underside of the car. The knuckle came next – I used a rubber mallet to help insert its new lower bushings into the requisite sites on the control arm before sliding in the bolts. The camber adjusting bolt has to be inserted from the middle of the trailing arm facing rear. It’s a tight fit but with some fettling in eventually settles into the hole. With the knuckle supported by a jack I was then able to reroute the ABS cable up inside the car to secure the electrical clip and associated screws. This is trickier on the driver’s side on account of the exhaust heat shield but doable if you take your time.
Next came the rear upper control arm (RUCA) before swinging up the knuckle and joining it to the RUCA - much use of rubber mallet and screwdrivers to line up the holes for the securing bolt. Finally the brake disk and calliper was refitted, along with the hand brake cable and associated cable securing bolts.
After loading the suspension with the car’s weight, all the bolts were torqued to manufacturer’s spec. I’d taken pre-disassembly photos of the position of the camber bolts, so I replicated this on reassembly. All that remains now is to have the alignment/camber adjusted by the local garage.
