Jim, today I did some more probing. I got stuck where the manual says to remove
the lower strut mounting bolt. This 10 mm dia. bolt connects the bottom of the
strut to the lower control arm. I PB Blastered the bolt yesterday, both ends.
Put more on today, but it's not like it was seeping down around the threads. I
tried both ends of the bolt. The bolt head required a 14 mm socket. The nut
required a 19 mm socket. I tried a 2-foot breaker bar. Went slowly, played with
it for a half an hour or so, started wondering if I had to take the load off the
joint. I kept trying and of course sheared off the bolt head...

The car was on two jackstands at the usual jacking points. The manuals I read on
this said nothing about special placement or compressing the spring.

Did I mess up? Should I have somehow unloaded the joint where the bottom strut
bolt is?

I think I'm going to make this a one to two month project. Lotta bushings there
look awful. The bolts are going to be tricky freeing up...

The ball joints seemed fine on both sides.

I'm still puzzling over the tilt. The springs seem to be the same length, when
compressed. The distances from the top of the springs to the lower mounting
bolts are likewise very close.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

"jim beam" <nospam@example.net> wrote
> Caroline wrote:
> > For a 91 Civic LX Sedan, 157k miles, original springs and shock absorbers:
> >
> > 1.
> > If a car definitely has one "failed" suspension spring, do people here
advise
> > replacing both this one and the one on the other side, even if the other
side
> > appears to show no damage?
>
> if a spring has "failed", the coil wire has fatigued and broken.

Well, engineering-wise, "failed" means the part isn't doing everything it was
designed to do... but I don't want to get into a fight.

> unless
> you have just a few inches fail off one end of the coil, [unusual] the
> whole thing will collapse and the suspension will drop to the bump stop.
>
> the #1 candidate for what you describe is crash damage. unfortunately,
> the crumple zones, both front & rear on this car, when activated, will
> change the shock tower height. if you disassemble both rear
> shock/spring assemblies, chances are, the free length of each spring is
> within 1/2", factory spec.

The worst crash I've ever had is being rear-ended, but the only notable damage
at the time was the muffler breaking loose a day or so later. This was years
apart from the event I suspect caused the tilt (when a very heavy person sat in
the left rear).

I took off both rear wheels today and measured the compressed spring height.
They were very close; approx. 1/4 inch difference, tops. This contrasts with the
approx. 3/4 inch difference between the heights of the chassis at the rear of
the car.

> there is a small chance that the springs have taken a "set", but that's
> really rare because it requires yielding, and the springs operate well
> within their elastic zone.
>
> final possibility is that the rubbers for the mounts have at some point
> been disassembled and put back wrong.

They've never been disassembled.

> or that excessive pounding has
> somehow fatigued them. the rubber on the coil you mention is simply to
> quiet the coils when they touch - only on the rears as they have a
> "progressive" spring rating.

Tapered springs. Okay.

> > Or, given the age of this car and that for most of its life it has been
driven
> > in the winter-salty Northern U.S., would many of you old hands just say:
Splurge
> > and replace all four spring and shock assemblies?
> >
> > Or just replace all four springs, if the shock assemblies appear fine?
> >
> > Here's the situation:
> >
> > The rear left (= driver's) side is lower than the right side by 3/4 to 1
inch. I
> > am almost certain that this is due to having a very large, overweight person
> > sitting in the car's back, left, passenger seat briefly about 2.75 years
ago, as
> > the next day it looked tilted as I describe above. It has remained so ever
> > since.
> >
> > The rubber casing at the top spring coils in the rear left is broken in a
few
> > places. The metal beneath looks fine. On the other side, the rubber casing
> > appears to be intact.
> >
> > The noises from the car don't seem particularly bad. There are some creaks
when
> > I get in and out to drive it, but otherwise, nothing leaps out at me as
> > particularly suspect. (I am a slim person; 120 pounds or so.)
> >
> > I hope to drive this car in comfort (physical and financial) for at least
five
> > more years. I'd like to break 250k miles on it. I do my own repairs on it.
> > Recently I learned how to replace (and participated in same) a MacPherson
strut,
> > including overhaul using a spring compressor.
> >
> > 2.
> > Advice on which spring compressor to seek is also welcome. I have the
general
> > idea of these but am not sure Autozone's loaners will be sufficient.
>
> anything works provided it fits the coil, and the rears on the '91 are
> /real/ tight. the best type of compressor is where the ends of the
> spring are compressed, not rolls of the actual coil.

Okay.

> > 3.
> > Lastly, can I get away with Non-OEM springs, shocks, and bushings, given
that I
> > expect to keep this 42 mpg car only about five more years?
>
> much cheaper to go with oem from a junk yard. it's hard to get non-oem
> that don't lower 'cos that's where the market is with civics.

Don't lower what? Or did you mean "go lower"?