Front Right LCA & Suspension Help Needed

jar25201

New Member
So quick story is I have a 97 HX Civic that did a 360+ spin on the interstate and then ended up bumping into the jersey wall. So far nothing really major looks bad.

So my question is other than the LCA what should I replace? ...and what is the piece that bolts onto the LCA that is practically the same part? When I was researching which aftermarket performance part to replace the LCA with, they don't supply the unknown piece but a OEM does show it. I understand it is hard to understand exactly what I am speaking of so I will show a couple pictures of the replacement parts and I will also show you what I am working with.

Aftermarket LCA:
*Fixed

OEM LCA:


That side piece that "permanently" bolts to the LCA is what we are trying to name.
 

lethal6

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Your first picture is of the rear lower control arms. They are completely different.
 


civexspeedy

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lethal6 said:
Your first picture is of the rear lower control arms. They are completely different.
Click to expand...
The LCA posted is the Omni Power front LCA. As far as I know it's the only front aftermarket LCA on the market. Notice the flat ends with the hole, that's for the lower ball joint from the front hubs to go through.

There is really no real reason to get aftermarket front LCA's for anything other than a pure race car. Get your hands on some OEM front LCA's and if you want better performance, replace the bushings. Those Omni Power LCA's are a pretty penny. You might be able to pull some OEM ones off at a junk yard for dirt cheap and just replace the bushings. The only difference would be you won't lose the weight that the Omni Power does. Which isn't a big deal..

Also, I've talked to my friend/sponsor about front LCA options. He had actually considered designing/selling front LCA's but there's a problem. It's very hard to build a front LCA that give you some performance gains(light weight, any sort of adjustability, changes in geometry, etc..) while maintaining the rigidity and safety of an OE part. This is probably why no one, other than Omni, has come up with something that will be great and safe. And Omni only sells one part of the whole front LCA. And I personally question it's safety. I definitely would be very hesitant to run their arm on a street car.
 


jar25201

New Member
Yeah I posted the wrong picture at first... but yeah it does seem that those Omnis are the only ones out there. So i guess my question still is what is that unknown part that attaches to the lower control arm and has the tie-rod connected to it?

And other than that do you see anything obvious or you recommend replacing anyways.


Thanks.
 

CHILD

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Hardrace has front lca's too
 

civexspeedy

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jar25201 said:
Yeah I posted the wrong picture at first... but yeah it does seem that those Omnis are the only ones out there. So i guess my question still is what is that unknown part that attaches to the lower control arm and has the tie-rod connected to it?

And other than that do you see anything obvious or you recommend replacing anyways.


Thanks.
Click to expand...
Check the upper control arm/ball joint, lower ball joint, hub assembly, tie rod and subframe for any damage. Most likely it would be the control arm and tie rod but it's sometimes hard to tell what else might have a very minor bend which could result in alignment issues.

CHILD said:
Hardrace has front lca's too
Click to expand...
The Hardrace arms are OE replacement arms with Hardrace bushings installed, that's all. Easy option to replace your stock arms and if you don't want the hassel of R&R'ing the bushings yourself.
 

~XhAuSt~

New Member
I work at a wheel alignment shop and deal with all these claims all day. 1 thing you would want to check for is like someone said above. Lower C/A, lower ball joint, hub/bearing assembly(most likely would be noisy if you bent the lower c/a, easy way to tell if it has play as well jack up under the suspension and wiggle the wheel side to side and up and down to feel any loose parts, under the side to side wiggle if there is any play could be inner or outer tie rod and or ball joint play, ball joint play can also be felt on the up and down play and can visually be seen if you have a friend help you check it.) another easy way to check if a tie rod end is bent especially the inner is loosen the jam nut and turn the inner adjuster if it spins true you are good. I have seen these vehicles take quite a beating and not bend the knuckle but in case you can check by sticking your fingers in between the tire and body of the knuckle and compare side to see if the side you are questioning has more or less of a difference very noticeably then you can start questioning the knuckle. other than that the alignment shop depending on how could they are should be able to tell you. alot of the time with the front suspension cross member if hit hard enough they can s**t but you can s**t the crossmember back into place to achieve proper SAI and Caster placement as i said an alignment shop should be able to tell you that but if you do get it aligned and they tell you they can't figure it out post a pic of the alignment specs they got and i can try and give you my best guess as to whats going on if you still haven't been able to figure it out.
 

Bombo_Strombo

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The big piece that's connect to the LCA and the tie rod sits in it, is called the front knuckle, which is attached to the hub, which contains the rotor, wheel bearings, and all that jazz.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
 

jar25201

New Member
I am done with that, I replaced the LCA and ball joint, and also my steering rack bite the dust. So after all that she drove like night and day, took it in for an alignment and got that taken care of, ill post a picture of the alignment anyways, cause im proud of myself.

FYI: If a steering rack ever goes out on anyone or getting close, it feels like flat tires or maybe like driving on snow with the same sounds of crunching, it also will drive for you if you let go of steering wheel lightly.
*** YOU CAN CRASH VERY EASY IF NOT CAREFUL WITH A BUSTED STEERING RACK ***​



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