Blown axle and broken engine mounts. " due to stress of car being low"

nadeesh

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Hey fam, new member/mechanical noob. So any kind of feedback and advise will be greatly appreciated.
Car is bone stock except for d2 coils and some bbs knock off wheels+ some visiual mods.

Long story short, car has been lowered about 3" on all corners on d2 coils for 3 months and daily driven. Right after the install there were a couple of clicking noises but i ignored those as they come and go. (assumed new coils were just settling in) However, in about a month, started hearing these funky clicking noises when shifting (cvt trans) and driving around in general. Finally took it to the dealer to diagnose last week(car is still under warranty) and they initially discovered two broken engine mounts and refused to inspect car further due "it being too low to fit on their lift."
Then I took it to a friend of mine who owns a body shop, he happens to have mechanical knowledge also. And he did discover two mounts that were bad plus the passenger side axle blown at the bearing. He claimed "This is possible due to the stress of car being lowered+hard riding suspension." Now I trust this guy because he is good friend and always does free labor for me. So there is nothing for him to gain from lying to me.

Now I will accept my part of wrong doing for not doing all my research on lowering the car and setting up coils properly for street use. I am just finding out that mid to extreme lowering causes axle to sit at an awkward angle. Also I changed my driving style but to be honest I've been hitting bumps pretty hard on the freeway. (especially those nasty bumps on the 405, for those who know)

Here are some questions and advise that I am looking for from you guys,

1. So according my mechanic even if once I replace my broken parts, there's a good chance of it happening again. he said best thing I can do is raise the car and make suspension as soft as possible. Now I dont mind suspension being soft and i actually adjusted my dampening to 0 (softest possible) on all corners. I was riding at 16 all corners before (0 being softest and 32 to being hardest on d2 coils) But I do not want to raise my car because that defeats the whole purpose of having coils, might as well go back to stock. And to me personally my drop isn't even that aggressive. So are 10th gen civics (non SI, non TypeR) inherently bad at being lowered or does pretty much any car that has being lowered goes thru unfortunate situations like this?

2. What can I further do to my suspension (I don't really want to raise my car) to make it soft as possible. I have not messed with the preload. It is at what d2 set it up to be. Are there any additional parts that I can use to take the stress off the axles and mounts. Will an alignment help?

3. Any feedback on d2 coils? are they too hard for street use? what can i do to make them as soft as possible.
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jakabony

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If you are dropped 3 inches you really should be bagged, so you can raise it up while driving. I am not surprised you blew out some mounts. You are probably stressing a lot of other components too. You can go 1.5-2" on these cars and still have driveability. Any more than that is asking for trouble.
 

Dying2Live

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Stealerships response is what i expected, wouldnt be surprised if they denied you for having a box of kleenex in the back seat. Im on bc extreme lows and have had no issues, i suspect the culprit is you hittng big bumps as you say. if you want to drive low you will have to just re learn everything when it comes to driving vs. stock height cars, avoid speed bumps, driveways at angles and simply accept there are many places that are off limits to drive due to crappy roads. i have memorized every freeway lane from LA to San Diego and already know ahead of time what stretches/lanes to avoid. and definately yes on getting alignment. best alignment places in socal are JC’s alignment in huntington beach and Revolution tire/wheel in Cypress. The first thing after getting tint i usually do is slam the crap out of my cars and have never had any issues doing this for about 28 years and 20+ different cars
 

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Stealerships response is what i expected, wouldnt be surprised if they denied you for having a box of kleenex in the back seat. Im on bc extreme lows and have had no issues, i suspect the culprit is you hittng big bumps as you say. if you want to drive low you will have to just re learn everything when it comes to driving vs. stock height cars, avoid speed bumps, driveways at angles and simply accept there are many places that are off limits to drive due to crappy roads. i have memorized every freeway lane from LA to San Diego and already know ahead of time what stretches/lanes to avoid. and definately yes on getting alignment. best alignment places in socal are JC’s alignment in huntington beach and Revolution tire/wheel in Cypress. The first thing after getting tint i usually do is slam the crap out of my cars and have never had any issues doing this for about 28 years and 20+ different cars
He modified the car outside of the factory specs, and Honda denied a warranty claim... the components the OP described broke as a result of the mods; him and his mechanic friend admitted as such. Not understanding how you feel that Honda is wrong for denying the claim. I'm not picking on the OP here; please don't misunderstand. I'm just baffled that you're thinking Honda is in the wrong here. If you ran a car dealership and a customer brought in a highly modified car that broke due to those mods, would YOU fix it for free, on your dime?
 
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nadeesh

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Stealerships response is what i expected, wouldnt be surprised if they denied you for having a box of kleenex in the back seat. Im on bc extreme lows and have had no issues, i suspect the culprit is you hittng big bumps as you say. if you want to drive low you will have to just re learn everything when it comes to driving vs. stock height cars, avoid speed bumps, driveways at angles and simply accept there are many places that are off limits to drive due to crappy roads. i have memorized every freeway lane from LA to San Diego and already know ahead of time what stretches/lanes to avoid. and definately yes on getting alignment. best alignment places in socal are JC’s alignment in huntington beach and Revolution tire/wheel in Cypress. The first thing after getting tint i usually do is slam the crap out of my cars and have never had any issues doing this for about 28 years and 20+ different cars
Thanks for the shop suggestions, I'll check out Revolution tires. They are close to me and heard good things about them. I guess I just got unlucky, this is my first lowered car lol. I do a pretty good job of avoiding shit on surface streets but yea I need to be more careful on the freeways.
 


Dying2Live

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He modified the car outside of the factory specs, and Honda denied a warranty claim... the components the OP described broke as a result of the mods; him and his mechanic friend admitted as such. Not understanding how you feel that Honda is wrong for denying the claim. I'm not picking on the OP here; please don't misunderstand. I'm just baffled that you're thinking Honda is in the wrong here. If you ran a car dealership and a customer brought in a highly modified car that broke due to those mods, would YOU fix it for free, on your dime?
your right the dealerships are a bunch of angels
 

hobby-man

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your right the dealerships are a bunch of angels
Stop being obtuse, he didn't say dealerships are angels. There are plenty of bad ones and also many good ones. OP modified his car and damaged it in the process. The car is warrantied for how it left the factory. Honda is not obligated to fix his mistake (which he owned up to). The entitlement of people is ridiculous sometimes.
 

slowride

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your right the dealerships are a bunch of angels
He is not wrong though. If we don't move the goal posts around and focus right here on this thread and scenario in it, the dealership was correct in refusing the work under warranty.

However, the OP appears to accept this fact already, so I don't know if anyone else needs to be outraged over it.
 
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nadeesh

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As much as I hate dealerships, I didnt post this to bash the dealer but rather to get advise on preventing axle blow out/mounts going bad. And see if anyone else has gone thru a similar experience due to being lowered. Yall got really carried away lol
 

Ataricade

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lowering it changes the suspension geometry. So it’s going to have stress that it wasn’t designed for.
 


L8apex

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your right the dealerships are a bunch of angels
Where did that come from?

Agreed, as much as we paint the dealerships to be the bad guys, they don't make up the rules and limitation of the warranty. You got a problem with the warranty and what's covered/not covered by it, it's the manufacturer that has pre-determined that.

To the OP, I think a 3" drop is a lot to be daily driven. The adjustability of air bags is nice to have in this situation. Softening the damping on the coilovers may actually allow more movement in the suspension since it damps less of the bumps and the spring rebound. It's not the stiffness that's destroying the CVs and engine mounts, it's the suspension's range of motion that's now outside of the factory spec. Then you've allowed it full travel by taking damping away. Generally, the lower you go, the stiffer the suspension (spring rates and damping) needs to be to maintain the wheel position. You'll end up with a stiffer ride, but that's the tradeoff.
 

Gruber

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Now I dont mind suspension being soft and i actually adjusted my dampening to 0 (softest possible) on all corners. I was riding at 16 all corners before (0 being softest and 32 to being hardest on d2 coils)
Generally driving with a substantially stiff suspension on public roads is a bad idea, even if you don't break your car because of this. Unless you only drive on roads that look like racing tracks. Here's why:

 
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hobby-man

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Generally driving with a substantially stiff suspension on public roads is a bad idea, even if you don't break car because of this. Unless you only drive on roads that look like racing tracks. Here's why:

EngineeringExplained is awesome, I really liked this one the first time I saw it
 

Charley-TX

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What about the shock absorber? Compression/ dampening and rebound rate? Is it constant through out its travel or the rate varies depending on what position it is in the stroke?
I have not researched the Civic's suspension, but on dirtbikes when we switch spring/ change spring rate, dampening and rebound are affected.
A softer spring not always gives plusher ride because with oil filled- valve controlled shock absorber we get different dampening and rebound rate depending what part of the stroke the internal rod is. Meaning initial dampening is soft but 1/4 - 1/2 is harsh. A soft or pre-compressed spring sends the suspension into that harsh portion easier/quicker resulting in a rougher ride. So when we do that we also redo the internal valving. $$$

When I hear or see someone simply takes the spring out and cuts it shorter to lower the car (not the case with the OP), not only it messes up the suspension geometry but will greatly affect how the vehicle will adjust to road conditions, it becomes bouncy.
Same goes when people switch to low profile tires, The car's suspension was designed with certain tire/side wall height which provides x amount of air cushion, and is part of the suspension tuning. When it is altered, yes you will get less tire/sidewall flex but also alters the tune of the suspension. HOw much does it matter on a civic when you go from 18 to 19 inch wheel? I don't know.
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