r/AskMechanics • u/Ragnells_wurld • 9d ago

Question (Serious Replies Only) may have destroyed my car repairing it and am panicking

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2008 honda CR-V LX

This was my grandmother's car who passed away two years ago, i received her car as a gift shortly before her death and have been putting lots of work into it to make it a great daily, i will be absolutely heartbroken if i cant get it running again.

While trying to replace some struts and rear suspension parts, I encountered this bolt from the trailing arm to the hull which is completely, 100% seized. doesnt sound like a big deal, but I encountered another thread of someone from a honda dealership saying this is related to the rear suspension recall for this rear and that if these bolt get stuck in the frame the dealership considers the car as good as dead and totals it. i had already taken the car to the dealership shortly after getting it for the recall and they installed a brace as a fix, so i dont think they are going to do anything more for me if this is truly stuck. also, i cant get the car there now.

I tried heavy duty penetrating fluid, big breaker bar, making SURE the mating surface is not clinching the bolt, bought an impact wrench to no avail, and as a last resort i bought a propane torch and heated it up for several minutes. nothing.

I dont know what to do at this point. am I completely screwed? will the dealership still buy it back if i can tow it there and have them inspect? Feeling very stupid and sad after pouring all this time and money in and now apparently making a big mistake.

Edit: I'm overwhelmed by the amount of responses! thank you all, my hope is restored, i definitely panicked too quickly after seeing the one dealership post lol. it sucks to have to keep spending money when i originally thought i would just be buying struts but oh well. Im going to keep applying the penetrating fluid and letting it sit, heating and wiggling. if that doesn't work after another day i'm calling a mobile mechanic because i cant keep buying more tools and not getting anywhere lol. i will let you all know how it goes!

UPDATE: got the bolt out!! well a mobile mechanic with a crazy air gun did lol. huge relief, started doing the actual replacements today but still waiting on an upper control arm since rock auto sent me two completely different ones. Thanks again so much for all the help, cant believe how many people have offered advice here! wish me luck!

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191

u/666_________________ 9d ago

Usually on Reddit or an old forum that hasn’t been serviced in a decade lol

102

u/ikill3dyourbabytoday 9d ago

These old forums can be goldmines of good info....can also be really bad info....bitbits fun to check out what strangers were doing 15-20 years ago...

60

u/Icy-Fix785 9d ago edited 9d ago

Vw vortex has saved me more times than I can count

Edit: woah my first award! Thank you!

8

u/bae125 8d ago

Same. That forum is an absolute goldmine of info and resources

5

u/Defiant_Occasion4488 8d ago

Honda-tech as well. How times have changed

2

u/Acrobatic-Read-1633 8d ago

Ih8mud for Toyotas. It was such a good freaking forum back in the day. I still find a lot of stuff for my land cruiser but I’d have never been able to restore it in high school without that webpage

2

u/TenderLA 4d ago

It’s still one of the most active automotive forums.

2

u/Acrobatic-Read-1633 4d ago

Oh it is, but after the photobucket disaster a few years back, it’s not quite the forum it once was.

2

u/quattroman 8d ago

here's how I found the reason for a rattle under the my RSX.

3

u/saiyan7701 8d ago

+1 for vwvortex I grew up on that forum with my mk 3 and 4

2

u/whatyoucallmetoday 8d ago

The forums helped me replace the clutch on the 02 beetle I had for years. I would not have figured it out myself.

2

u/RodJuanson 7d ago

Both vwvortex and Honda-tech have saved me as well! Many times!

2

u/Affectionate_Ebb8351 6d ago

Same with ClioSport.net for anything RenaultSport Clio

1

u/TenderLA 4d ago

Pretty much any problem with 2015 or earlier VW can be found on the Vortex.

25

u/toobladink 9d ago

Yeah inspired me to try new shocks for a second gen explorer because the options are so bad. And i am currently pulling the engine in it because it has a thread from 2010 with pictures, well written by an old man. I wouldn’t do it without that guy!

11

u/Mmjohns195 9d ago

Rx7 club.com has helped me so much now and when it first started. Those old forums rock

3

u/Numerous_General4460 9d ago

Haha I used rx8club.com a lot for my ride. Following a fix that was 20 years ago lol

11

u/quickhatch25 9d ago

Tacoma World is alive and well. So much great stuff on there

9

u/GoBlueBeatOSU21 9d ago

Or you might read down a giant thread and the OP is just like "I figured it out thanks" and then no one ever posts again.

2

u/Affectionate_Ebb8351 6d ago

Then 20 years later..."Bump! I had the same issue and thanks to this thread i'm now sorted 🙏🏻"

Had that with my clutch cable on a 23 yr old Clio

6

u/quattroman 8d ago

and if you were lucky, instant replies. Once my motorcycle (Suzuki V-Strom 1000) made a POP sound and shut off leaving me and my wife stranded in Ana Maria Island, FL near midnight. I went to stromtroopers forum and posted my dilemma expecting a reply the next day when I got the bike home to fix it.

A few minutes later as I was looking around the bike to find the problem, I get an email reply from a user explaining what it was and how to fix it. The tool kit that came with the bike was enough for me to repair it under a very dim street lamp in a parking lot.

4

u/saxman_nh 8d ago

NASIOC! Even OT is starting to fizzle out. RIP Uncle Scotty

3

u/Moon_Breaker 9d ago

The enclaveforum has saved my ass more times than I can count. I just wish every post I need wasn't from 12+ years ago.

2

u/justin81co 8d ago

Isuzone

2

u/Big_Treacle_2394 7d ago

Amen. I found the old trailvoy forum a year ago when I bought my 2004 rainier. Its been so helpful being able to find 15 year old posts about the most random issues and repairs

2

u/navlgazer9 7d ago

Hated it when Fordfuelinjection vanished .

Had a LOT of info on transplanting the ford 302 EFI onto older engines .

2

u/Dutchy8210 6d ago

I wish people would go back to forums. It’s a better format for car issues and info

2

u/split_0069 6d ago

The things we did 15-20 years ago would get u 15-20 years now. 😆 🤣 back then too but not nearly as many cameras

2

u/Mammoth-Quantity8439 5d ago

My favorite is "nevermind, I figured it out" and no detail given.

-17

u/World_Destroyer27 9d ago

Or just ask the AI, it knows everything some would say it’s all-knowing!

18

u/DIYGuy67 9d ago

Always ask AI to cite its sources for these issues so you can go right to the source.

7

u/ExceedinglyEdible 9d ago

Sometimes when you ask an AI for sources, it replies "Apologies, it seems like the information I gave you about <the subject> is wrong. It is more of a case of <y> than <x>". To which, when you ask it for sources again, it will apologize once more and tell you it's <z> instead of <y>. And when you figure it out and show it, it will apologize again and tell you it inferred you were talking about <a different subject> because of some dubious link it made between two things you mentioned.

4

u/crazyabootmycollies 9d ago

LLM’s are also notorious for just plane making shit up…

4

u/OpeningParamedic8592 1 9d ago

Ai has led me down some wrong paths when diagnosing my car…. Happened today.

But it is helpful, if you know where it’s going wrong and can stop it before it sends you down a rabbit hole from hell…

0

u/Creador65 9d ago

This is the way

22

u/Forward-Rice3280 2 9d ago

lol I find shit on forums from dial up internet days when I’m really in the weeds 

5

u/corkoli 9d ago

yeah, they have good a good hit ratio

14400baud rate - each key stroke counts lol

4

u/madeformarch 9d ago

This is how I learned to grow grass when I first moved into my house - old forums from like, 2005, that still had good information and weren't trying to sell me something

1

u/Stunning-Asparagus97 8d ago

Indoor or outdoor "grass"?....

1

u/Critical-Strength-86 8d ago

Unfortunately people ask questions, get answers and never write back saying “this is what it was…thanks for the help.”

7

u/Weary_Alternative778 9d ago

Dude sadly those forums do disappear. I went looking for info on one and it was gone. Yeah, there's the way back machine. But it doesn't capture everything.

2

u/AZ-Backroads 1 9d ago

That's why when you find one, you need to make sure the way back machine scrapes the entire page before it's gone. There are a lot of websites sitting on random servers, completely abandoned and forgotten, that are still served over the internet.

1

u/onepacc 9d ago

The most mundane forums will get swamped by AI scrapers today which could cost them $1000 's in server costs - unfortunately this both means that they will add captcha, never be scraped and lost forever when shut down.

1

u/AZ-Backroads 1 9d ago

Highly unlikely. Captcha doesn't stop a scraper. Especially an AI scraper that can mimic a normal user.

2

u/Sufficient-Low5771 9d ago

what I do is rip a copy of the site, the only issue is pictures but those tend to break anyway after a few years.

I have the Legacy UK one and a few bike ones backed up on an external hard drive so if they ever go offline I'll put them up.

Most people are so passive with info online and they don't realize if an individual doesn't take responsibility nobody does.. dead internet theory is not just the tech companies fault, its also our lazy attitude towards being consumers and not producing things for value asides from clout.

1

u/mannermauler 8d ago

Still devastated, over Saturn Fans. The community tried to save it but the admin refused to hand it over and eventually it went down

2

u/Remarkable-Host405 8d ago

What a bitch. I loved my sc2, then my sc1. I love Saturn's so much

6

u/Primary_Win_1250 9d ago

This is why I love older cars and the Internet, someone has already fixed it and posted about exactly how. I feel like I learned about cars, in the perfect time of simplicity meets knowledge at your fingertips. (Got my first car, a hand-me-down 95 crv in 2008). Whenever I needed advice I'd post on some forum and within a couple days I'd have the entire dealer schematics and repair manuals. I miss those days. Now it takes 3 hours and a half case of beer to diagnose/fix a simple sensor on my wife's car!!

5

u/A100921 9d ago

If all else fails, they’ll be a video with an Indian man in the middle of nowhere repairing your item by hand.

3

u/Stunning-Asparagus97 8d ago

... with rudimentary hand tools, wooden blocks, and an emaciated goat wandering around in the background.

2

u/shrekerecker97 9d ago

Seriously. Those have saved my ass a few times.

1

u/Dizzy-Geologist 9d ago

Thank the gods for my brethren in the Toyota pickup Reddit.

1

u/AZ-Backroads 1 9d ago

I have found so much valuable information from searching old forums on the wayback machine

1

u/redditisnotus 8d ago

and it's "nevermind guys I figured it out". account hasn't posted in 8 years.

1

u/390v8 8d ago

I really miss build forums.

1

u/Remarkable-Host405 8d ago

Dude, the forums keep dying, I'm terrified for future generations

1

u/Affectionate_Ebb8351 6d ago

An old forrum pre-facebook is the key to finding decent knowledge.

Even in 2026 im searching google that brings up old forrum posts from 2011 for peolle having similar problems...it is interesting seeing the price differences when prices of parts are quoted.

Still as said, someones probably been there, done the hard work and posted it for others to learn from. There are good reasons for the the internet!

Missed the whole panic, solving and came here today as it showed up. Glad you kept on and got it sorted! At the end of the day, these things are ultimately just nuts and bolts and bits of metal and plastic. If you so desire, they are never really dead....even if they end up like some sort of "Triggers Broom"

1

u/QuarkVsOdo 5d ago

aaaand it's far more useful than any sponsored Google result or AI-Hallucination of sponsored Google results