rotor problems

Well... 'technically', i believe the screws do much more than just hold the rotor for the assembly line. They do a pretty effective job of accurately re-lining and indexing the rotor up so that it sits perfectly center. Without the screws in place, a rotor could be a couple thousandths off-center, and while you may never notice any problem with it, or vibration, or abnormal wear, you could make a case that they arent 'needed'... However, it would be "technically accurate" to reinstall the rotor with the screws in place, because a "couple thousandths out" is still "a couple thousandths out" no matter what the application or importance of that "thousandth".

Besides.... keeping the rotor in place on the assembly line? c'mon, there are way less expensive ways of doing that from a manufacturing perspective. To hold the rotors on with screws required another drilling and tapping operation to the hubs, a drilling and countersinking operation to the rotors, and aquisition and purchasing of God knows how many little screws, not to mention the machinery required on the line to install those screws properly...

I jack the front of the car up using the front crossmember (just below the radiator). There's a little "dip" in the crossmember where it bulges downward a little, just in the center of it. Fits perfectly in my floor jack cradle. Jack it on up, put the jackstands under the jacking points just behind the front wheel openings, and make sure it's good and secure on the jackstands before crawling underneath.

Don't worry about damaging your lower control arm, though. Those buggers are tougher than you'd think. I smacked a curb pretty hard with my old Civic hatchback, and it bent the chassis, NOT the control arm! Cast control arms are strong - stronger than what they're attached to, in fact. Might be why the later Hondas went to stamped arms. Well, that and they're a lot cheaper to manufacture.

I had to replace a lower balljoint on my Accord last weekend. The new one cost $30 at the Honda dealership. Not cheap, as such, but not terribly pricey, either. I can't imagine the CRX ones being any more than that, and you know the quality's there. I also paid a machine shop $20 to press the old one out and the new one in. So $50 as the total cost for a bad balljoint. Not too bad, in my book.

Mike