The Honda EMS says that you have to load the weight on the suspension before you close all the bolts (lower A arm). What does that mean?

 

That means you have to jack up the car on the side of the suspension you're about to tigten the bolts on the A-arm. That way when you jack the suspension up on that side you have a load of the car's weight on that side of the car suspension as if it was on the ground and the car's weight was sitting on it compressing the spring.

This makes the suspension compress/load, that way you won't under tighten or torque the bolts. I believe most peopple jack up the suspension on that part that is right below the rotor, i don't know what it is called but it has a nut with a locking pin in it.

 

Thank You.

 

KLN described everything well though I think the idea of pre-loading is to keep the bushings from "winding up".

Without the pre-load, the bushings would "think" this is the normal at rest position. Then when you lower the car off the stands the bushings bind up, and the car will not not sit at the correct height.

I have seen a number of threads where people complain about the front height being taller than the rear (after lowering spring install), only to find this step hadn't been taken.

 

If I only removed the upper A-arm, would it be an ideal choice to loosen all the A-arm bolts (upper/lower) and load them together?