yoyo123

I have an '02 Civic EX with 50K miles. Today I went in for an oil change at the dealership, and when I went to pick it up they told me I'm going to need to replace the front compliance bushings which will cost around $600, which includes alignment. They told me that I may hear a clicking noise because of this. This is what the note says:

TECH NOTES THAT THE FRONT COMPLIANCE BUSHINGS SHOULD BE REPLACED, FRONT RIGHT SIDE IS TORN THROUGH 1 SPOKE AND LEFT FRONT SIDE HAS DEEP CRACKS.

Sure enough, when I was riding for a while after picking up the car, I noticed a clicking noise while riding. The thing is, this noise did not happen before I dropped the car off in the morning.

What I would like to know, is:

1. Is $600 reasonable?

2. Is it possible the tech did this on purpose to get the extra business?

Thanks.

s13_240sx_92

600 is too much.. even if their labor rate is 100/hour

http://tegger.com/hondafaq/tsb/civic/x03-039e.pdf

at 50k they should goodwill warranty it for you.

good luck

yoyo123

Well, I called the original dealer where I bought the car (different dealer from the original quote) and they gave almost the exact same quote of around $600. They said labor is $130/hour.

I told them about this bulletin, and they said that unless it's under 36K miles or 3 years, there's nothing they can do.

Oh well, I guess it costs more in California for service. It has to be that, since the parts themselves only cost $40 for both.

I find it odd that I never heard this sound before getting that oil change, but oh well, that's life.

Thanks anyway.

dopes6070

iTrader: (25)

buy them and have them installed by an independant shop... It should be WAY cheaper then $600. You could also go with polyurethane bushings which will last the life of the car, but they can get noisy if you dont ever grease them.

eviee1973

Common wear item, are starting to see offshore/aftermarket compliance arms on places like ebay. Should be easy to change complete arm, as you do not need to press in bushings. Just two bolts, and nut on ball joint holding on arm. Add an alignment afterwards, save $.

yoyo123

Just a followup. The dealer which was charging $600 said that the bulletin did not apply to the 2002 Civic, but they were going to do it for free anyway under a onetime goodwill warantee. So it's fixed, although I don't notice anything different. Thanks again everyone. I can't believe I saved $600 on this!

coopab

Here you learned at least two important lessons in DIY auto repair:

1. the squeaky wheel (customer) gets the grease (goodwill warranty)
2. TSBulletins, Recalls, etc. that "don't apply" do apply if you are persistent.
In this case, if you not the date on the TSB it appears that the only reason the 2002 model "didn't apply" is because Honda didn't extend it to that model...yet.

coopab