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Is it normal for these damn cars to have peeling door fabric, worn engine mounts and leaking front struts after only 40,000 miles?

- I had all 4 door panels (sedan) replaced about a year ago because the fabric peeled off. It is now happening again with the new panels.
- While changing the oil the other day, I noticed the rubber engine mount at the base of the radiator was shot, the rubber hanging loose inside
- After changing the engine oil, I noticed both front struts were soaked with oil (not from the engine)

My wife uses this car to drive the kids to school (6 miles round trip) daily and running errands. She babies the car so it can't be an abuse thing. Cosmetically it looks great, mechanically, it's falling apart. I'm just out of warranty of course.

Has anyone had luck getting these things fixed just out of warranty? I'm trading it in on something non-Honda in the next few months and I'd like to not screw the unlucky person who buys it next.

 
Rep Power: 0

As happen with "home appliances" the manufacturers engineere some parts to be weak than others. This engine mount (front of vehicle) is made with that purpose, to fail. Is this and not the others beacause is easily to replace it, and thats why it is the cheaper of the four. To avoid this damage install a new mount with polyurethane inserts, and will not fail again for the life of the vehicle. And do it as soon as possible because if you don't soon the mount on the timing belt side will become damage and this is over $100 (it is a hydraulic mount).

About the shocks, all this vehicles have the same problem. Replace them with KYB shocks. This will not affect the vehicle height, beacause the vehicle height is about the coil spring. So the KYB will work better in bounce and holes and will last a lot more time.

And if you don't belive me about the mount issues, look where the rear mount is and the difficult to replace it. Even if the front and side mount are worn, the rear mount will last a lot of more milage.