Rep Power: 0

I went to honda concerning a noise when going over speed bumps at low speeds that sounded like it was coming from the front passenger wheel. when i take a turn, i hear a bumping sound like I got something bouncing around the front wheelwells so I assumed it was the suspension or something. turns out that honda gave me a quote to replace the 2 front struts and front compliance bushings for 554. front struts installed - 50 front end align - ,approx 400. front compliance bushings installed. I was quoted for 1000.00 to replace the front end suspension, should I take a look at some aftermarket shops for a more reasonable price since I do not want to take this project on myself or is this the running price to replace the front struts and shocks. if i do take it to another shop, I'm assuming they will not replace it with honda parts so what would you suggest as far as a name brand?? the car is at stock height.

 
Rep Power: 812

okay, dealer is ripoff. first, the noises are normal esp in the winter. i have 6 month old shocks and they are really noisy. it doesnt mean they are bad. were your shocks leaking? how old are they? how did they decide they were bad? the only way i would believe this is if you still have the original shocks from when you bought the car 5 yrs ago. oem shocks also suck, its a total waste to get oems again for that price when you can get some tokico hp shocks for $320 all FOUR sides that are much better. and have them all installed for around $250 at a reputable shop. the best and most expensive shop in town here did mine for $275. its a big job to take that stuff all apart. also now is the perfect time to throw on some mild lowering spring like eibach prokit or tein s-tech for an extra $100-200 since everything will be taken off anyway.

now the compliance bushings are a different story. ive had torn bushings for over 10k miles now, the only bad thing is the wheel vibrates at freeway speeds. its not something that must be fixed, and in fact i dont plan to fix mine for a while. i dont have alot of cash and its not something important to waste what i have on. but i was quoted $275 for labor and the bushings total by a good shop i know and thats on the expensive side using oem parts. i wish i could find some aftermarket bushing because stock sucks barely lasting 60k miles.

anyway, once all thats done, its maybe $90 for alignment. but this is only if your shocks even have a problem. my advice is find a shop you can trust, forget the dealer, i have people calling me all the time telling me how cheated they feel after the dealer says they need a $150 rotor when i can get them an aftermarket one for $40 and pads for $25. its called dealer markup. so yeah ask around, find a shop that does good work and then take it there to have your suspension checked. i bet they will tell you everything is fine. or if there is a problem, you can get some awesome full set of aftermarket shocks, both front bushings, installed, maybe some lowering springs too, and alignment for around $1k if you goto an expensive shop.

people who get work done at the dealer blindly are the ones who dont know any better, like doing the 30k dealer maint service for $500 and all they do is flush some fluids and look at the exhaust pipes. there is a whole world of "better than oem" parts and services where you pay less for quality work and peace of mind that it was done right with superior parts.

 
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thx for responding gearbox, I was hoping you would read this cuz I've reading many of your responses and I trust you. yes the shocks/struts/compliance bushing all have 68k on them and are original from the day I bought them in 02. Honda did say they were leaking. I've actually been hearing this sound over speed bumps over this past summer but really didn't do anything about it. Since I just got my tranny rebuilt (honda covered under 70k warrenty thank you) , I'm trying to fix up some things that have been bothering me

and yes I do have a mild vibration at highway speeds...I totally agree with you about upgrading parts beyond OEM.

 
Rep Power: 812

if i were you, just grab a set of 4 tokico hp blues off ebay, then have em installed with alignment.

should cost

-shocks 320
-labor 250
-alignment 90

and that should last you at least another 50k miles.

 
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what about the tokico illumanas or whatever, I heard that they are a grade above the blues? ps. what are you running on your car?

 
Rep Power: 412

They don't make illuminas for our car, they make D-Specs.

 
Rep Power: 812

^ yeah. my setup is eibach prokit lowering spring (1 inch drop), tokico hp blue shocks all around, and spc camber kit. nice even drop with the new shocks and no sagging on my sedan. good ride too much better than stock.

 
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gearbox, i have the same exact issue as you... but I don't wanna fix it yet either cos of the $$$ money..

 
Rep Power: 227

yeah oem parts and services suck compared to what else is out there. how long do oem shocks last, i have an 03 with 80k and they have never been replaced.
nice gearbox, always good posts from you.

 
Rep Power: 812

my oems barely lasted a couple years if you could even call it that. and another 2 yrs on lowering spring which they could not handle at all. even tho they didnt blow for a while, it felt like there was no shock even installed. total garbage. the tokicos were 100% better and amazing ride with the springs. stock shocks are shameful even when new they bounce all over.

 
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JJJ, where abouts in CT r you from?? I live in the Groton/ Mystic area and have about 54K on my civic and I'm having the same exact problem. Went to Honda to get my OPDS unit fixed and they told me my complience bushings and struts were going, then quoted me an arm and a leg. I'm planning on going with Tokico blues and tein springs or eibach's.

Does anyone think the Tokico's on ebay r legit??

 
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I'm from the new haven area...lemme know where you go for a shop around here?

 
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locally here in groton there's a place called Karns, they did my exhaust and alot of work on my boys car. I'm planning on having them do my suspension this summer. I know Swift motorsports is good and 411 doesn't do too bad work. check around see who has the best prices.

 
Rep Power: 346

I think that I'm due for this work too. I'm at 142k on all stock stuff (2001 Sedan), and plan on keeping the car another couple years, hopefully 200k mi.

On bumps, the front end is rattling all over, like something's completely undone itself.

When I had the 105k work done, they noted that the struts were leaking, and there was a crack in the compliance bushing, I think they quoted around $800 for both.

I just wanted to confirm that the rattling is a typical symptom of the dead bushing (it sounds reasonable). I'll probably go aftermarket on the struts and have them installed somewhere local (any shop suggestions in the Chicago area?). I plan on keeping the stock ride height (stock springs), will the Blues still work fine?

Thanks a lot!

Ed

 
Rep Power: 812

yup my bushings are dead at 70k miles and i get very bad vibration and steering wheel shake on the highway. no money to fix now so i avoid freeway. get tokico blue for stock springs.

 
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gearbox my bushings are bad too, but I did find some poly bushing which are made by Energy suspension which people say are good. But when I asked my local shop if they could do the work they said they've never heard of compliance bushings and told me to replace the whole lower control arm. So for now I'm just gonna ride the cracked one's.

 
Rep Power: 332

this is a good thread, very informational. Nice break down on the prices, very typical replace setup. Its been something I was thinking about for a while. Tokico's and all. And a spring replacement.My sprints are too low for me. almost +2" drop.

 
Rep Power: 412

screw that ****. Call up a good performance, classic car, or machine shop and ask them how much they will charge to press out/in 2 bushings. Basically, you take the arm to them with the new bushings and they replace them. It shouldn't cost more than $40-50 for them to do it. It takes like 20 minutes.

 
Rep Power: 0

Which bushing are the ES bushings replacing on this site: http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/...tcgry5=KNUCKLE

#12??