Compliance Bushings
 

I went to the dealership and was informed that I needed new bushings the quoted price 560. is this a reasonable price. Also, they sited this as the reason my car was making a slight vibration when I drive over 45mph. I did not experience this until I had my brakes done. Is it possible that this could have been done when I got new front brakes?

compliance bushings? Meaning lower control arm bushings? at least that's what google thinks a "compliance bushing" is. Tell them to GTFO for that price. The parts are expensive (you can search why) but they're probably raping you on labor. It's a simple ass job for any monkey to do.

LCA bushings and a brake job are really Apples and Oranges. Pretty doubtful have a brake job done would do anything negative to those bushings.

These goes bad on the TSXs as well, all the double-a-arm front suspensions Honda makes are essentially the same. I have a slight vibration at higher speeds depending on which set of wheels I have on my car, but my mechanic checked out the car and said the suspension is fine - I think he might have not checked the bushing carefully enough.

Also, these bushings must be pressed out and the new ones must be pressed in, and they are directional (at least on the TSX) so you have to make sure to line up the angles before you press them back in. Not as easy as replacing an upper a-arm ball joint for instance. I believe you will need a special tool and press to make it work.

But, I wouldn't have it done at a dealer, I would have a normal shop do it and just watch them, it will probably end up costing you much less.

They quoted me $480 this Saturday to replace mine. They cost about $8 a piece online ($38 each my local dealership) so they trying rape you on the labor which isnt bad seeing what they have to do. I talked them into selling me them for $30 a piece and my buddy and i installed them. Total job cost me $62.xx. if you have access to a press an possibly a lift do it yourself.

Can't imagine why you would need a lift. But here is the info on the compliance bushings:

The bushing itself is #10 in the pic below, and there are two different versions. The standard version is part number 51394-SEP-A01 and cost $26.46/ea from an online place like AcuraPartsWarehouse (not $8 unless your talking aftermarket). The Type-S version is part number 51394-SEP-A11. It's stiffer and cost about half that at $14.01/ea. If your skilled enough to remove and install a lower control arm, then you can simply take all the parts down to a machine shop and have both bushings pressed for about $20-30. If you don't understand suspension (like poping balljoints or the proper way to install bolts), you may just want a shop to do this for you. Should not cost more than 1 hour labor.

http://www.acurapartswarehouse.com/d...arm-226560.png

Sorry but I must retract my previous statement. It turns out the 04-06 compliance bushing is stiffer than the 07-08 bushing (including type-s). I guess I just assumed Honda would use a stiffer bushing on the Type-S. I guess that's why the older bushing cost more.

Sorry!

Re-cap: More expensive bushing = stiffer bushing.

^ i just read that thread as well!

see if this company makes anything for your car. I am going to do these. My Toe keeps getting knocked out

http://www.superpro.com.au/find-supe...ton=Search+Now

Man, have you ever researched poly bushings? By design a poly bushing is only meant to allow rotation of the inner sleeve about the axis of the through-bolt while providing minimal cushioning from the road. In a bushing such as this that must roll, the poly will bind and/or crack.

BTW: Here is what a poly compliance bushing on an Integra looks like after a couple years (completely shot). And this is a more conventional bushing design (unlike our TL's sideways bushing).

http://www.k20a.org/98specr/Suspensi...20Bushibng.JPG

I would NEVER install poly suspension bushings on any of my cars.

Lets not forget, the rear bushing on the lower a-arm of a double a-arm suspension is tuned to have minimal conical rate (for soft vertical wheel rate) while achieving a desired radial rate. The radial rate is going to control your bump steer - I would not mess with the stiffness of it. If you put in some other bushing you plan on getting to last longer, it will have a negative effect on either your bump steer or you K&C in general.

With that being said, the geometry of the type-s must be different to where it doesn't need as stiff of a bushing back there. Probably because the stiffer vertical rate means the suspension doesn't articulate as much over bumps, meaning the a-arm doesn't need to do as much work to control the bump steer effect, and they can soften it up. As for the 07-08, it probably has a softer rate because they noticed that the 04-06 models actually had too much bump steer.

I think the TL and the TSX have the same setup.

Anyway, I haven't looked at mine yet, but the car does feel a little different, so I think I might take off my wheel and give it a look.