Hi Guys,

Mine is a 98 2.3cl with 193500 miles on the clock and fast approaching 200kmiles, everything stock timing belt replaced by dealer at 105000 miles.

How would I know that my suspenisons are old and it is time for me to change them??? is there some thing that I should look out for or some kind of inspection that would indicate that my suspensions needs an overhaul?? what would be an ideal life span of the stock suspension and when should it be replaced.

My car rides great or am I not noticing things that should tell me that I need a suspension overhaul.

Now I have read a lot of posts on the timing belt issue and since I am approaching the 200kmiles I am trying to kind of prepare myself for the 2nd timing belt change found this link on ebay,

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Timin...spagenameZWD1V

Is this a good deal and has any one heard of the manufactuere of theses parts, this same seller is also selling KYB shocks (japanese)??? are the KYB's any good. I want to keep everything stock and don't want to sacrifice the stock height, would like to improve on the handelling but without sacrificing the stock height.

The total for all four shocks and the timing belt kit with new shock mounting kit and 2 kits of ployurethane swing arm bushing comes to around $560.00. Is this a good deal.

Any feedback from you cats out there is much appreciated.

Thankx
Javed

 

Come on guys some feedback would be helpful here.....

bump bump

 

You can check your struts for leakage. If you see some of that, then it's going bad, if not already. If your car bounces an unusual amount of times over bumps, then you need to change those struts. Might as well change the strut mounting as well.

I replaced my rears struts with KYB's and kept stock springs. The ride is the same. Supposedly the GR-2's are 15% stiffer than stock. While the AGX are adjustable from stock to uber stiff.

If your struts need replacing, you instantly notice improved handling when you put new ones in. Though more aggressive springs that drop 1.5", should dramatically increase the handling. I have taken this route if I needed to change all my struts. Hopefully, when you replace them your bottom strut bolt is not seized. Mine was and it made things a lot more difficult.

 

The parts on the ebay auction are good parts. I have used those and found them to be good parts. I don't know what brand of tensioner is included. I have used Koyo on all my TB tensioner replacements.

Honda/Acura shocks are very good and rarely fail by leaking. How to tell when their damping is inadequate is not easy? One test I have used is to back over a sharp drop of 1-3 inches at modest speed but not slow, such as from garage to driveway. If you hear a slam as the wheel drops to meet the lower pavement level, then damping may be marginal. A good strut should dampen the impact. I decided I needed struts on my 90 Accord based on this, and there was modest improvement afterwards.

The test usually offered is to bounce the corner of the vehicle and look to see how rapidly the bouncing is dampened. It should not bounce at all. Based on this you would never need to replace any Honda/Acura struts that I have encountered.

good luck