I was speaking to the mechanic at my dealer who works on the car and i was BSing with him about the suspension 07-08 and 04-06 he told me that alllllll the struts (auto,manual,type s, standard) are all the same. the spring are what they change even the aspec..... the strut is the same junk as all the others.... I know this has been a discussed topic but Ive never seen or heard an answer til i heard it from dude the other day.

 

Yep.

 

that's interesting. I guess they just label base shocks/struts as TypeS and Aspec and include different springs...

 

your mechanic is telling half truths, the struts are designed the same but have different valving, thus aspec and type s struts are stiffer than base tl struts

 

^^^There's some article on the ASPEC package where they say that.

 

Does knowing that change anything in the way you shop? Just asking...

 

yea for sure instead of going crazy when lets say the aspec struts break you can just order regular struts n replace them without problems. the dealers bust balls when "it's not supposed to break" and its broken. Different valving? I dunno bout that... I took my stock m/t setup apart and the auto setup apart and the aspec apart and they all feel the same on the return (when you push down n wait for the piston to return to starting position).....and all the parts i just mentioned I have a extras lol so toying with it isnt a problem.

 

I don't doubt the designs are VERY *similar*, but am not convinced they are exactly the same.

If they were identical, it wouldn't make much sense for Acura to have so many part numbers. I wouldn't put it past them to create a few part numbers for some consumer mis-direction, but there are far too many part numbers to manage just for that IMHO.

 

Tripping...if that were true, it would definitely help avoid a bitch session at the dealership over right and wrong of the break, but if it is off by even a small amount, doesn't that make it unsafe?

 

nonono mine r fine....no bitch session bro... becuz id win... lol. bear I understand where ur comin from but i dont believe they are different they make so many part numbers to be able to charge diff amount of $$ depending on what options u want. and all they do is swap out springs. maybe thats y they come pre-assembled so you dont and cant see the diff in return rate on the struts....I would like to know acuras reasoning and truths on this. the management on part numbers is easy the first set of characters are the actual part numbers...the next few is what car the part goes on and the last set is production date... obviously its all coded for them to understand... thats how parts explained it to me.

 

I've seen plenty of part number on various cars that were for revised parts, but functionally identical. However I dont really believe that's the case here.