knightreaper17

Hi everyone. I have somewhat of an unusual issue... I have been carrying around a lot of medical product in my trunk for the last 30K miles or so (car has ~55K). My TL is starting to fishtail when I go over bumps. Acura service is telling me i need to replace the whole rear suspension for $1,500. I'm not ready to drop this kinda dough into the car for it to happen again in 30K miles. Do you think the suspension would last longer if i go with stiffer aftermarket springs (aspec?) and maybe a rear strut bar. Thanks for any advice!

MAJ

jchcmax

What does the $1500 include? Replacements of parts and/or labor? I'm curious to know what parts are going to be replaced. This is a very unusual incident. You must be hauling some really heavy materials in the trunk. Even having passengers almost daily shouldn't have this affect on your suspension.

knightreaper17

Thanks for the reply. I also thought this was unusual. I am carrying two fullsize suitcases at ~50 lbs each and a 30 lb portable computer (imagine its max 150 lbs in the trunk). Have some stuff in the back seat also but no more than 50 lbs. What else could cause fishtailing on hitting bumps in the road?? It's managable when its dry out, but when its wet, I feel uncomfortable driving her. I just bought the comptech RSB in hopes that it will fix it somewhat. Tires are OK. I would enjoy having the Aspec suspension, but not quite ready to drop the $800.

To answer your question: The quote was for the whole rear suspension.. springs, struts, control arms, etc. plus installation. I found the installation instructions on this site for both the RSB and the Aspec suspension and feel relatively comfortable doing it myself, but like you said it seems odd that the stock suspension would fail after this short time (35K) with this amount of weight.

knightreaper17

Nice 18" rims jchcmax!

Will Y.

1) Sounds like a tire problem- you mentioned that "tires are OK," but it sounds like you're at the end of the useful life of your tires. That is also the most likely reason for car to step out in the wet. "Tread remaining" is not the same as "tire life"; I've had tires with 50% tread remaining that were at the end of their life due to heat cycling & rubber deterioration. I'd suspect the tires if you have over 20K on the rear set, even if there is tread left. If you have EL-42s, that's most likely the problem (see numerous threads here).
2) Suspension replacement seems like BS to me. 150 lbs isn't much, unless your weight is unusually high as well. Only wear item might be the strut inserts, and generally you can tell if they are leaking or are worn. How did the techs arrive at this conclusion-- did they measure drops at rear suspension, etc.? If so, then maybe it is the suspension, but otherwise, not likely.
3) If you have some sort of rear suspension problem, you should ask Acura to pay for repairs since it would be highly unusual to have suspension parts failure and your car is just outside the warranty mileage.
G/L, and let us know the answer!