1997 Honda Accord – brakes, CV joints, and more

Hi Ericthecarguy:

I wanted to thank you for making the videos on changing lower ball joints (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd5IcN3yjsg), brake rotors (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xIUAMl-oRQ), replacing CV joints (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jydxpsh13WQ), and coil spring replacement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce5c6eUPW4s). These videos were quite helpful as my 1997 accord just needed that.

Of course more things went into the car than originally thought. The original work only called for coil replacement and brakes, but as I was dismantling the front of the car, I found one CV joint leaking grease while the other one rusting away; the lower control arm bushings having more than a few cracks in the rubber; and the dampers being quite rusted. Since all was dismantled, might as well fix it all at once.

To add to that, I tried replacing the back rotors and brake pads. But the bleeder valve on one caliper just broke and on the parking brake spring on the other wasn’t completely retracting; end result – two new brake calipers at the back in addition to the rotors and pads.

Everything seems to work great. Brakes have been tested in an empty parking lot by quick (for a 97 accord) acceleration and hard braking. There was no shaking of steering wheel or steering because of the brakes. ABS works as well. Before you know it, the car will have an old body, but all parts inside will be new… well, I might buy a different car before that…

I used this MacPherson spring compression tool to compress the coils; I found it quite easy (and safe). And lastly, size of the hammer does make a difference!!! I left some hammering marks when I used the ‘lighter’ hammer.