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KYB struts are made in China so DO NOT use them. The quality is not there and your car is pretty much the sum of the parts. Inferior parts = inferior car. You can get the OEM made in USA or Japan struts from an online discount Honda dealer for a little more than the KYBs. Try Honda Parts Unlimited online.
Pretty much any shop can install shocks so shop around.
Be sure to buy the shock boots (like $15) and you might as well buy the mounts for them for the front end because as long as you are paying for the labor you might as well get it done right and at one time. It would suck if the mount broke after new shocks because you have to take the shocks out and pay for all of that labor again.
The kyb struts are considered oe replacements. what the ” indie shop ” is refering to is a strut that comes with the spring verses transfering the factory spring onto the new strut. the kyb struts for your car with out the spring run about 90.00 a piece. it only takes about 5 minutes to change over the spring from the old strut to the new one once the old strut is removed providing you have a professional strut spring compressor which any good shop should have ( please note that if the spring is broken then it will need to be replaced and I would replace both springs as well if a broken spring is found ) if the rear struts are found to be ok ( no leaks from the seal , no sagging , proper rebound ) then you can probably get away with just doing the fronts for now. also, the car will need to be aligned after the strut repair so make sure who ever does the struts has the equipment to do the alignment otherwise you will have to take it to an alignment shop which means an additional expense.
KYBs aren’t made in China (at least the ones I’ve used), and they make a good shock/strut. Maybe some models are, but I haven’t seen any.
When I had a Toyota Celica I shopped around for shocks and researched every kind that was made for my car. KYB was the OEM supplier to Toyota and made their struts in Japan to cut down on transport or perhaps taxation costs when the car was new and bulit there. The KYB replacement was made in China for that car. I am not saying all KYBs are but most all of the aftermarket parts are made in China these days. For the Celica I wanted to go with a gas charged strut instead of just oil school oil damping that was stock. Bilstein touring class and heavy duty struts were the only after market lines I found not to be made in China. The touring class were German made and the HD were made in Japan.
shockwarehouse.com used to sell them years ago and if you pick to go that route I would call and specifically ask them where it is made and if they do not know ask them to have someone in a warehouse somewhere physically walk to the box of the model number you need to find out.
Hondapartsunlimlited has the stock Honda struts for your car for $99 each for the fronts.
part numbers
51606-S87-A03
51605-S87-A07See the whole diagram here:
https://www.hondapartsunlimited.com/ind … 20ABSORBER99 bucks each is probably a little higher than the ones you can walk into Autozone to buy though.
Don’t use the KYB as mentioned above. The impace you mentioned did not cause the strut to fail as that is what it is designed to do, dampen impacts. That said the rid quality will suffer if you use anything but OE struts. You don’t need to replace the rears but you do need to replace the fronts as a pair. The quality and ride of the OE struts is second to none in my experience and I have yet to find anything in the aftermarket that lasts as long or rides as well.
I also think it’s important to note that your tires have a great deal to do with ride quality as well so if you’re running something other than Michelins I’m sure the ride quality and noise would improve dramatically if you went with those. BTW Michelins were the OE tires for that car.
thanks all, for your opinions and advice.
i stil don’t have a good idea as to how to proceed………..
eric: do you mean that i should stick . with honda struts? does OE mean ONLY the honda brand in particular, in this context? i have heard some mechs. use OE even for brands that are not honda. if i buy the honda struts online myself , then i don’t know how to find a good mechanic who will use the material i provide…………………….plus , i don’t know what else they will find broken once they start to dismantle the car:::::: will they find the springs broken too after jacking it up………and if they do, i will need to provide those too, and that will take 4-5 days ………….so it seems a little difficult to pull off without knowing for sure in advance. i dont know how much is a reasonable rate to pay an independent mechanic to do this work if i can find one who is willing to work with my parts. next question is : why did the original honda struts break? if these are the best then they should have lasted more than 66k and not started leaking..don’t you th?ink?…….eric: what has been your experience? as far as the tires : i just purchased 4 new goodyear assurance fuel max tires for the accord during thanksgiving…………they seem fine so far……………….next time i will buy michelin…………….
texan-176:
thanks for link to the parts website…..interesting to know that the struts are the same as shock absorbers. did i read this correctly? i cant tell which are the boots and the mounts from that schematic…can you tell me?diofan: yes i knew about the alignment…………..one more expense!!!! is the shop supposed to do it for free when they are doing a bigjob such as strut replacement?
OEM parts are the way to go if there within your budget.
Just remember you get what you pay for when it comes to automotive parts.
To be honest the LACK of miles probably took it’s toll on those struts but before we go any further how do you know they are bad? I know the ‘dealer’ told you they were but it’s not hard to go out and look for yourself. You’d be looking for an oily residue on the outside of the strut coming from where the shiny metal rod goes into the strut assembly, if you see a lot of oil here then yes replace them but if you only see a little don’t worry about it as it will probably be some time before it fails completely. Dealer techs work flat rate and this time of year they need to make ‘Christmas money’ so they may have a tendency to ‘nit pick’, those struts may not be as bad as you think, post a pic if you have questions and we’ll all have a look at what you have and take it from there.
Yes I mean Honda struts, I know your opinions are colored by your experience and perception that the OE struts aren’t any good but trust me put anything but Honda struts on that car and it won’t feel like the same car in fact it will flat out suck.
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