How do I know when My STRUTS can’t strut no more?

[Nick]

Hello fellow car aficionados!

I am the proud owner of a Honda CR-V 04 (sort of similar to Eric’s Honda Element) and I have a question regarding my struts! Being ~10 years old, I’m wondering if the lack of comfort in the ride of my car is due to the struts being old. How do I know if it is worth investing +1000$ to cure her arthritis?

So here is a picture of my rear left strut; there was no leakage, just dry rust flaking.
The rear right one apparently was a bit leaky, but no rust.
Also posted a third pic of my rear calipers/rotors. I know they got rusty here in Montreal, but when is a good time to change the rotors? They’ve been turned once and I’m at 115k miles.

Thanks
Nick Sin

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Topic

[dave]

1. Change your struts when there is visual evidence that they are no good (leaking), when they ‘clunk’ when going over bumps, or when your suspension fails a ‘jounce test;’ simply get up on your fender, bounce up and down and then get off the car. If the car oscillates more than 1 1/2 times, then the struts need to be replaced. Perform the same test on the rear bumper as well.

You can save a lot of money by changing struts only as opposed to buying loaded ready mount struts, which cost about $150 a piece.. as opposed to struts only which cost $70 or $80 a piece.

Struts need to be replaced in pairs.

2. Machine your rotors only when you experience brake pedal pulsation or when there are visual defects that would warrant resurfacing of the rotor.

Here is some ETCG goodness demonstrating strut replacement:

[twiggy]

EVen if the struts pass the bounce test, they could still have an issue with binding inside. The rear struts on my 13 yo van easily passed the bounce test but I changed them because they were severely corroded to the point there was no more dust shield.

After removing the old struts, they were clearly binding with a scraping sound inside to the point where the plunger wouldn’t return out after pushing in. But there was no issue with the dampening function. My ride was vastly improved with new struts.

I’m not sure how to test for this on your car so maybe others with more experience than me can chime in. But my guess would be to put a marker next to your bumper and bounce that corner several times and make sure the bumper settles to the exact same spot every time smoothly.

[college man]

I don’t think a new set of struts would hurt. when you drive the
car and stop hard without locking up the brakes. see if the cars nose
dives. if so replacement. As for the brake rotors.If they have been
turned once. replace them next brake change.

[EricTheCarGuy]

Honda struts don’t go bad often and when they do I STRONGLY recommend you replace them with Honda struts. Fail to do so and it will never ride the same again. I have yet to find an aftermarket strut that works as well and lasts as long as the Honda OE’s. That said, they are expensive so only replace them if you see leakage on the strut, if not, leave them alone till they do.

[Nick]

Well, my rear struts are rusted on the lower shaft on one side, and had a greasy leak on the right side. However, since I just got the car, I’m not sure if they are suppose to work better than they are. So unless I’m feeling like I got bombs going off in the back end like after a seriously misadventured mexican meal, I’m not touching them unless its determinatively untolerable or seriously damaging.

Thanks for the reply Eric

[Dave]

What wrench turner didn’t say is that loaded struts or strut assemblies are a bolt in affair but getting just the struts require extra parts and labor. If replacing struts only one also needs upper strut mounts (have to take them off anyway so just put new ones in) and the labor and need of a strut compressor.

At work we just get the loaded struts it comes out the same price or cheaper than changing struts only.

[Author]

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