Rear Damper Replacement 2001 Odyssey

[EricTheCarGuy]

This is part of a little mini series that I’m doing with the Odyssey. You’d thing a job like this would be straight up parts replacement. That’s the thing about auto repair, it’s not always what you think it will be.

Topic

[aaronac8]

Where do you get the acetylene and oxygen gas…I know harbor freight sells the oxy-acetylene torch set up with the tanks?

Excellent video… As usual

[EricTheCarGuy]

You’ll need to find a local outlet for those items. You might be able to find a local supplier for the gas. You can also check with any welding shops.

[Matt]

Hey Eric, thanks for the great video!

Aside from waiting to them to leak, is there a time when you would suggest replacing dampers preemptively?

[EricTheCarGuy]

[quote=”MfromVan” post=73964]Hey Eric, thanks for the great video!

Aside from waiting to them to leak, is there a time when you would suggest replacing dampers preemptively?[/quote]

I wouldn’t worry about them until they started to leak. They are simple devices. Once the oil starts to leak out it’s time to replace them. You really shouldn’t have to worry about them until that time.

[Gumpy Guss]

Hey Eric,

Saw your video about changing dampeners, what I call “struts”. Good show. I notice you did show that you had to heat up the nut, but it’s been my experience at least in 10 yr old Hondas and Acuras that have lived in Minnesota, the bolt usually is stuck tight inside the bushing. I’ve replaced four struts and every time I had to take an air grinder and cut through the bolts and bushings and push out the old bushings and put in new ones. Quite a job for a shadetree mechanic. I understand that if these cars had lived in Texas, the bolts might have come right out. I once had to replace the muffler on a car from Texas and the bolts just backed right out. Amazing.

Just FYI and maybe worth a mention, so folks don’t get frustrated and curse you out, that you made it look not all that difficult. It can be a HUGE undertaking, especially for someone without an air grinder.

[EricTheCarGuy]

[quote=”grg88″ post=74216]Hey Eric,

Saw your video about changing dampeners, what I call “struts”. Good show. I notice you did show that you had to heat up the nut, but it’s been my experience at least in 10 yr old Hondas and Acuras that have lived in Minnesota, the bolt usually is stuck tight inside the bushing. I’ve replaced four struts and every time I had to take an air grinder and cut through the bolts and bushings and push out the old bushings and put in new ones. Quite a job for a shadetree mechanic. I understand that if these cars had lived in Texas, the bolts might have come right out. I once had to replace the muffler on a car from Texas and the bolts just backed right out. Amazing.

Just FYI and maybe worth a mention, so folks don’t get frustrated and curse you out, that you made it look not all that difficult. It can be a HUGE undertaking, especially for someone without an air grinder.[/quote]

People curse me out all the time. It’s part of what I do.

I stand behind what I did. In my experience it’s usually the threads that get buggered up and cause the bolt to seize. I believe I mentioned a couple of times in the video that having impact tools to do the work on rusty bolts is a good idea. If the bolt had seized in the bushing things would have gone differently. It would not have come part way out and stopped as it did. I would also have seen the bushing twist as I tried to remove the bolt. That happens mostly on control arm bushings with older Hondas. I’ve dealt with that a time or 2. Probably more than that.

Lastly, they can be referred to as ‘shocks’ but in this case they are not ‘struts’. A strut is a suspension component that supports the weight of the vehicle. In this case, the coil spring is separate from the damper, therefore it is not technically a strut.

Thanks for your input.

[Gumpy Guss]

We’re a bit cross-threaded here, I was referring to the rear things on an 96 Integra, the spring rides on a platform that is welded to the shock, so that makes it a strut, I think?

ANd my point was that while I fully believe that your experience in Ohio was as you related, up here in the land of rain and snow and lots of road salt, every dang time ( 4 times ) I’ve tried to remove the three bolts from that lower control arm, every dang time, with an impact wrench, the bolt is so frozen to the bushing, every dang time, the bushing breaks free of the rubber around it. Then I have to get out the 3 inch air grinder and cut the parts out, and replace the dang $92 control arms.

Why replace the control arms? Cause again thanks to the weather, the little 10mm bolts holding the ABS cable shield, about 80% of those break off. Which kinda locks us into replacing the control arm instead of the slightly cheaper job of pressing out the bushings and replacing them.

I saw another video on Youtube where a guy replaced ALL the buhsings back there, and he removed the bolts with a tiny battery-powered impact wrench, and never a grunt or a need to heat up the nuts. Don’t know where he lived, but I’m thinking like Texas or someplace that never gets a lot of wet and salt.

We got MEAN salt damage going on up here.

So just a caution to everyone that sees this video, things may not go quite as smoothly as you might like if you live above a certain lattitude. Right now I have my newer Integra up on blocks in the driveway, waiting for the lower control arms to arrive, and for me to calm down from two frustrating days of pounding and grinding. Two days, because I work til 5 and come home and there’s only about 2 hours of usable light. And my cheap little compressor only drives the angle grinder for like 10 seconds before the pressure drops below usable, and it takes it like a minute to pump back up. What should have taken like an hour has taken nearly forever and $200 more than expected. Sometimes you’re the bird and sometimes you’re the statue.

[EricTheCarGuy]

[quote=”grg88″ post=74273]We’re a bit cross-threaded here, I was referring to the rear things on an 96 Integra, the spring rides on a platform that is welded to the shock, so that makes it a strut, I think?

ANd my point was that while I fully believe that your experience in Ohio was as you related, up here in the land of rain and snow and lots of road salt, every dang time ( 4 times ) I’ve tried to remove the three bolts from that lower control arm, every dang time, with an impact wrench, the bolt is so frozen to the bushing, every dang time, the bushing breaks free of the rubber around it. Then I have to get out the 3 inch air grinder and cut the parts out, and replace the dang $92 control arms.

Why replace the control arms? Cause again thanks to the weather, the little 10mm bolts holding the ABS cable shield, about 80% of those break off. Which kinda locks us into replacing the control arm instead of the slightly cheaper job of pressing out the bushings and replacing them.

I saw another video on Youtube where a guy replaced ALL the buhsings back there, and he removed the bolts with a tiny battery-powered impact wrench, and never a grunt or a need to heat up the nuts. Don’t know where he lived, but I’m thinking like Texas or someplace that never gets a lot of wet and salt.

We got MEAN salt damage going on up here.

So just a caution to everyone that sees this video, things may not go quite as smoothly as you might like if you live above a certain lattitude. Right now I have my newer Integra up on blocks in the driveway, waiting for the lower control arms to arrive, and for me to calm down from two frustrating days of pounding and grinding. Two days, because I work til 5 and come home and there’s only about 2 hours of usable light. And my cheap little compressor only drives the angle grinder for like 10 seconds before the pressure drops below usable, and it takes it like a minute to pump back up. What should have taken like an hour has taken nearly forever and $200 more than expected. Sometimes you’re the bird and sometimes you’re the statue.[/quote]

Sorry man, I call BS on you here. The video was about the replacement of the rear dampers on a 2001 Odyssey. Nothing has been been said about any Integra rear suspension until you just brought it up.

I’m very familiar with the issues with lower control arm bushings which is why I mentioned it in my last comment. BTW, you don’t have to remove the fastener on the fronts if you run into that problem. If I’m replacing an axle, I just take apart the inner CV joint and slip it through. No need to do all that cutting. All it costs me is a new clamp for the boot. If I’m replacing struts, I just remove the 14mm bolt that holds the strut to the wishbone and remove it that way. I avoid removing the bolt if it’s seized in the bushing at all cost. This saves a lot of time and money. As for the rear control arms, I have to agree on replacing the lower control arm instead of just the bushing. In fact if I have an ABS sensor or rear strut to replace on one of those vehicles I often prep the customer for the replacement of the control arm before I start the job. That way there’s no surprises if the bolt gets stuck in the lower control arm bushing.

But once again, this is about the rear dampers/shocks on a Honda Odyssey, not the problems you run into with struts and lower control arms on Civics and Integras. That’s for another video.

[Author]

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