faran

We are planning to do front suspension work on a 2003 Honda Civic LX @145k.

Will replace outer tie rods, lower ball joints, stabilizer bar ends and LCA's for both sides on the front. I ordered all parts from rock auto.

Found out today, except LCAs(Moog), everything is Beck Arnley and made in Taiwan.

should I be concerned about it? Has anyone used them and how's their reliability?

thanks for the help.

bbarbulo

I like Beck Arnley parts, they are usually premium parts made by the OE supplier. You should have no concerns about parts from Taiwan specifically. In this age of global sourcing, OE parts are coming from all over the place.

One thing you should add to your list is new front sway bar bushings.

I just did everything you said, plus front and rear shocks & springs & mounts, rear sway bar end links... but I forgot the sway bar bushings. I still had a slight knock in the front end, which went away once I did the sway bar bushings.

Even if they don't LOOK bad, replace them. They are literally like $4 from your local Honda dealer.

faran

Thanks, do you have part number by any chance?

How many miles you had when you did all of this work? Did you replace inner tie rods or no?

Also, LCA's are moog problem solver units and are 'Made in China'. I have read not so good reviews about them, but have already bough it. Should I not install them and go with AC Delco (
More Information for ACDELCO 45D3264) and they are made in the good ole USA. Anyone has any input?

bbarbulo

AC Delco is a crap shoot too sometimes. I bought left and right lower control arms from them for my 1993 Saturn, I got one side made in USA, other side made in Taiwan or China (I forget). You would think the dummy picking the parts would at least grab two of the same. They actually looked slightly different.

Just use the problem solvers. It's no big deal.

The part number depends on which size sway bar you have. Best order from the dealer by giving them your specific VIN number. The local dealer ordered me some by year/model/trim, when I went to pick them up I knew right away it wasn't right. Another week wait to get the right ones since it was right around the holidays.

My car has 438K kms on it right now, prob was around 425K kms when I did this work over the summer. I did not replace the inner tie rods. You shouldn't need to unless the car has met a curb or two in it's life or has been lowered extremely or something ridiculous like that. But do inspect them while doing the job, only you can tell if you need them or not. I mean mine weren't super tight, but they weren't wet noodles either - certainly no play in them.