I drive a 2001 Honda Civic EX around New Orleans. The roads here are in terrible shape and have been for years.

My stock struts failed at about 60,000 miles. Those were replaced with Koni Sports (the yellow line). At about 80,000 miles, the compliance bushings were loose and lower control arm assemblies (arm and two bushings) were replaced with OEM replacements. Those bushings lasted about 50,000 miles. Tthe LCAs have been rattling and clunking ever since. Now at 168,000 the bushings are so loose that alignment shifts around noticeably during acceleration, braking, and turns.

I see four choices discussed in this forum: original 2001 OEM compliance bushings, 2004-05 OEM compliance bushings (apparently made in Japan with more heft, but same form factor), poly bushings (Mugen or Energy Suspension), or a fixed bearing (sold for RSX, but apparently fits 7th gen Civics).

My shop says they use OEM only, because they find the poly bushings are much harder and will affect the ride adversely (and these people do performance mods). I didn't ask about the solid bearing.

My goal is to find a solution that will last longer than a year on the rough roads around here. I tending towards the 2004-05 OEMs in the hope that they will last longer without being radically different or more expensive. I'm willing to compromise some on ride quality, but my primary concern is how long these will last.

Advice?

 

I'm in New England and the roads here suck as well. I have an '04 with 56K on it with Koni Yellows on it as well and mine have been drum tight thus far. I think the 04-05 compliance bushing design is a significant improvement over earlier years.

 

Unless you love extremely harsh rides, don't go with the solid pillowball mounts. They're EXTREMELY rough for every day cars. They're a strict track application.

 

On the topic of compliance bushings...is it a hard part to replace? I've done my suspension myself and common bolt-ons. So I feel a little confident about my wrenching.

I let the girlfriend drive the car, afterwards I noticed the diagnoses of what I think are faulty compliance bushings. Just wanted to know what I was against to replace them. Thanks H-T!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by koketsuEM2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">On the topic of compliance bushings...is it a hard part to replace? I've done my suspension myself and common bolt-ons. So I feel a little confident about my wrenching.

I let the girlfriend drive the car, afterwards I noticed the diagnoses of what I think are faulty compliance bushings. Just wanted to know what I was against to replace them. Thanks H-T! </TD></TR></TABLE>

You could have just searched.
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=2231997