I am looking at getting an 04 civic. Do they have the same suspension issues as the 01 model did?
I searched and found that honda did make some small changes, so just want to know if it made it more reliable...

 

The 04-05 AT certainly showed improvement, but I don't know that the suspension necessarily did.

 

Nothing was done to the suspension. The 01-05 is all the same.

 

Yeah, they're all the same. What sort of issues are you thinking of?

 

That's almost entirely true.

With the change of crash bolt size, I thought that maybe, just maybe they had made a small, unknown (for the most part) internal change to improve ride quality or service-life. (55mm vs. 50mm)

More of a fleeting hope than something I actually believe. Had to leave the possibility open, though.

 

2001 model year had plastic strut bearing components, believe that was a one year only production run. Ball joints wear all years depending on your local roads, sway bar links front and rear are a wear item, as well as front compliance bushings. Strut quality improved somewhat in 2002, and some more changes in 2004. 2001 model year destroy struts, my 2001 front struts had been changed in March, and by September they were shot again.

 

Ya, i had heard that the struts in the 2001's die really fast. The suspension parts are not all the same. the 01 and 02 have the same setup in terms of bolt sizes and strut diameter (51 mm) and the 03-05 have the same strut size (55 mm).

So since you have an 04, you need to get suspension parts from at least an 03.