Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum, but I've been reading it for a while now. I own a 2001 civic LX. I knew I had a suspension problem for a little while and recently I noticed that my front struts are leaking grease and are totally shot. I need to replace them, but I wanted to know if I can just replace the shock absorber or do I have to purchase the entire assembly with the springs and the mounts, etc? I work at a Honda parts center so, believe it or not, it is probably cheaper for me to put honda parts in instead of aftermarket ones. I won't be doing the work, and I'm not very mechanically inclined, but I appreciate any help you guys can offer.

 

If you can buy them all in one piece ( i am not sure on this) it would be cheaper because then you don't need a spring compressor to put your old springs on your new struts.

shop around though for prices. even go used if you have to. as in the for sale thread at the top has OEM struts for sale.

 

And you can't figure this out at work?

Click here and have a look.

 

As a suggestion, I'd go with a quality aftermarket strut. I have Koni Yellows on my 2000 (don't know if they're available for this generation.) They were about the same price, and I used them with 600lb springs for autocrossing as well as stock in the winter. ~100K later, they're still as good as day one.

Stay away from AGX or any of the cheaper coilovers and such that seem to be too good of a deal; far, far away...

When I worked in the industry, we used to call the factory stuff 'lot shocks', because they were really only good for getting the car off the lot. On a smaller car like this, it may not be to big of a deal. On my VW R32, at 30K I could barely keep the car on the road due to the body motion not being damped. On the 2003 Civic I'm fixing up now, they've been leaking since 40K (now has 190) and wheel motion is still controlled. Since it's going to be my beater, I'm leaving them until the wheels are bouncing off the ground.

 

Ha, yeah I could figure that out at work. What I was really wondering is, would the other components be damaged as well? Now that I've read this I think ill just purchase the shock absorbers from my work so long as they are cheaper than some decent aftermarkets (I think they were $66/each...might have been $88). Ill rent the spring compressor and change them myself/with the help of someone who knows what they're doing.

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

if you're replacing the shock absorber, it might be a good idea to replace the dust boot too. the dust boot will rip over time causing dirt to destroy the shock absorber.

 

Thanks, I'll be sure to do that.

So the factory shock absorbers are $88/each through my work...not a great deal seeing as they can be had from some of these online dealerships for a few dollars more. Good thing is that I can just bring them home from work, don't gotta pay to ship them etc.

I'm not really trying to make my car better than it was designed to be...definitely not looking for performance shock absorbers or anything like that; but are there any aftermarkets out there that would give me a significant increase in ride quality and, more importantly, durability for around the same price?

My ride isn't so bad that I can't control it when I hit a bump, it's just really stiff and I get a lot of front end noise just from running over sewers. I don't have to rush into fixing them, so I'd like to make sure I'm not making a poor decision when I could have waited and done more research/saved a little more cash.

Once again, thanks for the help everyone.

 

For $88 each? Eesh, that's wishful thinking. You might want to look around in the suspension section of the Sponsor Marketplace to see if there are any deals floating around.

 

my advice is ask one of the techs in the shop, you can buy everything seperate.

 

I'm pretty sure he's aware of that, considering his input in this thread.

 

We actually don't have a shop or anything, just a warehouse. I'm not sure that buying the parts seperate would save me much money, and wouldn't it defeat the purpose of replacing the whole strut if it still required the work to put it all together?

What I meant by 'saving some cash' in my previous post was not spending less than $88/each on aftermarkets, but saving up more money and increasing my budget a little. Sorry for the confusion.

Ill check that link, thank you.

 

Of course it would, the price difference between just the dampers and replacing the complete unit is significant.

What exactly are you asking here? Whether you replace just the damper, or the complete assembly, it will require some work. Would it be easier (less work) to replace the entire assembly rather than just the damper? Yes, because you will need to swap the components from your old damper to the new one whereas the complete assembly will not require the extra labor. It's up to you how much you're willing to spend, and how much elbow grease you want to put into it.

It might be worth it in the long-run. Tokico blues are a common OE-type replacement, but again you'd have to swap springs and everything. If you're looking to replace the entire assembly, you might want to save up for a complete coilover kit. They're quite a bit more money, but easier to work with and will provide a substantial increase in ride quality.