Does replacing rear struts affect alignment, assuming the tech knows what he's doing? Here's why I ask...

One of the rear struts on the wife's 2006 CR-V (44k miles) is coated with road grime (it looks very different from the others), indicating a leak. The ride is still fine, and nothing showing up on the garage floor, so I plan to put this off for a while. However, I just drove the car on a trip and noticed it pulls to the right.

I'm concerned that if I have the car aligned now, and then replace the struts later this year, it might throw the car back out of alignment. On the other hand, I prefer to go ahead with the alignment right away to protect tires, but I don't want to have to pay to have it done again after I do the struts.

Advice would be appreciated.

 

If you replace it with the same stock strut, it should have no effect on your alignment.

 

Great point. I should have mentioned I plan to install Monroe OESpectrum. It's supposed to be a direct replacement, so I guess my question is whether this particular strut (on rear) would affect alignment.

 

It wont affect the alignment, but those Monroe shocks aren't much good. You're a lot better off going with a KYB GR-2/Excel-G. Tokico blues aren't bad either but tend to be a little stiffer than stock. To be totally honest I'm surprised it needs a shock at 44,000 miles, the OEM Showa shocks will normally go a long time, It's not usual to get 200,000 miles out of a Showa shock and I've seen some go to 250,000 and not be blown.

 

Yeah, exactly my thought. Can you or someone else confirm the diagnosis? Last time I had oil change, the inspection report indicated "rear shocks leaking" along with price for replacing all four (no surprise). I got a quote for just doing the rears.

Since there's no evidence of fluid on the garage floor, I grabbed my shop light and looked for myself. The two fronts and right-rear shocks were a bit dusty but black cylinders and logo markings are clearly visible. If I wipe with a dry rag they look pretty much new. But the left-rear is nasty looking; the cylinder is coated with road grime. A dry rag doesn't do much except make the rag dirty. I assume this is a smoking gun for a bad shock, right?

BTW, given the low mileage on the vehicle, I asked the shop about replacing just the one. They recommended against that. But given what you said about OEM shocks typically lasting *much* longer, I'm thinking I'll just have the bad one replaced. I doubt we'll keep the car longer than 4 or 5 more years, so at 6k miles/yr, it's unlikely to see much more than 70k total before we sell it. What do you think?

 

Did you check other components around that area? Axle boot? Maybe something else is leaking?
When I blew my struts, I had oil pouring everywhere - there was definitely a lot of liquid and would be impossible to not notice.

 

Nothing obvious. I guess I should use some solvent to clean the area so I can verify the source.