I have a 93 accord, so it's been about 10 years now.
When I drive on the freeway, it feels more bumpy than the road looks and early morning when I drive out dipped driveways and speed bumps, I don't like the sound I hear.
Have the shocks gone bad?
Is taking them out and looking at them the only way to see if they have gone bad?

 

if you push up and down on the front or rear of the car howe does it react?

 

Look at the struts and see if they are leaking.

But You should replace them anyway. Supposed to replace them every 60-70k miles anyway.

David

 

if you push down any corner of the car and it bounces back up more than 1 or 2 times, then they're gone.

 

if it is not broken do not fix it.. why waste your $$$ on something that does not need to be fixed. the struts on my 94 LX coupe are still good and it has 101K on the clock.

 

No. Stock struts on a stock Honda are usually good for the life of the car. They don't need to be replaced unless they wear out, start leaking or make noise.

 

Well if you don't fix it as ALWAYS it leads to other problems then you end up with a big fat problem and the repair bill is sky high.
And that high repair bill could have been avoided by maintenence and early detection.
I had a friend who had swueeky brakes, for the longest time I told his dumb *** to replace the brakes, but he just refused to beleive they were bad because he just sprayed brake cleaner over it and the squeeking would go away.
Yeah needless to say later he had to get new rotors too and the brake job bill was up to the sky.
All that could have been prevented if he only replaced the pads like I told him.
Plus my friend has a BMW 328 (then again BMW's always break down) and when he failed to realize his shocks went bad, his control arm had bent as a result of the bad shock and he ended up with a high repair bill. Once again could have been avoideed if he had replaced the shock earlier.
I don't believe in if it ain't broke don't fix it because it's that saying that leads people to have their car break down in the middle of no where and in the rain.
That's my 2 cents.


[Modified by Peter Parker, 1:25 AM 1/10/2003]

 

my friend got leaking/bented shocks on his teg, 60k.
All my shocks are good, 120K here.

 

Lol you get bent shocks at 60k, that's for one good reason: you've been airborne, dude! Anyways, I must admit I have been too and still managed to last my shocks for 265Ks. Honda shocks are good. Normal driving without abuse and hopefully well built roads will let your shocks last the car's lifetime.


[Modified by sauceman77, 3:17 AM 1/10/2003]

 

if you drive like a normal person your shocks WILL last a very long time(with stock springs of course)...but if you like to jump off bumps or fly off speed bumps you are begging for an early death for your shocks.

 

I drive a '93 4-door, dropped 4 inches. My camber is only off a little, but my stock struts are wasted, they might as well not even be there. I regret that I now have to pay the extra $$ to tear the suspension apart again. I would suggest buying everything at once, or, if you really wanna go all out, buy yourself a Tein or A'pexi full coil-over system. They usually run about a grand to 1600.

 

I'd take the stock shocks out right away, you're asking for trouble, IMO

 

Here's a good check if you can't get a friend to drive next to you, positoin your mirrors down and in so you can see the back wheels, and when you hit bumps if they are hopping around you need new ones. My 93 EX has 252K miles on it and still the original shocks (or are they struts on our cars?) I did replace the sway bars due to an bad creaking sound plus just wanted to upgrade a bit. Maybe your bushings are bad?

 

Dude if it is not broken you do NOT need to fix it. YOU can tell when your struts are bad just by driving the car it will bounce all over the place and have a floaty ride

Inspecting the car is really easy just jack it up and look at the struts and if you do not see any fluid or anything out of the ordinary leave it alone. If you blow out a strut you will know it as it will rattle around every time you hit even the smallest bump in the road.

 

If your shocks are bad, the suspension will tend to bottom out over bumps and dips and it will "bounce" when you rock the car up and down (by hand). Since you're not driving a Chevy, your shocks are probably okay. Just like a few other people said, they usually last the life of the car.

A more common problem we have with that gen. of Accord is broken front coil springs (we stock springs at work but NOT shocks). Broken springs aren't always obvious unless you are looking for them and they will deffinately cause your suspension to respond like a minivan...


[Modified by cjo_28, 5:07 AM 1/11/2003]


[Modified by cjo_28, 5:11 AM 1/11/2003]

 

yeah, as everyone said, you can tell when struts are gone bad. you do not need to replace them before they go. that is not preventitive maintenace, that is just spending unnecessary money at the time. they are not going to kill you unless you are racing around, or if they are really gone, at high speed on freeways. if the struts dies when you are away from home, you car can still be driven, as i said before, as long as you don't push it to the limit.

you can do the bounce test for them. lift the car with your hands and then push it down (like in a rocking motion) and then let it go, if it bounces when you release it, then they are gone, if it stabilizes instantly, then they are good.

 

Wow what BAD ADVICE. Against Preventive maintainence?????

Yes, the Honda shocks are great and can last the life of the car, but they will not hold up like they did new ast 100K+. The best way to know that your shocks/struts are bad is looking at the tire. The struts could look fine on the outside, but looking at the tire can for sure tell you if their bad. Bad shocks cause couping and flat spots in the tire. Couping will cause bad vibration that you cant get rid of so then you go ahead and spend $500 on new tires because you couldn't stand the ride anymore. But you could have taken the preventive maintainence method and saved $300 dollars.

And for you "If it aint broken don't fix it" people, I hope you don't become mechanics cause you'll make me and the rest of the mechanics in this world look bad.

-->David

 

What? Like the techs that replace parts that aren't needed? They already make us look bad.

 

Take it easy there pal. I have lasted my shock absorbers for quite a while, as I stated before, and though they were not as performant as they were for over the last 100,000 miles, I never had premature wear on my tires, in fact I always lasted them longer than what they were rated for. And never did I have to spend a single dollar for any other suspension or direction parts gone bad because of my bad shock absorbers. In fact, other than my prothane bushings and two lower ball joints, it is all the money I invested on my car that was suspension-related.

I understand that professionally, you have to promote the better safe than sorry philosophy if you don't want any comebacks from your customers, but you don't have to be overly cautious, as it will have perverse effects on your customers.

 

 

David from the sounds of it you would be a mechanic that would rip us off if you had the chance. Visually inspecting your car and replacing items in need of repair is NOT BAD ADVICE. I do my own car work and I inspect my car on a regular basis.

replacing items NOT IN NEED OF REPAIR is bad advice

replacing parts that are not in need of repair is

1. Not cost effective
2. gives mechanics a bad rap
3. does not install loyality from your customer base
4. will cause you to go out of business once word of mouth gets around.

 

oh wow, i thought i was the one going crazy there, spending money to replace everything on my car before they go bad. i know that i am driving a eight year old car, and everything has reached near the time where they are not operating at 100%, if i change everything, then i would end up rebuilding my car

 

You don't know me so dont judge my character.
And as for preventive maintainence, you do it yourself everytime you do an oil change. Your preventing your engine from going out early. That's not any different than shocks, fuel filters, air filters, brake systems, hoses, egr's, pcv's, timing belts... the list goes on. So everyone here does preventive maintainence, it's just that some people feel that every part on their car is just as important as the engine. So call it a waste of money if you would, but I don't make people buy things that I say should be replaced, it goes down to the decision of the customer and they make their own choice.

As for your list:
1. changeing the oil on your car is cost effective compaired to a new engine.
2. If I went to a mechanic and they told me something was wrong that I didn't know about, I would appreciate it.
3. I work at a place where people know we do our jobs right and are trustworthy.
4. Negitive Ghost Rider, the pattern is full

-->David

 

heeeeee

 

1. oil has a service life of appromimately 7200miles according to honda for my model of car. Filters are designed to last XXX time and once again when you inspect your car on a regular basis you would know when it is time to replace them by the condition in or when the recommended time frame has elapsed.

2. I would agree with that but once again due to all the chemicals you have been exposed to you completely miss the point.

mechanic: Sir, I reccomend that you replace your struts because your car has 100K on it

me: Oh, are they broken? If so can you SHOW ME what is wrong?

mechanic: No, they appear to be ok, but, we like to do preventative maintenance on that repair job that we can make $800 off of you even thougt we actually do (what are struts about $60 a peice?) $500 worth of work.

rule number 1 if it is NOT BROKE DO NOT FIX IT

brakes are a consumable item but once again you would recommend that I replace them at 100K even though I STILL HAVE A LOT OF PAD LEFT because you call it preventative maint on the car.

3. it certantly sounds like you want to rip people off by reccommending unneeded work.......

4. See above

No one here is saying not to replace a broken strut, we are just saying that if it is NOT in need of repair or does not show any signs of needing repair, DO NOT DO IT BECAUSE

1. IT IS NOT NEEDED
2. IT IS EXPENSIVE


my cars

1992 mercury sable LS 143K all on original struts (I only replaced tires on that car 3 times during it's whole life 45K, 90K and 135K due to no more tread and NOT due to any other cause (totalled at 143K due to driver in Dodge stratus running red light)

1994 honda accord on its third set of tires at 100K
1989 mercury sable LS 196+K all on original struts

None of the cars mentioned have any signs of struts needing to be replaced. so exactly why is it that you would recommend someone do an unneeded repair again?