Good afternoon:


First, thank you to the HAF owners and posters. You're doing a great job! I've visited this forum over the years many times for advice and have found many posts to be helpful. Fortunately, most issues with my car I have been able to solve with prior DIY knowledge and the occasional YouTube video. But I now need some suspension advice.


A mechanic showed me yesterday during a routine tire rotation visit (Mavis Tire in White Plains, NY) that the front struts and lower control arm bushings on my '06 Accord SE are reaching the end of their life. This makes sense as the car has 123,000 miles, everything is original and the Northeast roads are in horrible shape. We both looked at the car together and could see the large cracks in the bushings. One strut had a fluid leak under the piston.


I'm handy with cars, have a variety of tools and have replaced struts previously (both bolt-on and piston only), so I'm going to tackle the repairs myself. I'm thinking of getting Monroe Struts from Rock Auto. But, it appears there are two routes to follow with the lower control arms. I could press out/press in new bushings or just buy new arms and bushings pre-installed. Has anyone done this? If you have, what brands did you buy? Did you go OEM from Honda or use manufacturers like Beck/Arnley, Dorman or ACDelco?


Thanks in advance for your replies,


Tom-

 

Your thread has been moved, as we no longer use the DIY section for help questions.

 

Thank you Redbull-1.

 

I pressed the old out, and new OEM bushings in with a hydraulic press, and it wasn't easy for me. You have to take your time, and make sure it's lined up perfect. It was difficult to get the bushings to go down straight. If I have this car long enough to need another bushing change, I'll probably go aftermarket arms with bushings included. I changed the compliance bushing, and the strut fork bushing, but the rear was doing just fine. Here's a little trick I found to separate the lower arm ball joint.

 

You may want to price the strut/spring that is already assembled to see what the difference in cost vs just replacing the strut. This would make that part of the job pretty simple. You may want to check the OEM pricing.


You could buy the bushings and have a machine shop press in the bushings. I did this on my old accord and it helped saved me money vs buying new control arms.

 

I replace them on the car. I cut out the old bushing, hone the inside of the control arm, freeze the new bushing, heat the control arm with a small tourch and press in new bushing with a C-clamp style manual ball joint/bushing press. You can also apply a little ATF to the new bushing as lubricant. It does not take me very long to do them, but then again I have done countless. I am just sharing my knowledge on how I do them, as there are several ways to do them with the end product always the same. Good luck and welcome to HAF!

 

I'm just wondering if the Compliance is going bad, wouldn't the other bushings in the arm be going bad too? Why not just repl the LCA with a loaded one. Much less work.