My son is off to college for the semester, and with his car sitting in front of the house I figure now is a good time to do a sweep through the suspension, replacing the remainder of the rubber bushings and ball joints that I haven't gotten to yet.

Q1: I've checked online, and surprisingly Honda OEM bushings and front lower ball joints are less expensive than Moog. Should I just buy OEM, or are Moog unusually stronger/stiffer than OEM that it is worth getting Moog?


Q2: The shock mount bushings (pair of rubber donuts at the top of all four shocks) are very expensive with OEM, more than 2x the price of aftermarket. Is there a reason that would warrant paying the premium for OEM, or should I just get a good aftermarket set?

Thanks. John

 

I'd go with Honda stuff where the price is "right", if not then Moog is a good option.

As far as the ball joints - the only "plus" for the moog is I think you can grease them.....but then you have to think about how long the original ones lasted without adding grease

 

Only some of the Moog joints are greaseable ... they seem to switch back and forth, even within the same part numbers. I personally don't want greaseable joints -- that implies that the joints don't hold their lubrication well and they require periodic maintenance. The recommendation I saw in the instructions for Toyota sway bar links that I recently bought (and subsequently returned) was to grease twice a year. Ugh ... when the sealed joints last for 7+ years? All of our European and Japanese cars use sealed joints so I see no reason to switch over and just create more maintenance work for myself.

So no issues with the Honda house brand ball joints or bushings being cheap or weak? if not, looks like I'm going to be buying mostly OEM then ...

 

In the shop we have found that aftermarket greasable joints fail more often than non-greasable. Domestics quite often have the grease fittings and fail a lot more.

Polyurthane bushings are a very good option if you want durability. They're worth it.

If you dont want polyurthane then with shock mount bushings go with OEM just because they're rather hard to replace. You want something you dont wanna touch again. With the quick stuff I always go with cheap ebay- control arms and tie rod ends. Prime choice auto parts is really good with my 97 parts.

Upper ball joint is an easy replacement that you replace with the upper control arm. The part is cheap on ebay. Lower ball joint is a pain whether its pressed on the knuckle or the lower control arm. You want something that lasts.

 

Makes me wonder why they are marketing greasability as a strength?

Aren't they much stiffer than the rubber equivalent? I heard people who use poly end up replacing their bushings much more frequently too. What is your advice on poly vs rubber?

By the shock mount bushings I meant the ones at the top of the strut that sandwich around the strut mount. There are a lot of aftermarket mfgs that make them. For Honda OEM the price is high, but now I'm wondering if qty 1 = a pair of them (each shock needs 2) ... if so, then the OEM price is also pretty good.

For the bottom shock mount I already purchased Moog a long time ago, so not worried about that.

Yeah, I already replaced my uppers with Moog (non-greasable) A-arms. I was actually able to replace these with the car on the ground just by reaching in above the ture, unbolting and pulling them out Easiest suspension part replacement yet!

 

Im sure there are fair arguments for greasable fittings but I don't trust them.

I have a few polyurthane bushings for performance reasons. No problems with them yet and they're guaranteed to last longer than rubber ones.

For parts, have you been searching ebay or amazon? You can get OEM parts for cheap too.

To replace the shock mount bushings you will have to use a spring compressor, the process can be rather dangerous which is why its not a typical repair unless there is an obvious problem. Only bushing I've replaced was on a car that was making noise when turning- the bushing was obviously worn. Other than that the bushing is usually replaced at the same time as the struts and springs.

 

I read a Moog instruction manual somewhere, and they mentioned that grease maintenance help to keep the joints clean by pushing new grease through the joints and out the boots. (The boots are supposed to allow grease to escape). So one of my questions then is, how do you squeeze grease past a ball joint if it's supposed to be held tightly in it's cup? There must be lots of gaps right at the joint?

Isn't polyurethane a lot stiffer than rubber? I'd like to keep the suspension as smooth as possible.

Yes, I pretty much cover all of the main online ordering options when I look for parts. Once in a while I'll find a good deal on OEM parts on eBay., but for the most part I find them overpriced and/or with shipping cost built into the price, making it cheaper to buy multiple items from one of the reputable discount dealerships like Majestic or Curry Acura. (Curry, btw, seems to have the lowest shipping prices).

Fyi I own a floor standing strut compressor and swapped out springs and struts a couple of years back -- to Eibach Pro Kit and Koni STR.T. The car rides pretty flat now, but I have to say I'm not thrilled with the Konis ... feels like little damping on compression, and they're probably a bit overpowered by the springs. I know the STR.T are supposed to be just slightly firmer stock replacements so I probably should have put sometime more aggressive in there to cope with the springs ... but I wanted to keep the costs down at the time. I think I got all four STR.T shocks for just over $200.

In the process of replacing springs and struts, I left the old spring seat rubber and top shock mount rubber in place because at the time I thought they still looked fine. Now as I change out other parts on the cars I'm realizing that even though old rubber still may look good, since it has been compressed over time that can make a difference in operation.

Btw, the Accord springs are nothing to compress. You should try Mercedes w203 front springs -- they're a chore ...

 

So is the issue with greasable joints. I think they fail largely due to insufficient maintenance.

Polyurthane bushings are stiffer, which is why they're used more for performance applications. But they also last longer and perform better. I look at them as good for Hondas and other economy cars, not so good for luxury cars where the owner is paying for a smooth ride.