baton rouge acura : Sorry I can't call it a strut because to me it ain't.:-) Anyway, I'mgirding up to replace a broken spring on my '92 Integra and wondering aboutparts to use and what pitfalls there might be.I do not want to lower the car by even a fraction of an inch so AFAICT thatmeans OEM springs and I'm not looking for any performance improvementanyway - the ride is fine for me standard. At 100K miles I'm thinking Imight as well replace the shock absorbers - though the existing ones don'tfeel too bad they might go off soon and I don't want to repeat thisexercise.I'm wondering what else needs to be replaced that I can't see - rubberparts in the upper mount and the mounting plate itself. If these needreplacing anyway I'm thinking I might as well just buy the Acura completeshock/spring assembly and save myself the aggravation and time of dealingwith a spring compressor - I'm assuming the "assembly" really does comeassembled? HondaAutomotiveParts show similar assemblies for Civic/Preludesfor ~$200. per side which doesn't seem outrageous.As for the replacement job itself, is there anything to look out for orwhich is going to cause problems in doing the job? I'm thinking of the theself-locking nut which screws onto the top of the shock absorber... anyproblems with getting it off? I try to prevent underhood nuts/bolts fromcorroding by spritzing with spray grease occasionally so I don't thinkthere'll be a problem but I've heard of people having trouble getting thesethings off with other cars - VW maybe? The shock spindle has a 5mm hexsocket on the end to hold it while unscrewing the nut but it doesn't looklike a regular Allen wrench will provide enough leverage - improvisationsuggestions?
baton rouge acura : "Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??I did not need much effort to remove piston rod nut. I used a standard lengthallen wrench. Turn the nut, not the rod."> Sorry I can't call it a strut because to me it ain't.:-)wondering about parts to use and > what pitfalls there might be.I just replaced the struts and springs on my '96 Integra last Thursday. Ittook about 5 hours total, using a spring compressor and no air tools. Mycar has 83000 miles on it, and the upper strut mounts were in good shape.You just have to look at them for signs of cracking or severe hardening onceyou get the spring off.You'll probably need a can of 'Liquid Wrench', a breaker bar, some half inchdrive metric sockets, a 1/2" drive ratchet, and wrenches and sockets of thefollowing sizes:A hammer, a couple of screwdrivers, a pry bar, jackstands, a floor jack.Not too bad. The hardest thing I had to do was to expand the spring enoughto fit the spring compressors between the coils near the top of thespring.The coils were too narrowly spaced to fit the compressor without prying themapart with the prybar. Also, get ready for an upper body workout tighteningand loosening those spring comressors! 8^) I put in Eibach springs, so Ididn't need the compressor to reinstall, only to get off the OEM springs.
baton rouge acura : I love the improvement in the stability and the ride of the car aftergetting the Eibachs in. It feels much safer in emergency-type avoidancemaneuvers. And it doesn't look any different. I was able to drive throughsome high water on the way to work today too (I live in Baton Rouge, wherewe're having floods and record rains).If you're satisfied with how the car rides and handles with OEM parts, thenyou can't go wrong with Honda stuff. Another option might be to get the OEMsprings and a better quality strut for the same money as the factory part.IE Monroe sensa-trac, KYB GR-2, or Bilstein.These won't lower your car, but they will improve the ride quality overstock, and with the exception of the Bilsteins, they'll cost less than the"Genuine Honda Parts".Shock or damper is correct term. "Struts" when installed become a locatingmember of the suspension.--Charles Tague 93 Honda Civic DX HB #17 CSP1.6L SOHC VTEC 13.56 @ 100 mph,1.908 60 ft.On Sun, 10 Jun 2001 18:34:16 GMT, "Mista Bone" wrote:Yep, that's what I meant and of course a MacPherson strut also has theupper steering pivot at the top of the strut assembly. Mind you, all theHonda/Acura service and part guys call them struts.
baton rouge acura : "Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??On Sun, 10 Jun 2001 08:31:30 -0500, "Roy Shroyer" wrote:Yeah I think I have most of the equipment - only thing I need to get is aspring compressor and that can be a dilemma on its own. Safety seems to bethe main comcern here and I'm not sure which brand or style of mechanism isthe "best". I looked at a KD tool but it looked as though it could bedangerous - the Lisle design has loops which fit around the coils sothere's less chance of the thing flying apart.How much did the Eibachs lower the car? I find that the car is already lowenough and will bottom the front on some steeply angled parking lot ramps.My daughter is the principal driver so I'd rather she not have to beconcerned with the car any lower than it already is. Mind you with thebroken spring it's slightly sagged right now, even though the break isright at the end of the coil where it enters the perch.I went to Autozone (an areawide autoparts chain) and 'rented' one.Basically, I bought it, used it, then returned it for a full refund. It wasabout $40 US. It had these pings which secured the clamping part to thecoil. Not even a hint of them coming loose. And I turned the compressorwith a ratchet, going down a little bit on each side, sort of working itdown. Uncompressing the spring after the damper was removed was slightlyharder, as there was less to hold on to.
baton rouge acura : i was calling around to find out about recharging my civic since it's starting to heat up in louisiana .. all i can say is "damn!" .. r12 is EXPENSIVE... so i was calling around, and this one shop quoted me $60 .. i assumed he meant to recharge.. turns out that he charges that to retrofit ... i asked him if the $60 includes the labor to change out the gaskets.. and he says "no no, all you need to do is change the oil." .. confused i ask him "i had always heard you need to change out the gaskets because they 134a will EAT the old ones?" ... to which he replied "no no.. that's total bull, i've been doing this for years, done it to my own car and had no problems...is there any truth to what he says? i would think that if this was the case, everyone would get their car retrofitted for 134a (since it'd be cheaper than getting a recharge) ... and if it isn't true.. how long would the a/c system last before everything would leak out and be useless? "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and is widely regarded as a bad move."- Douglas Adams (1952-2001)
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