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View Full Version : Front strut bearings (pic request)



thaseint
06-14-2008, 08:45 AM
Want to see if anyone has a good picture of these. My springs keep popping when I do slow turns and its getting pretty annoying.

Found plenty of pictures of the top hats, springs and struts...just couldn't find anything showing the bearings. I've seen the parts diagrams; but it seems a little misleading.

I've tried pumping lithium grease in there and went through a whole tube of grease; but its not hitting the bearing. I'm trying to do this without having to take apart the struts right now. Eventually I'll get around to doing it, but I'd just like a temporary fix for now until I can find the time and money to replace a bunch of parts and then get a performance alignment.

Looking for a good pic of #9:
http://www.acuraoemparts.com/delray/jsp/catimgs/14s6m6_b28.gif

Want to see if the bearing is even 'accessible' from the outside or if you actually have to take things apart.

Thanks in advance! :thumb:

oldschoolimport
06-14-2008, 09:40 AM
remove the strut rod nut, and jack up that corner. the top hat will drop down, and you will then be able to get to the bearing. otherwise, you won't be able to get any grease to it.

thaseint
06-14-2008, 02:29 PM
remove the strut rod nut, and jack up that corner. the top hat will drop down, and you will then be able to get to the bearing. otherwise, you won't be able to get any grease to it.

Thanks man! I'm going to go try that now! :mbiggrin:

ilmob
06-18-2008, 08:56 PM
nice thread

dichotomous
06-19-2008, 06:40 AM
sprayable grease might help too, better penetration

Kleinengines
06-19-2008, 06:48 AM
Im having similiar issue on my ep3.

thaseint
06-19-2008, 09:50 AM
My report back...

So I loosened the top hat bolts and attempted to get grease to the bearings. I was unsuccessful. It made it much easier to access; but it still doesn't drop down far enough to fit my hands between the cap and the tophat.

So, I found another way! If you reach up into the dust boot that covers the shock rod, you'll find the bump stop and a plastic washer. Pull these down to the base of the rod and outside the dust boot.

Now when you reach back up into the boot you can feel the greased bearing. Mine was a plastic bearing coated with a thin blue grease (HFP suspension).

From what I understand Honda has shifted between plastic bearings and ball bearings between their MacPherson suspensions on the DC5, EP3 and EM chassis. I'm just not too sure the reasoning behind it, since based on the years they were used it doesn't seem to of been related to an issue of premature wear.

There are different part numbers for the 2 different bearings used between the DC5/EP3/EM:

51726-S5A-701 (used on all the 01+ EM chassis Civics and 05+ RSX-S)--this looks to be the metal ball bearing variety

51726-S5A-004 (used on the 02-05 EP3 and 02-06 base RSX and 02-04 RSX-S)--this looks like the plastic bearing

I was able to get the hose from my grease gun up there; but it's hard to coat this bearing completely so you'll have to use your fingers to smear the grease around. You may have better luck with lithium grease in a can. I should mention that this can all be done without loosening any bolts and just having the car off the ground.

I tried to take some pictures; but unfortunately the space was too tight for a camera without tearing the dust boot.

The end result is that some of the grease appears to of made it to the bearing and I have found that the popping noise has decreased in frequency. It's still as bad as it was before, it just doesn't happen as often.

In the mean time I noticed that the nut from my sway bar end link was scratching my LCA. This led me to believe that perhaps the sway bar endlinks were not properly torqued. I'm going to try retorquing the nuts, greasing the sway bar bushings and installing some new tierods this weekend to see what happens.

oldschoolimport
06-19-2008, 03:05 PM
did you disconnect the sway bar end links, or raise the entire front at the same time? if not, the sway bar was preventing one side from dropping down independently from the other. in that case, the suspension would have dropped down far enough to remove the entire top hat. I apologize for not mentioning that when I posted earlier.:mredface:

thaseint
06-19-2008, 06:31 PM
did you disconnect the sway bar end links, or raise the entire front at the same time? if not, the sway bar was preventing one side from dropping down independently from the other. in that case, the suspension would have dropped down far enough to remove the entire top hat. I apologize for not mentioning that when I posted earlier.:mredface:

Yeah it's funny you mention this because after I got done trying to grease the bearing I thought about why the strut wouldn't drop. Then it hit me...the sway bar was still connected to the LCA! I was sort of in a rush at the time and didn't really have a lot of thinking time.

Oh well, I guess next time I'm under there messing with the endlinks I'll try adding more grease. :mbiggrin:

thechromecoyote
06-19-2008, 09:36 PM
Side note, whats that picture from? The diagram I have doesnt look like that, it has a flat rubber seat and an integrated bumpstop/ dust cover

oldschoolimport
06-20-2008, 05:33 AM
Side note, whats that picture from? The diagram I have doesnt look like that, it has a flat rubber seat and an integrated bumpstop/ dust cover

http://www.acuraoemparts.com/delray/jsp/catimgs/14s6m6_b28.gif, so it must be from the RSX.

thaseint
06-20-2008, 06:08 AM
Yeah it's from an RSX; but essentially it was the closest match to my HFP suspension I could find. The biggest difference being the bearings.