Clunking Noise with Rear Shocks - Again!

[SD1984]

@Mustangman

OE Honda (Showa) shocks don’t go bad at 40K miles. KYB shocks don’t go bad at 8K miles. They just don’t. You could get a rare bad one… but 2? From 2 different manufacturers? Highly unlikely.

what do you suggest I do?

[George_San_Jose1]

It’s sort of hard to imagine a top shock mount going bad on a 3 year old car. A 2018 Civic rear suspension sedan uses a sway bar, control arms, and both vertical and lateral links. Those are all easier to replace than the top mount probably, so common sense says to test those first. What I’m seeing, 2 hours labor for each top mount. 1/2 hour to replace one link.

My first guess would be a problem with one of the vertical links.

[bing]

@SD1984

I really don’t want to bring this car to Honda for their opinion as they would charge me an arm and a leg for new moun

Mine were done under warranty and they knew exactly what the problem was without looking at it. I don’t know about Honda, but usually if a part is replaced by Honda, there is a pretty good warranty on that same part, aside from the car warranty itself. So I would take it back to Honda saying it’s failed shocks again.

[SD1984]

@bing

Mine were done under warranty and they knew exactly what the problem was without looking at it. I don’t know about Honda, but usually if a part is replaced by Honda, there is a pretty good warranty on that same part, aside from the car warranty itself. So I would take it back to Honda saying it’s failed shocks again.

The shocks were not replaced by Honda. I just missed the warrantee on them (36k). They were replaced by another mechanic. I also am leaning towards agreeing with MustangMan in that the odds of shocks going bad twice are insanely low.

[bing]

Well the parts should still have a warranty. An Army buddy managed a parts store and I bought lifetime shocks. I returned them twice for new ones. Understandably on the third time he thought that was excessive. They can go bad though.

[Mustangman]

@George_San_Jose1

2 hours labor for each top mount.

Yeow, just the parts assembly drawings I see online make that look like 1/2 hour a side. Are you sure that 2 hours is for a rear? It is a shock and not even a coil over shock.

[db4690]

@SD1984

To the eye he said he could see nothing but thinks its “Likely” the mounts and that if I do it I should replace both.

He needs to better than come up with a “Likely” culprit

@SD1984

Am I wrong to think it’s strange how this can’t be diagnosed?

You’re NOT wrong

The mechanic should use his Chassis ears to diagnose the problem

That is a product I’ve used many times over the years. It eliminates the guesswork. And it isn’t that expensive. In my opinion, any halfway decent shop should have one

I might add something . . .

The noise might not even be coming from the shock absorbers . . .

A good mechanic should know that sometimes educated guesses aren’t good enough. Sometimes you need to conclusively diagnose a problem before you submit the estimate for repair to the customer

[SD1984]

I agree. It rubbed me the wrong way that we were pretty much about to play a guessing game with repairs and hundreds of dollars.

[George_San_Jose1]

@Mustangman

Are you sure that 2 hours is for a rear?

Sure? Heck , I’m not sure of anything! Appx 2 hours for replacing one top shock mount, rear, that’s what I’m seeing. Maybe someone here can try that internet car repair estimator, see what it says.