Honda Car Forum

I had some new dampers/shocks installed in the front struts on my '98
Honda Civic a few months ago after fighting with tire wear problems,
mostly cupping. The dealer was no help on this and thought it was just
bad tires (Michelin X-One's). So I had some KYB GR-2s installed at a
shop I had previously used.

Last week, I had the car back at the dealer on another issue and he
noted that the strut assemblies were not installed correctly--the
alignment tab is 180 degrees from where it should be. (This is the tab
on the lower end on the strut where it slips into the split fitting on
the fork). I checked the service manual and he appears to be right. Yet
the strut assembly "appears" to be correctly mounted in the car.
Rotating it 180 looks like it would cause the angle to be wrong.

Several questions:

Am I missing something here?

Do I need to get this fixed?

John Clavin
Austin, TX

John Clavin wrote:
> I had some new dampers/shocks installed in the front struts on my '98
> Honda Civic a few months ago after fighting with tire wear problems,
> mostly cupping. The dealer was no help on this and thought it was just
> bad tires (Michelin X-One's). So I had some KYB GR-2s installed at a
> shop I had previously used.
>
> Last week, I had the car back at the dealer on another issue and he
> noted that the strut assemblies were not installed correctly--the
> alignment tab is 180 degrees from where it should be. (This is the tab
> on the lower end on the strut where it slips into the split fitting on
> the fork). I checked the service manual and he appears to be right. Yet
> the strut assembly "appears" to be correctly mounted in the car.
> Rotating it 180 looks like it would cause the angle to be wrong.

probably swapped left & right.

>
> Several questions:
>
> Am I missing something here?
>
> Do I need to get this fixed?

since you got this far, maybe not. the important things are that the
brake line follows the correct route and that the fork is securely fixed
to the bottom of the shock. check regularly to start with to make sure
it's not getting loose, then stop worrying. bilstein's don't even have
a tab. to reassemble correctly, you'll need to take the whole
shock/coil unit apart [pita & requires a spring compressor] because yes,
the top mounting plate is certainly angled wrong and prevents you just
swapping left with right.

>
> John Clavin
> Austin, TX
>