Hi, new here, but long time diy er. My daughter just bought herself her first car, 05 Honda CR-V, manual trans with 226k on it. Runs good, but there are a few things that will need work in the next year. What is your preferred brand of suspension parts? Ones that will last, at a reasonable price? Sway bar links, lower control arms, tie rod ends, ect……. My other Hondas, I have owned since new and have not yet had to replace that stuff yet. (Oem parts seem good, but pricy). Any input is good, I do get parts from rockauto, and local if need be. Thanks for real world results
For things like shocks and struts, Scotty recommends KYB. I can say I put a new set of KYB shocks in my 1979 Pontiac yesterday, and the difference is night and day from the 43-year-old original shocks. The full set was $100 on Rock Auto.
it depends on the part.
Luckily, Rockauto makes it easy for you, and ranks their products. "economy", "OEM grade", "Premium" etc.
So if you're just a regular commuter then get the "daily driver" or "OEM replacement" stuff.
I recently had front suspension components changed out to my 1999 Honda Accord.
I used Mevotech from Rock Auto for the control arms, ball joint, and tie rod. I have heard some good things and bad things about them. I actually contacted ChrisFix, another YouTuber, who used the exact brand on his Del Sol, to see how they held up. And he said that Mevotech used to be not so great, and that they have gotten better in quality.
I used KYB’s also from Rock Auto for the struts as that is what everyone including Scotty seems to recommend. I had changed them out back in 2014 also to KYB’s so they lasted about 8 years and 60K+ miles. TBH, the old struts felt fine, but the rubber components were cracked, so while my mechanic was under there, decided to change it out.
