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Has anyone ever done a front end overhaul on there Accord? My car has just broken 100,000 miles, and I'm wondering if it's worth tearing the front end apart and replacing all the parts?

The reason this popped into my head is that working at my part time job I spoke to a guy Sunday with an 03 4cyl sedan, and he was in to buy a replacement upper ball joint. I started up a conversation because he was a fellow Accord owner, and found out that one ball joint was severely worn (had it with him, and it was loose as hell), and that the other one had completely disconnected from wear, and the wheel folded up under the car on an on ramp. Obviously the issue probably presented itself long ago, and this guy chose to ignore it but, what is the life expectancy on these parts? I mean the OEM ones have no grease fittings, and parts tend to wear when there is not longer sufficient lubrication? Is it worth replacing all of my ball joints, tie rods, and wheel bearings at 100K?

For spending a lot of time in here, I must say that I know very little about cars, but preventive maintenance is always something that I like to do on my own.  Even if I don't do a lot of the modifications that I would like to have done to my car.  That being said, I'm very intrigued by the future responses to this topic. 

Thanks for posting this Mike.   :thumbsup:

Preventative maintenance is great but I'm a firm believer in not fixing what isn't broken.  Like you said Mike, this guy obviously had a problem that he ignored and it came back and bit him in the ass.  I think overhauling your front end would be a waste of money if it isn't needed.  I wouldn't let his lack of common sense worry you into spending money unnecessarily. 

Well in my case the steering isn't as tight as it used to be.

Almost at a 100k i had a almost broken front tie rod which i was lucky to fix in time , that was throwing my steering off.

Those parts are definitely worth an inspection, and if you feel its something you would like to take care of now, then I say go for it.

Like Ike said, if it ain't broke, don't fuck with it. That guy may have just been neglectful as hell.
Good point by Mark. It definitely warrants an inspection but if you don't see anything torn or broken, don't worry about it too much.

The steering may feel a bit sloppy compared to new but that is to be expected with a car that age (mileage). Then again, you may have gotten used to how smooth the steering is and started "noticing how sloppy it got" thanks to the guy that came in.

That being said, give your front end a once over then go from there.

It is part of the regular scheduled maintenance to check for damage and to grease components like ball joints. I can look in the service manual for you to see what is suggested for replacement.

proper inspection would pick it up. here in pa we have to do it every year and my friend who works at honda knows whats usually goes wrong or wears and and checked my car last. complian bushings is something to look for as well. im at 112k and need to replace them in spring. ill check ball joins too i guess

Upper ball joints are difficult to inspect because they are under load when in the knuckle.

I had to replace my upper ball joints just recently. Didn't know it was going until it started making noise. I got them to replace both to be on the safe side.

I've almost replaced all the front end components :p, since I can get them at a discount. I've already got the uppers done and both inner and outer tie-rods (one inner went bad last year so I got them all done turns out they were all pretty worn after 150k and bad roads) I got new compliance bushings (poly-filled) to go in come springtime.

How are the bearings in our cars? I don't really hear of many people replacing them.

I had to have a rear one replaced after my accidnet a few years back. But, it was due to the impact not a wear issue. What did you use when you replaced the uppers? Did you replace the whole control arm or just the ball joints?

I had to replace my rear wheel bearing a few years ago because of an accident too.  Austin, where did you get the poly filled compliance bushings.  I'm trying to  do a few upgrades down the road for the new motor.

Mike- I just bought the ball joints, they were Moog units if I remember correctly.

Tim- I just bought some Moog bushings and packed them full of windshield poly.

I just had an odd idea,sorry if this is slightly derailing... this could be totally ridiculous, but what about using a shaved down (top, bottom, also making the total diameter smaller to fit the outer sleeve...or find/make your own sleeve) hockey puck for mounts? Either for control arm or motor mounts? Drill a hole for the inner sleeve, friction fit in the outer and inner sleeve with structural epoxy, and big steel washers on either side. It would deffinatley take the slop out. I know 4x4 guys use them a lot for body lifts.

My listings show the Moog Upper control arms with ball joints being cheaper than the Moog ball joints.

That sounds like a no brainer.  It's definitely easier to replace the whole upper control arm if it includes the ball joints than having to separate the stock ball joint from the upper control arm.

Had I only checked :p I assumed the whole arm would have been more...ugh lol

Was this hard to do... I might have to do this!

It wasn't that hard to do.  Only took me like an hour to do.

Rear wheel bearings are really easy. Its just one giant nut that you take off and slide the old one off. The fronts are harder since you have to press them out.

That's true.  The rear is a lot easier to replace than the front. 

Great cuz I think I gotta replace the front ones lol....

Thien when you say press them out can you clarify, do I need a special tool or can I jimmy it out with a flat head or something. I wanna be prepared before I tackle this!  ;)

You will need a shop press. I'm not at work today...dying of a cold, but maybe mike could look up if they sell the whole hub assembly. It generally costs more but you don't need a press.

Not that comes with a bearing that I can see.

You will need a shop press or if you have a special tool that can push the bearing out of the knuckle. If doing it with a shop press, you will need to remove the knuckle from the car. You will then need to press out the hub first, then you can press out the bearing. There is a snap ring in the knuckle that you have to remove before you can press the bearing out. Its quite an extensive job to do. Its roughly a 2 hour job per side. If you have a slide hammer, you can use the slide hammer to remove the hub away from the bearing. Sometimes you can get lucky and remove both at the same time, but it is very rare.

May I ask why you think your front ones are bad? Are you hearing a groaning noise or does it have axial play? I haven't seen a double wishbone suspension layout front wheel bearing go bad besides on the older 90-07 Accord which has a bolt on bearing.

Well I get this whirling noise, I thought it was from the new tires I bought just breaking in but its been like 1 1/2 months already. So then I thought it was a bent rim but my alignment is 100% and I get NO vibration on my steering wheel at any speed. So I thought maybe from the slight accident I almost had where I 360'd on the highway because of black ice and slammed my rear driver side rim into the shoulder that possibly I damaged the bearing... but i'm not 100% sure as I have never expierenced this before.

I will be putting abrand new set of rims on the ride either wednesday or thursday so I will see if the noise continues or not.

I've had to replace a rear wheel bearing from getting loose on an icy road and sliding sideways.  Have the shop check all your wheels Billy.

Ok, here is a quick test you can do to test your wheel bearing without tearing apart your car. Drive your car until you hear the whirling/humming noise. As soon as you hear this noise, make a sharp left and right. If the noise gets worse in one direction and quiet in another, you have a bad wheel bearing. An impact can cause a wheel bearing to go bad. I usually recommend them everytime a customer hits a curb serverly. I get a lot of bad wheel bearings related to ice slides into curbs.

If the noise quiets down turning left, you have a bad right front wheel bearing. If the noise quiets down turning right, you have a bad left front wheel bearing. That way you can easily determine which wheel bearing is bad.

If its a rear wheel bearing, its going to be hard to determine. The best thing to do is drive your car and have someone sit in the back to determine where the noise is coming from. Since the Accords are front wheel drive, you really can't put a load on it without driving the car. If its the rear wheel bearings, all you really have to do is take off your caliper, rotors, and the one giant nut that holds the hub/wheel bearing on. I believe the hub bearing nut is either a 32mm or 36mm. Its been awhile since I've done one.

I'm pretty sure its 36mm

I will try this tomorrow Thien and will update you guys! Sorry to thread jack ya Mike but I guess the information is still useful to us all :exclaim:

In my book its not a thread jack if the information pertains to the topic.

Cool Mike!

I did what Thien suggested and the noise is still there wether I turn left or right and I installed new rims, balanced and all and still have the whirling noise!

...maybe a warped rotor....?

Warped rotor would shudder when you brake.

Is the noise more towards the front or rear of the car? If the noise is constantly there, the rear hub bearing may be bad. Have someone sit in the back seats to determine where the noise is coming from.

Figured that... funny how the ride is as smooth as always minus that damn noise.


I will try this over the weekend. I think it's more coming from the front but since I sit up front it could be coming from the back who knowssss....

Well found out my wheel bearings are fine! It seems to be my tires.... my brother just bought the same tires I got and he was complaining that all of a sudden he has this weird noise. When I asked him to explain the story started to sound similiar to mine.... So I guess the tires we got really have to broken into. Good thing is that the whirling noise I was getting is starting to get really low now. Hopefully it will soon go away for good! The tires I I bought if anyone wants to know are: Jinyu Tires, Model # YU61 (http://jinyutires.com/en/product2.asp)

As you can see, you get what you pay for with tires.

Cheap made in China tires will do that.

Who the hell is Jinyu?

Should have went for some serious tires like JK tyres http://www.epicfail.com/2011/06/11/pimp-my-ride-fail-6/ (http://www.epicfail.com/2011/06/11/pimp-my-ride-fail-6/)
:D LoL!
Dat wheel gap @ 1:09....

Well the noise has gone down alot. I literally cut off those lil' extra rubber drips you get when you buy new tires and that helped out alot.

...and yea next time i'm sticking with Falken!  :flip:

You don't need to cut them.  You just do a few burn outs, then swap your wheels front to rear and do some more burn outs. :smack: Fucking amateurs!!

He'll just do peg leg burnouts dude.

(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c14/crazycreashunz/Stuff%20Folder%201/a-wise-guy-huh.jpg)

Referring to the rebuilding the front end suspension; I replaced my front end components (upper and lower ball joints, wheel bearings). It was my lower ball joints that were loose on one side (forgot which side had play) but I figured to replace them all while i was doing it anyways.

Anyways, I'm glad it was the tires making noise and not the suspension components.

Just wanted to revisit this topic since I will hopefully have some news on a new suspension product.  PCI makes spherical lower control arm bushings for the RSX and Civic.  Also, Hond-R makes front and rear motor mounts for the Accord and TSX.  Definitely a lot better option than a hockey puck!!

Lol! Ya a lot better. I've never driven in a car with spherical bushings before but I hear it can be pretty rough. Will they last on the street is another thing I'm wondering. Isn't Keit running spherical bushings in his race car Accord?

No clue. I'm sure it will be a little harsh, but we're just talking about lower control arm bushings.

This is true.