Honda suspension parts, held on UAE shelves

Honda changed its front suspension design over the years, and that change decides which parts a worn front end needs. Accords from the second generation through the eighth use a double wishbone front end, where an upper arm and a lower arm hold each wheel and each arm has its own bushes and ball joint. The ninth-generation Accord, sold in North America from the 2013 model year, replaced that with MacPherson struts. The Civic made the same move earlier: the fourth to sixth generations used wishbones, and the seventh generation, built from 2000 to 2005, switched to struts.

A strut car has fewer front parts. The damper and the coil spring are built together as one assembly, which also holds the top of the wheel in place, with a single lower arm below it. A wishbone car has more joints and more bushes to wear, so on a wishbone Accord we first want to know whether the trouble is in the upper arm or the lower one, and whether the arm itself is worn out or just its bush or ball joint.

The rear is less predictable. Under the eighth-generation Civic, the saloon and coupe carry a double wishbone rear while the European-market hatchback uses a simpler torsion beam, so two cars both sold as a Civic of the same years take different rear parts. Honda's press material for the 2012 CR-V describes MacPherson struts at the front and a multi-link rear with large trailing arm bushes.

A tired Honda front end gives warning long before anything breaks: a new noise, a looser feel at the wheel, a tyre wearing on one edge. Each of those signs has a few usual suspects, and we use the table below to narrow things down on a WhatsApp chat before we price a part. It points you in a direction; it does not replace an inspection. Up on a lift, a mechanic can rock each wheel and lever each joint in minutes, and paying for one worn bush beats paying for a whole corner.

The most useful thing you can send is a clip from your phone, sound on, filmed while the car rolls slowly over a speed bump or while the steering is turned in a car park, plus a picture of the mulkiya showing the chassis number.

The Civic and the Accord sit lower than the four-wheel drives around them, so steep car park ramps, petrol station kerbs and the sharp speed bumps in residential streets reach their suspension sooner. Every bump loads the anti-roll bar links and the front arm bushes, and a car that crosses dozens of them a day wears those parts faster than its odometer suggests.

Heat is the slower enemy. Bushes, boots and strut mounts are rubber, and rubber that spends the summer above sun-baked tarmac hardens, cracks and stops isolating the arm from the body. Some Hondas use fluid-filled bushes in place of solid rubber; Honda's press material for the 2017 CR-V, for example, describes fluid-filled compliance bushings front and rear. A fluid-filled bush that has split often leaves a wet or crusted stain around it, and once the fluid has gone it behaves like a worn solid bush.

Sand finishes the job. A ball joint or a tie rod end is packed with grease and sealed by a rubber boot. Once the boot tears, fine sand mixes into the grease and wears the joint away from within, so a split boot spotted at a service is worth dealing with that week, while the joint is still tight.

The Odyssey and the Pilot carry more weight and more people than a Civic, so their links, bearings and rear bushes take a heavier share of every bump. If yours does school runs and long weekends fully loaded, have the rear checked whenever the front is apart.

The shelf behind this page is mostly aftermarket, with genuine Honda lines in most part types but rarely in depth. Where we hold both kinds, the genuine-versus-aftermarket table on this page sets their typical prices side by side. Read it as a guide only: a heading such as control arms and links covers complete arms as well as shorter links, so a median is not the price of one part.

On any Honda, the simple rubber and steel parts, such as bushes, anti-roll bar links, joint boots and tie rod ends, are where aftermarket makes the most sense. A large share of the aftermarket lines here are FEBEST, a brand whose catalogue centres on bushes, mounts and other rubber-to-metal chassis parts. That matters on a Honda because many arm bushes can be pressed into your existing arm by a garage, which costs less than a complete arm.

Complete arms and inner tie rods are where genuine Honda deserves a closer look, especially on a wishbone Accord where the upper arm carries its own ball joint. Where the tables show no genuine line for the part you need, we can still price the genuine Honda part on request.

If you are unsure, ask for one of each. Both quotes come for the part number that matches your chassis number, so you compare like with like rather than a cheap part for one version against a dear part for another.

Start with the chassis number printed on your registration card, the mulkiya. Honda has put one model name on quite different cars. The Odyssey name covers two separate minivans, one built for North America and one for Japan and most other markets. In its seventh and eighth generations the Accord sold in Japan and Europe was a different car from the North American Accord, and the Japan and Europe version went to North America as the Acura TSX. With GCC-spec cars and US imports on the same roads, two Hondas of the same name and year can need different parts.

The part maker catalogues behind our lines use their own model names, which is why the list near the top of this page reads Accord Tourer or Civic Saloon rather than the badge on your boot. Lines named for an Acura, Honda's premium brand, can carry the same Honda part number as the Honda version. The chassis number cuts through all of it.

Next, name the position: which axle, which side, and on a wishbone car, which arm. Several Honda anti-roll bar links come as a separate left-hand and right-hand part, so one link number does not always cover both sides. Dampers are changed two at a time, both ends of the same axle. Any new arm, bush or tie rod, or a new front strut on a strut-front Honda, also means booking a wheel alignment; skip it and the tyres pay for it.