Please help with rear suspension sounds - Honda Prelude Forum

Prelude23h · 10-03-2005, 02:04 AM

So i have searched and searched on here for the answer to what is making my suspension in the rear of my 95 si make sounds and i havent found an answer yet. Its a 95 with 68000 miles and ive owned it for bout 3 months now. Since i bought it the passenger side rear makes a clunking sound when u go over hard bumps and the driver side makes a weird creaking/growning sound is im driving slowly, such as in my neighbor hood or in a parking lot. The growning sound is weird in that it comes and goes and seams to have no corrilation to weather conditions or amount of weight in the car. And when it is doing it, it does it regardless of bumps. just rolling makes it do it, or i can just stand on the door sill and bounce and it will make the sound. the suspension is totally stock. does anyone have a clue as to what it is and how i can fix it. it sounds like ass and my friends have commented on it. As for the passenger side clunking noise it is not cause by a loose jack or anything cause i have tightened all of that stuff down and also tightened the bolts at the top of the strut tower in the trunk. PLEASE HELP. i owned a 92 for 4 years and never heard these sounds in it and it had 189000 when i sold it. Whats the deal?

blk96vtec · 10-03-2005, 01:23 PM

My father and I have owed about 10 preludes in total. EVERY SINGLE ONE HAS MADE THAT SOUND! I have no idea no one has ever had an answer for it sorry.

SNsLude · 10-04-2005, 01:01 AM

The only time I ever heard anything peculiar from my suspension was the urethrane protective boot hitting up and down on the top assembly of the shock.

If its making noises like that, see if its blown... Also a bad cv joint/boot could always make those noises while you are turning/rolling, but not when you are bouncing. Those sounds don't seem normal to me, never heard of many preludes doing that

... this is one of those things where you can't just trouble shoot it by tightening things or visually looking from the outside... You'll probably need to physically examine the assembly by taking it out or have a shop look at it.

Si_g · 10-04-2005, 08:36 AM

this is a common problem on 4th and 5th gens...I got the same problems, and I have done research for it. I searched and searched, and may have found the answer...it is the shock collars...they happen to be too long in the rear, so honda made a replacement collar that cost 7$ to fix this problem...There is a part number in the techinical service bulletin, which is TSB 00-090, most of your part people at the counter wont know what that is, so give them this number, 52728-S30-004, thats the correct honda part number associated with the part.

The replacement collar is about 3 to 4 mm shorter than the one in your car, and has a diameter difference also...the problem is cause by hitting the washer on top of the rubber bushing in your shock assembly in your rear. There is no need to take out the hole suspension to fix this, you can simply undo the bolt on top of the shock from your trunk, get the top part of the bushing out, and replace the collar from there. I ordered 2 replacement collars for both rear shocks cause i did not want to take a chance. The front does not need to be changed. My parts should be here today hopefully, I ordered them last week.

azjs · 10-05-2005, 12:10 AM

In case it's not related to the above TSB - seen this thread?

squeak squeak.. rattle rattle .. ca-CLUNK

-az

Prelude23h · 10-06-2005, 10:59 PM

So i was just thinkin bout this today as i rode around listenin to this annoying ass sound. When i had my 5th gen lowered and i had to jack up the rear of the car i remember that if i didnt line the springs back up into the upper rubber seats as i sat the car back down on the ground then it would make a sound almost identical to this one that i have now. It was from where the spring wouldnt line up properly in the rubber seat and rub on the metal that the rubber sat in. I wonder if by chance the rubber has deteriorated and the spring has rubbed through to the metal. Just from lookin into the wheel well it looks ok but i guess it is possible that its rubbed thru on top of the spring where i cant see. HHMMM, i am gonna have to take it apart and check that out. I am so anal about sounds that souldnt be there and i can take this one much longer.