2005 Honda Civic VP from North America - Comments

2005 Honda Civic VP Coupe a/t. H&R 1.25" drop springs installed since new (voided the warranty)

Passenger side front strut blew out @ 17800 miles. Inner CV boot in front passenger side tore @ 27000 miles. Both front strut bearings are popping when I turn (presently). New bearings are on order. Overall, the car looks, smells, and handles great, but it lacks HP and has chinsey suspension. I will go back to Nissan cars when I replace this Honda.

I understand... my 2004 Civic needed CV joints when I hit 120,000 miles. I drive it a lot, but that seems a bit early. Other than that nothing at all has gone wrong.

Perhaps the drop springs had something to do with various suspension failures?

What are CV joints? I only ask because I'm thinking of getting a 2008 Civic and just want to get all the negative feedback I can on this particular line of car.

CV joints are "constant velocity" joints. They are a universal joint that attaches the transaxle to the drive wheels. They allow the suspension to flex without the whole engine/transaxle having to move with it. I've seen and heard of plenty of CVs giving up at 60,000 miles so twice that isn't bad. What usually happens is that the flexible rubber boot that surrounds the joint cracks and the grease in the joint becomes contaminated with sand, dirt, etc. This causes the joint surfaces to wear and click when the car is making a tight turn. Unfortunately this clicking is often the first recognized sign of failure. Sometimes a cracked boot can be caught early by seeing cracks or by noticing grease that has been flung from the joint on suspension components. Then the only thing needing replacement is the boot. Not an easy job but an inexpensive one. Anyway that's my 2 bits on CV joints. Good luck.

You dropped 1.25" so I'm sure you didn't get coil overs. You have to replace the shocks when dropping and get a camber kit so you don't mess up your alignment. Your struts and such all failed because of that reason. You have to look into your modifications seriously or else you can get into problems like this.