Hi all. We've always had Honda cars/bikes and never had a serious problem with them (touch wood) even our Accord after 250,000 km and some serious accidents still ran like new.
Now our much loved Civic (according to the Honda dealer) needs new front struts - they're not leaking but supposedly "seized" although clearly they're still going up and down and NOT leaking although the boots have perished. At the PREVIOUS service they recommended "compliance" bushings so I simply replaced both lower control arms complete with aftermarket ones - about $160 all up. What's weird is it only has 145,000 km on it and has had a very easy life whereas our Accord didn't need any front end work ever, now I'm up for Civic shocks too!?!?!?
$2,500 to do the job at Southside Honda, but a pair of KYB struts themselves are less than $500 at Repco (plus $170 for the top hats) and I can reuse the springs *IF* I can find some springs compressors and not kill myself in the process. Surely someone here has already done this and can shed some light on the best way to do this. Just to be clear I do NOT want adjustable, race, lowered or any other kind of alteration, just a stock ride-height and safety-checkable pair of front shocks installed as painlessly as possible. Maybe there's a good aftermarket complete unit where I'd only have to pull the two lower bolts and three upper bolts to change the lot, or one of you has modified your suspension or is wrecking a car and has a good OEM set available?
Any polite suggestions welcome, thanks.
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In the end Repco had a Boxing Day sale 25% off so I picked up a pair of KYB struts and the rubber parts kit for less than $400. It took me a couple of tries to get it all apart and back together properly but happy with the result. I just used a couple of small cargo straps to contain the springs when swapping them over, wasn't that difficult so all good now 
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