The Honda Civic is a popular car thanks to its reliability, build quality and frugal gas consumption. Most Civics also happen to be fun cars to drive. The front struts on a Civic are critical to its handling. Over time, struts begin to wear, resulting in a softer ride, poor handling and a noisy and compromised suspension. It is relatively easy to determine whether your Civic’s struts are still in good, usable shape.
Drive the car over a bumpy road and see how it handles. The front struts should provide a relatively smooth ride, even over rough sections of road. If the struts bounce up and down, make crashing and banging sounds, and the steering feels loose, the struts are likely bad.
Perform a series of cornering maneuvers in your Honda at a spirited pace to see how the car handles. When you turn the steering wheel into a corner, the front end should respond relatively quickly, and the handling should feel stable and predictable. If the car leans excessively and feels loose rather than stable and safe, the struts are likely past their usable life.
Test the stiffness and behavior of the struts by pressing down on the corners of the car. Stand near one corner and press on the fender just above the wheel with your hands. If the struts are in good shape, they should be relatively difficult to press down on. When you press the corner of the car down, the strut should compress and then rise back up quickly and smoothly, coming to a stop without excessive bouncing. If the strut rises slowly, is easy to bounce up and down and does not come to a smooth stop after pressing the corner of the car down, the struts are probably worn. Test both sides of the car.
Inspect the struts for damage. Loosen the lug nuts that hold the front wheels to the car. Lift the vehicle with a floor jack and lower it onto jack stands. Inspect the body of the strut, from the top to the bottom. A strut that is in good shape will not be leaking any fluid from the strut housing. But if the strut is blown out from excessive use, it may be leaking fluid onto the body of the strut.
