broken bump stop

[nis350]

I found one of the front bump stops broke into small pieces. It is brown color and not sure if it is OEM or Eibach.

It is on the top of the strut and below the strut tower. I suppose the purpose is to keep to strut/suspension from bottomong out.

The Eibach springs are probably 6 yrs old, but not too many miles on them.

Is it common to have this piece broken?

I replaced it with an 1 inch thick hard rubber ring (like a small donut) that has a whole in the middle. It seems to work well.

 

[Larry Bastanza]

You can order the replacement bump stop separately. These are designed to protect the shock. I cannot see how you have any way of knowing it is working properly. When the shock is compressed the bump stop cushions the blow. I would recommend you order a pair of new ones ($16 list ea.) and replace them.

Just my $.02

HTH,
LarryB

 

[nis350]

You can order the replacement bump stop separately. These are designed to protect the shock. I cannot see how you have any way of knowing it is working properly. When the shock is compressed the bump stop cushions the blow. I would recommend you order a pair of new ones ($16 list ea.) and replace them.

Just my $.02

HTH,
LarryB

Hi Larry,

The reason I think it is working is because when I go up on the driveway at an angle, the front suspension does not compress as much and front spoiler no longer touch the ground. So I assume that the rubber stopped the spring from compressing more as before.

But getting new ones seems like a good idea. :wink:

Thanks.

 

[ChrisK]

The hard foam bumpstops on all Honda/Acura cars seem to deteriorate fairly quickly. Every single Honda/Acura car that I personally owned above 60K miles that I lowered I found the bumpstops in various degrees of crumbs and I had to get all new ones. Now, I expect it to be deteriorated so I just buy new replacements a head of time.

 

[nis350]

The hard foam bumpstops on all Honda/Acura cars seem to deteriorate fairly quickly. Every single Honda/Acura car that I personally owned above 60K miles that I lowered I found the bumpstops in various degrees of crumbs and I had to get all new ones. Now, I expect it to be deteriorated so I just buy new replacements a head of time.

I wonder if that is age related or because the lowered car kept bumping them due to the shorten spring travel?

 

[Larry Bastanza]

Both. The lowering makes the shock potentiall;y contact the bump stop more often. Age is age, they dry out. If you notice the shape of the bump stop it is designed to have a "spring rate", to cushion the shock and slow it down, so it does not hit hard at the end of it's compressed travel. This is why I am not fond of the replacement rubber ring. I agree the shock does not compress as much, but I think you have limited protection for the shock now, especially on an abrupt bump, pothole, etc.

HTH,
LarryB

 

[ChrisK]

I agree, both conditions would help destroy the bumpstop faster. In my case though all the suspensions were stock. I discovered the destroyed bumpstops when I decided to lower each car. Maybe I was just unlucky, but so far it has been that way on 3 Acura Legends and 2 NSXs. I say two NSX's because I bought an OEM strut spring package from someone that claimed it had 50K miles on it and it too were not in the best of shape.

What I personally noticed is that all of them were very oiley and moist. My guess is that over time the light oil on the shock piston absorbs into the hard foam bumpstop and once it gets past a certain point any impact on that bumpstop (As when you bottom out) will just shatter/crack it. I have no eveidence of this, but when you rub all those bump stop crumbs between your fingers you can feel all the oil in them.

On the other hand, I just installed Eibach's on my Lexus RX330 and it also uses similar hard foam bumpstops, but at 40K miles these bumpstops were still in excellent shape.

 

[nis350]

I agree, both conditions would help destroy the bumpstop faster. In my case though all the suspensions were stock. I discovered the destroyed bumpstops when I decided to lower each car. Maybe I was just unlucky, but so far it has been that way on 3 Acura Legends and 2 NSXs. I say two NSX's because I bought an OEM strut spring package from someone that claimed it had 50K miles on it and it too were not in the best of shape.

What I personally noticed is that all of them were very oiley and moist. My guess is that over time the light oil on the shock piston absorbs into the hard foam bumpstop and once it gets past a certain point any impact on that bumpstop (As when you bottom out) will just shatter/crack it. I have no eveidence of this, but when you rub all those bump stop crumbs between your fingers you can feel all the oil in them.

On the other hand, I just installed Eibach's on my Lexus RX330 and it also uses similar hard foam bumpstops, but at 40K miles these bumpstops were still in excellent shape.

Yeah. it is a bit oily. Is the strut suppose to have thin oil come out? I thought it has gas struts?

Is the original bump stop about an inch thick?

 

[ChrisK]

Yeah. it is a bit oily. Is the strut suppose to have thin oil come out? I thought it has gas struts?

Is the original bump stop about an inch thick?

As for the light oil I have no idea if its from the strut or just road grime over time. I believe the original full length bump stop is about 2.5" or a little longer I think it has about 4 tiers to it. It is actually quite long.