Double Wish-List

Customer complaints about front end noise and wandering steering are nothing new to most general service shops; but in modern front wheel drive vehicles diagnosis includes hubs, upper strut mounts, half shafts and of course, ball joints and tie rod ends. While MacPherson strut technology is widespread in unibody vehicles, models with sporting pretensions like Acura (as well as early Civics) use the race-proven double wishbone design. While this isn’t

news to domestic body-on-frame large car and light truck techs, there is a difference: unlike pickups or fleet vehicles, the suspension on unibody double wishbone suspensions is relatively fragile, mainly to reduce weight, sprung and unsprung. Put simply, pot holes, curbs and Canadian winters play havoc with these front ends. SSGM serviced a typical Honda double wishbone front end to eliminate the classic noise and wandering steering complaints.

Double wishbone suspensions are the gold standard in front- end design and are superior to Macpherson strut designs where best handling is the goal. That’s why Formula 1 and Indy cars use them, and in part why many consumers buy them. In lightweight or high performance applications, however, they can be fragile. You may have to replace everything that swivels and either way, this is no place to cut corners on part quality.

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