I had some new dampers/shocks installed in the front struts on my '98 Honda Civic a few months ago after fighting with tire wear problems, mostly cupping. The dealer was no help on this and thought it was just bad tires (Michelin X-One's). So I had some KYB GR-2s installed at a shop I had previously used. Last week, I had the car back at the dealer on another issue and he noted that the strut assemblies were not installed correctly--the alignment tab is 180 degrees from where it should be. (This is the tab on the lower end on the strut where it slips into the split fitting on the fork). I checked the service manual and he appears to be right. Yet the strut assembly "appears" to be correctly mounted in the car. Rotating it 180 looks like it would cause the angle to be wrong. Several questions: Am I missing something here? Do I need to get this fixed? John Clavin Austin, TX
probably swapped left & right. since you got this far, maybe not. the important things are that the brake line follows the correct route and that the fork is securely fixed to the bottom of the shock. check regularly to start with to make sure it's not getting loose, then stop worrying. bilstein's don't even have a tab. to reassemble correctly, you'll need to take the whole shock/coil unit apart [pita & requires a spring compressor] because yes, the top mounting plate is certainly angled wrong and prevents you just swapping left with right.