At 10,800 miles, took my 08 MCS in for it's first couple of problems today. I had a slight vibration at about 60 mph, requested a tire re-balance and they did a road force balancing on all four tires ($130).

I also had sort of a clunking sound from the left front suspension area when going over speed bumps, mostly on the rebound and mostly when turning right with bumps on the road. They diagnosed a bad left front strut that's failing internally; it's on order and should be here in about a week, can still drive around (warranty).

While there they also changed my a/c micro-filter, flushed and changed my brake fluid, multi-point inspection, reset the OBC and checked for error codes, none were recorded (warranty/free maintenance).

Hope the new strut takes care of the clunking sound!

 

I'm PISSED! I just noticed two dents on the left top part of the hood that weren't there before I dropped off my car for service. It was dark when I picked it up yesterday so I didn't see them. Took it back to the dealer so I could show it to them this morning and of course my MA isn't there, just a skeleton crew on the weekends. Now I have to take it back again on Monday so the Service Manager can look at the "alleged damage" as the Assistant Manager called it. I assured him those dents weren't there and I signed paperwork for a walk around from my MA that showed no damage what so ever on my car when I dropped it off. Hoping the dents can be repaired by the paintless dent repair folks that stop by the dealership. This is why I hate getting my car serviced by anyone but me, they don't care!

 

I totally understand you man. I get restless when someone else services my car. I have all these crazy imaginations about how they don't check my car for anything but still tell me that they did all the check ups. Hope your new strut solve your problem.

 

They agreed to fix the dents on the hood . It wasn't easy, as usual they tried to deny it and blame me. I can understand, but their incoming walk around showed no damage because there wasn't any damage when I dropped it off. They're going to try the paintless dent repair, hope it works!

 

They fixed the dents, it looks great and only took about 40 minutes. While there I notice several Minis with melted hood scoops. I pointed one out to the owner and she said she hadn't noticed. It was all knurled up, how could she not notice? Anyway, now waiting on my replacement strut to come in...

 

Well the new strut fixed my problem. Man these last couple of weeks were exhausting, my car got it's tires rebalanced, replaced the a/c micro-filter, flushed and changed my brake fluid, multi-point inspection, aligned the tires, changed the motor oil, and replaced my left front strut. My car feels great!

 

Glad to know everything worked out in the end Benibiker!!

 

Thanks RJKimbell !!

 

Car's back in the shop for the same thumping or clanking, the strut change didn't fix it... Boo hoo hoo...

 

Well they had the car a couple of days, they changed the strut again, changed the strut mount because it was loose, tightened all left side suspension components including engine/transmission mounts, and they checked the hood but what seem to have fixed the noise was lubricating that yellow rubber stop that's visible near the top of the strut, it has the strut cylinder going through it. That was the fix! Guess if the sound comes back I'll just lube it again...

 

The '98 Prelude I sold recently served me well thru all it's years but early in it's life, I noticed a clunking noise when I went over some bumps. It was never a big deal but eventually bothered me enough that I started researching the web for the issue. Turns out there was a service bulletin put out on the issue. The strut was bottoming out when going over bumps. The service bulletin added a bushing that raised the clearance of the strut so it would not bottom out. The next time I brought my Prelude into the dealer (this was way past warranty period), I mentioned if they could also check out the strut and see if the service bulletin applied. When I picked up the car, they had inserted the bushings for free and it never made the clunking noise again.

This is probably not same as your issue but thought I would mention it.

 

That's very interesting... I had a Japanese (right hand steering wheel) 93 Prelude Si while stationed in Okinawa, loved the car, wish I could find another in good shape.