Hello everyone. My '98 SH began to experience a rear clunking noise somewhere behind the rear seats. It occurs only on the right side, and when going over medium to large size bumps. Has anyone experienced this problem w/ their Preludes before?
How should I go about fixing this problem? What, if any,
parts should I replace?

 

r u lowered

 

No. The entire car is stock.

 

It's the infamous "shock knock" basically theres a design flaw that has been thought to be all sorts of things with no real proof of what it is. Honda has said it's the collar length in the rear shocks but I, as well as many others, have replaced those collars with no changes. There's also a brace behind the rear seat floor that some say attribute some creaks and clunking but I've dyno matted that area and I still have the noises as well.

My suggestion is either dynamat the crap out of the rear of the car or live with it.

 

Wow! That sucks. Thanks for your reply.

 

If you are still wondering what to do. I had the exact same problem. the only thing is mine happened the same year I bought my Prelude.

They replaced the whole strut assembly and the noise never ever came back again.

 

The entire Honda strut assembly was replaced? So the original assembly was defective right?
Your car was still under warranty, but do you have an idea of how much that would cost per strut assembly?
I'm afraid of going to a Honda dealership, as some service advisors don't know much, and make up stories. They might give me the run-around, and come up w/ all sorts fo things wrong w/ my car, to add to the cost.

 

XacurhonX,

I use to buy my OEM Honda parts from this place. I still buy the cleaner wax from them for my other car (Awesome stuff!!) They have very good prices. You can also check out there "Aftermarket Parts" section.

If this link does not take you directly to the Honda rear strut page than just follow the site to the OEM stuff.

If you wish to stay stock as I did, this place has great prices.(No Tax for me and minimal shipping)
Seeing that you are experiencing this problem now (with how many miles you have on it I had 800) it might be a good idea to change them in pairs. The prices are cheaper now than they were in 1998.

http://www.manhonda.com/ap/index.cfm...ID=51&Level=21

Hope this helps you out.
There is also lots of other OEM stuff for cheap in there.

Mike

 

I also want to say that there Prelude accessories at that site above are thining out seeing that this model no longer exisists.

 

MSA, Thanks for your replies and info.
I recent found this on Temple of Vtec's.
http://www.sonic.net/~danm/shock/
I think I will try this first since it is alot cheaper than purchasing the entire strut assemblies. If the noise remains, then I shall replace the struts completely.
Again, thanks for your help.
Take care. By the way, does your Prelude drink a little bit of oil? I think mine does a little. Let me monitor that more closely.