The OP about the rusted undercarriage has been giving me PTSD from living in MN. the first 23 years of my life. Changing a set of shocks can be more stressful that rebuilding an engine in SoCal. I thought that I swore off salt cars years ago but I somehow wound up with a 2001 Honda Odyssey in MN when I was there and needed to replace my "cabin car." Long story.
Anyhow, I drove it all the way home to Los Angeles about a year or two ago with a broken front spring...I had no idea and the shops who installed tires on it and did major maintenance in MN did not notice it. It took my tire shop guys in LA to point it out when I went for an alignment or something. It drove great on the road, these are incredible machines. The coil spring was in two pieces. I promptly hit the self serve junkyard I frequent here and bought a set of perfect, zero rust front strut w/ springs off of a similar van. Installed them.
All done, right? No dice. The van has 4-wheel alignment and the rear adjuster bolts on the rear lower arms are welded into place by corrosion. Tried heat, pounding, you name it. Not going to move in this lifetime. So back to the junkyard I went just last week and grabbed a set of perfect lower control arms and special bolts plus rear coil springs just to be safe, (the rear springs are not as rusty as the front were but still have corrosion). Picked up a couple of small ancillary parts from the dealer and I will replace them this week and finally be able to do a 4-wheel alignment on it. It drives ok now because the stuck bolts are in the *probably correct* position from its last full alignment but obviously it's not ok to not be able to adjust them.
I'm sure that someone is wondering why I'm even bothering but I really like the van and don't want to throw it away...I put a ton of $$ into it a few years ago w/ new A/C compressor, tires, timing belt service, etc. Here are the new parts, these components never age in SoCal:
