I recently read a posting on a Honda web site from a fellow in Australia who wanted to know where his car's "bushes" are and if changing them was worthwhile. Unless they have another word for these parts in Oz, they are called "bushings" and these are a bunch of little rubber "donuts" that connect the moving parts of the car's suspension to the body of the car. In time they wear out and it is a good idea on cars older than 10 years to replace them if you want to keep the car.
On his mid-1980's Honda Civic, the front suspension bushings live at the end of the boomerang shaped control arm on either side of the front suspension. (The rear bushings are at the pivot point of the rear control arms on that car).
You will need to remove the control arms to put in the new bushings, but that is not very difficult. And the results are definitely worth it. All Hondas will wear out their suspension bushings in time; if a sloppy suspension does not bother you then it is OK to use the old bushings. But for spirited driving and a quieter ride you should replace the bushings on any old Honda.
I just bought a '90 Prelude 2.0Si in pristine condition. The previous owner had kept it in PERFECT shape. But the old bushings are still in the car. For my son who will drive the car on a regular basis, the old bushings are not a problem. But for the perfectionist in me it makes me nuts to hear the rattles and not get the optimum performance from the car.
So why not just change the bushings and get it over with? While the early Civic/CRX bushings are relatively cheap (a complete set of replacement bushings cost less than US$100) and easy to change, in the 1988 model year Honda updated the suspension to a more complex design that uses more bushings. And because the Prelude is a relatively low volume car, a set of replacement bushings is going to cost about $500 for just the parts!
The Prelude is going to be my 16-year-old son's daily driver until he
graduates from college in six years. If the car survives and if it is still in salvageable condition, I will reclaim the car from him and put those bushings in. But the car is perfectly serviceable in the condition it is in right now.