I've read the same complaints about the non-Honda power steering pumps. Honda does not manufacturer power steering pumps, but I wish we could figure out which company makes it for them, as we could go with a new aftermarket pump in that brand. Mine is starting to make noise also, which is why I want to replace it. And I've read so many bad reviews on aftermarket pumps being noisy that I'm not even bothering at the moment. But the time will come and I know I will need to find one. This is one case where I may have to bite the bullet and spend extra for the Honda.

I have the same situation with a steering rack with a TSX. Honda's price is insane ($1,400 online at a discount), but I haven't read of any aftermarket brand that had consistently good reviews.

The KYB Strut Plus assemblies are of good quality and will make that CR-V ride nicely. I had tried some Monroe QuickStruts but the fronts turned out to be noisy from poor-quality hardware. (The strut cartridges themselves are fine, but their hardware is lacking.) The KYBs were quieter and actually provided a slightly better ride (a little smoother ride yet still firm during cornering). Luckily the KYBs are now readily available for our generation of CR-V. Rock Auto would probably have the best deal on them.

 

Sach damper is pretty smooth as well. My 2016 Honda Pilot have them as OEM. Rockauto also carries them for the CRV.

 

You can rebuild the pumps for not much cash. Mostly it's just replacing the O-rings and other non-metal parts inside.

I just (yesterday) put new Monroe struts on my car. See my car's thread.

 

Thank you guys i will look into rebuilds for the power steering pump and the kyb struts

 

I installed KYB on my 07 CRV

 

Avoid Monroe Quick Struts. I've installed them on two vehicles, both now have knocks in the suspension, especially when cold.

 

The Monroe struts are fine--it's the cheap hardware they use in the assembly that causes all the noise. Our blue '09 is chattering a bit. On my gold '09, I just decided to dump the front set and replaced them with KYBs.

One thing that some users of Quick Struts in other forums found (with other brands/models) was that the nut that attaches to the top of the strut is not tightened down far enough. Some are able to zap it with an impact wrench, but otherwise it'd have to be removed from the vehicle in order to snug it up. Some found that the nut bottomed out at the bottom of the threads, and they used a couple of thick washers underneath the nut to preload it more, and that got rid of the noise.

But these were supposed to be less work! Live and learn, I guess. For me it's KYBs from here on out.

 

You can rebuild the PS pump for $20+ by getting an o-ring kit from Amazon. If you have an impact driver, that would make it even easier to take of the pump housing bolts. In my case, when putting it back together, I used two 2x4 to build a jig to so I can temporary bolt the pump to it in order to have good leverage to torque the bolts. If you have a vise, that will work too. There are a couple of good videos on youtube showing you how to do it. Also, I do remember when I put the pump back into the car, it screeched really bad. I thought I screwed up. I used the garden hose to spray some water on the belt while it's running. The quiet it down. So it was just the belt need to soften up...weird, but that's what it was.

As for the struts, I did switched out all 4 of the originals with KYB from Rock Auto. I would recommend changing out the strut bearings as well, and I would stick to Honda OEM bearing. I got my from amazon and they weren't that expensive. The front boots were completely gone on my. I also order FEBEST boot from ebay for like 12/each. Amazon sells those two. I also replace the front spring insulator for the front, that's the little piece of rubber at the bottom of the spring. I got those from Honda, they were like $3/ea, but has to special order. The front out/in is fairly straight forward. The rear, you'll need a good pry bar to get it out and back in. If you have extra help for rear, it will be easier to have the other person push down on the pry bar to align the strut to the mounting hole, then you push the bolt through.

And for the front, I'd recommend buying a camber bolts and install that when re-installing the fronts. It's recommended that you get the car re-align after swapping out struts. With the camber bolt, they can adjust the camber for you.
I didn't know this when I did my.