Just now on my lunch break, I took the car home and gave each strut top a quick tug with a breaker bar and a 21mm socket. They were both tight. This was done with the car on the ground. Does this mean they are ok, or should I raise the car up and take the struts out?

 

Why do you feel the need to tighten them?

 

If you could hear what my suspension sounds like, you'd understand.

I've heard a loose top nut is a common issue when getting clunking over jarring bumps, and I have done work to the shocks and subframe.

 

Probably all you did is spin the strut shaft as you tried to tighten the nut. You really need a special socket with the side cut out (if you're handy you can make one) that allows you to put an allen wrench on the shaft to keep it from spinning as you tighten the nut.

 

Here's a good deal on tool you'll need.

21mm Strut Tool and spreader

Rich

 

more important would be thr 3 nuts that hold the strut to the tower. Torque these to 30-35 lb/ft with a 13mm socket. They tend to loosen due to mushrooming of the towers.

 

MINICHEF
Sorry this is bad information. The torque on the three camber plate bolts is 25 ft/lbs. Going any higher than that and you risk breakage!
Steve

 

So I took the struts out yesterday, reinstalled them, checked the fittings, and everything seems tight. I still have a terrible clunking noise. I'm not going to look into some outer ball joints, and just start going down the list of things to replace!

 

Would that be a common mistake in reinstalling struts (not tightening the main nut)? I have the bad rubbing issue in the struts after having new bearings installed...did they overlook the proper way to tighten them?

 

If you had a shop do the work then they probably just hit the strut nut with an impact (common practice) and it should be plenty tight. Is the rubbing in the front or rear? What do you mean by "bearings"?

 

Last Winter I replaced my struts, strut bearings, inner ball joints, installed MINI Madness reinforcement plates, (to fix minor mushrooming) and any other associated strut bushings and stops. Several months ago the struts started clunking at slow speeds such as going over the transition bump into my driveway. Thinking it was lose strut nuts, I hit them with the impact wrench and it seemed to help. But now its getting worse.

I might have found the problem although I haven't looked into this yet. When I replaced the struts, I went with a mid-priced strut bearing; and that might be the issue. I was discussing this with a mechanic and he said he had a bad experience where the after market bearings he installed failed almost immediately. With everything else seemingly tight, these aftermarket bearing might be the issue, and could be failing.

Side note: In one of the earlier post's someone was asking how to tighten the strut nut while holding the allen screw. With the strut assembly out of the car I used a spark plug socket that had a wrench fitting on the end. This way you can tighten it with a box wrench while accessing the allen screw through the middle. This method might work with the strut assembly in the car as well.

 

I used Moog which might be the problem after reading this:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums...Number=2643612

But they rub/squeak only when it's below 70. Is that a sound you'd hear when they're failing? The ones i replaced were tearing quite bad but didn't make any sounds.
So either the struts weren't tightened right and somehow that is causing the bellows to bind or the tower plates added are touching the rubber bearings - after that i have no idea.
My mechanic hit everything he could with lithium grease but if that helped it didn't help long.