Yesterday while I was driving to work my suspension felt all loose, and my hood was sticking up. I pull my car over to see what's wrong, and this is what I find:





What's wrong?? What do I need to do to fix?? I just finished dropping it with H&R Sport and Koni Yellow. It was perfectly fine for a week. Please HELP!! I'm gonna take the strut assembly out now. BTW, this is the front driver assembly.

 

OH...MY... :o That don't look good.

 

HOLY CRAP!!!

 

you should take it back to the place that intalled them

 

No shit!!! I talked to the guy at AutoZone, and he said it's probably the bearings in the mount base. I didn't even know they have bearings in that thing.

 

Yeah...it's back at the place that did the install......MY GARAGE!!

 

Looks like the washer that is below the bottom rubber isolator is either going to be missing or broken ,Remove the strut carefully noting that all the washers are present .If not time to look around the shop floor and see what turns up .
This is the order you should have in parts for the strut mount top to bottom :
1,nut holding strut in mount.
2,washer shaped like a saucer this holds the upper rubber cushion in place.
3,piece of tubing about two inches long ,this is what the two rubber isolators ride on .
4,lower cushion ,this looks the same as the upper cushion but it goes in upside down.
5,large black washer .
6,shock boot,
7,thicker washer with a conical tapered seat in the center .This washer should match a conical taper on the strut shaft .

It is the last part the conical taper washer i suspect is either missing or broken.

Please not this assembly is for a stock strut .
Aftermarket struts or real couildovers use more or less the same order of parts but typically the conmical taper washer is replaces with a very thick steel washer .
Jens

 

Thanks very much Jens. I just took apart the assembly and found that both washers were missing. I must have overlooked them since it was the very first assembly I worked on. Boy, I never knew how important washers are until now. I was soo worried about this I couldn't concentrate on work very well last night.

A million thanks again!!!

 

One more thing Jens. The stock dust cover is damaged now because the washers weren't in there. I was able to put a hammer to it and get its shape back. Should I go ahead and replace it or will I be safe using the one I have right now. I think with the washers in place, the dust cover's shape and structure will hold. What do you think?

 

As long as it will stay put and will go over the strut body itself without hitting it you should be ok .
Jens

 

That's why he makes the big bucks. Usually a nonpro will miss something and spend hours and hours trying to figure what he did wrong. Nice of you to help, Jens.

 

Jens is my hero!!!


Thanks again for your help Jens. Much appreciated. Everything is back together now and looks to be right this time around. Time to hit the shower and take her for a test run to AutoZone to return the spring compressor. Thanks again!!!

 

Fuken crap man that SUCKS ASS!!! I hope nothing is major is messed up!!

 

Nothing structural is damaged. The only thing that was damaged was the dust cover ($5) which won't need to be replaced and the a whole was poked through the lining under the hood. Luckily the hood itself is not damaged. Everything's good to go now.

 

well thats good to hear

 

You're lucky man....if it was me, it probably would have caused an accident...and paralized me!!!

 

I can't believe that didn't dent your hood!

 

Your welcome .
Jens

 

Hoang,

If you need to bring your car in for maintanence, avoid California Customs. I'm going to try and get the dealership to turn my screen back on and if that doesn't work the insurance company should cover it since it never turned on after the repair work. I hooked all the wires back up, I just don't know what it is? If you damaged your hood, would you have replaced it with a stock hood or carbon fiber?

 

the same thing happened to my driver's side rear coilover when I did the TEIN install. Fortunately it didn't do any damage, but you should've seen my face when I went over the first bump and all I saw was my strut poking out the rear of my deck cover.

 

I feel a bit better knowing I'm not the only one that made this mistake. Oh well, good lesson learned.

I am very luck about my hood not being damaged. It was very fortunate for me that the strut hit one of the reinforced areas of the hood. The hood actually helped me get home that day. It actually pushed the strut back down closer to its normal level for the short drive home.

BTW, does anyone know how to realign the hood a bit. the driver corner close to the windshield is sticking up a bit from the strut poking at it. From left to right the hood is aligned perfectly. It is just sticking up a little bit in the corner the strut hit it. Thanks for everyone's comments and help. You guys sure know how to make someone feel a bit better about their mistakes.