Wayne or Jens,
I am hoping one of you will be able to provide me with some very much needed assistance. I have an extremely annoying squeak coming from the passenger side of the vehicle. I went in and took it to the dealership, and as close as they can tell me I would need to replace the top of the passenger side damper/spring assembly. Hopefully one of your eyes might be able to see what parts I need to order to replace. I believe the problem lies with the one of the rubber bushing,or the collar, but probably not the mount base. When the shock assembly comes through the chassis, it should be centered but as the picture shows it is not.

I want to get this fixed as soon as possible, because of fears that handeling will be adversely (and dangerously) affected.

If you could let me know what parts I need to replace and the part #'s, I would be greatly appreciative of it. Even better yet would be if I could order the parts from you all, or if you could point me in the proper direction with the contact #'s via e-mail.

Thanks ahead of time.

 

Hopefully this view will put everything else into perspective.
BTW I have Comptech Springs, Sway Bars, etc.

Would you possibly have any clues how this could have happened?

 

Just trying to keep this on the top so hopefully Wayne, or Jens (or heck someone else knowledgable w/ info) can reply.

 

Ok here is what I would look at first.That nut in the center of the mount needs to be more or less centered in the hole as you know.I recently had a customer with the same sort of problem but besides needing a new strut mount it also required a new strut.You see the reason the car is making noise is because somewhere along the line it was bottomed severely enough to actually bend the shaft for the strut.Once the shaft is bent the strut starts making all sorts of weird noises.I would suggest you take this approach:take the stru assembly out of the car and break it down to it's individual components then asses what is really damaged.Then go ahead and order the parts .If you just want to go ahead and get it over with I would suggest a new strut and the mount for it also replace the washers the rubber bushings and the protective boot that is in there.But remember it is much better to look it over and aorder what ius really needed as opposed to ordering everything and using only half.

 

Jens,
Thanks so much for the reply, I just need to find the time right now to break down the strut assembly. My fear now is if the assembly is bent (which I fear is the cause, due to the awkward drive characteristics I am currently experiencing) if it will be a danger for me or others if I don't get it fixed ASAP?

-Johnny

Again thanks so much for the reply.

 

Here's a scan of the parts for the Type S front assembly.

 

Tinman,
Thanks for the scan of the Service manual, it is very much appreciated but unfortunately I have the service manual, but currently too much of a lazy ass to fix it myself. So I have been putting off the service until I can get some time (like a couple of days , to do the job myself, or to take it in and get the dealership to do the repair when I take it in for the 45k maintenance.

Does anyone have any other places other than ACP that I could buy the Koni's for for say under 500$ for all 4?? Like possibly a group buy?

 

Like any car problem it should be addressed as quickly as possible to avoid further problems.However here is what I tell my customers when confronted with things like this.Your car has to do two things one is steer and one is stop ,if either of these are compromised you have major problems that have the potential to kill you.Although a bent damper is not directly part of the steering mechanism it is attached to the front suspension and that is part of the steering mechanism.So yes by all means get it fixed .Jens

 

If I were you, when you are replacing the passenger side struts (shocks) I would go ahead and replace the other side with a new one also, since, the new one will have a better dampening rate than the older one, in time, you will have to replace it at two different occasions, so I would at least, go ahead and get the blue, non adjustable tokico shocks, which are like 140 dollars for the front pair and just do the fronts...