210_the_man

I had my struts changed a few months ago. The old ones were making these creaking noises and it was time for them to go.

I purchased a set of four Gabriel struts for my 2003 Acura TL. I installed the front struts myself. Having had enough, I took the car to the shop to have the rear ones installed. Everything seemed to go smoothly, but after the rear struts were installed, I started hearing an annoying rattling sound coming from the driver's side rear suspension, as if the strut is rattling loose.

I took the car back to the shop and had them work on it again twice more to try to rectify the problem, but it persists. What can I do to fix my suspension?

3.2TLc

Ya did the more difficult front ones successfully, and gave up....now the rears could be ok, but possibly something else in the rear suspension such as the end links ? Hopefully everything was checked and secured by the other installer ! Should've done it yourself.

AcuraTouringLuxury3.2

I heard from people that if your hear a clunking noise its probably broken end links look at the bottom of your car if they are broken they will be hanging down, I had my rear muffler off one rubber hanger and when I went over a dip I can hear the back muffler bouncing. just got to check and try and replicate the issue if its persistent.

210_the_man

End links? I'm not familiar with that part. I'll have to look into it.

However, it does seem almost as if the sound is coming from inside the cabin, so I think that it's the upper part of the suspension.

fsttyms1

Look under the car at the end links. They attach the sway bar to the rear suspension. If broken it will bang and clunk. The other thing to check would be if the top shock bushings were put in properly. They are cone shaped and look like they fit in with the cone shape facing each other but they actually go the other way.
Also the rears are much easier to change than the fronts (neither of which are hard to change IMHO). If you did the fronts the rears would have been a piece of cake

210_the_man

I finally gave up and took this to another mechanic to have it fixed. I paid $600 to have a new pair of struts installed with re-alignment.

It turns out that the pair of struts that I previously had installed in the rear were defective. When removed from the car, they no longer extend on their own when compressed and one of them leaks fluid.

Problem solved, but I ended up paying for installation twice!

3.2TLc

Hey 210_the_man, ya got took twice.....once with bad "Gabriel" struts and then next by the shop trying to make them work ? And bit by another shop ! WTF..........

First off, having done the fronts with no issues by yourself, leads me to believe that the first shop is at fault. You should'nt have to buy another pair of struts and pay $600 for another install. The chances of getting two bad struts are almost as good as winning the lottery, IMO. Ya got ripped !