khhoang

if youre riding on the original stock springs and your car looks like its lowered i.e. you can barely fit 1 or 2 finger width in the wheel gap then your springs are sagging. springs are what hold the car's height. of course this is affected by the load you have in back seat and the trunk. also you can roughly judge if your car is level not by looking at the the wheel gaps but by the lines of the car wrt the ground.

Lexbox

Does anyone know of a shop in the southeast that will put Nitrogen Fast-Bags on our car? I dont want coil overs and springs cant lift up when you need to.

rm1

yoji6365 ,

will you be kind enough to post the pictures? I will greatly appreciate that as I have purchased Teticko struts and havent had a chance to look at them.

By the time you will post the pictures I will have an idea if I do need to order any additonal parts.

Thanks,
rm1

yoji6365

This is the first time posting pics so here it goes. Hope this helps. My next post has the item descripstions. Email me if you want more info on where I got most of the replacement parts.
HINT: It was from Ebay.

yoji6365

These were for the front struts.
The top left and top center are the strut mounts that go on top.
The lower left and lower center are the bearings that go in the bottom
The bottom right is the various rubber parts that go on the bottom.

Theres also a green ring made of some kind of paper that goes down there also.
I probably could have reused most of those rubber componenets but I bought a bunch of parts off Ebay and figured I may as well use them.

The actual cartridge looks like a shock absorber without any bottom mounting holes.
I'll post another pic of how you can tell if the strut is replaceable or not.
I'll post another pic after that on what my old front struts looked like after I pulled them off. YUCKKK

yoji6365

As you can see, the rubber boot is in many many pieces, one of the rubber bumpers was split in half, whoever did the left strut before didnt have the lower rubber insulator aligned.
But amazingly, the ride was still smooth going over bumps. Maybe because the torn boot material got stuck in between the bumper and kept it tight.

I bought a boot and bumper kit from Kragen, $15.99, reused the large rubber spring seat on top.

Oops, these are pics of the rear struts. They didnt have any life left in these things.

rm1

yoji6365 ,

Excellent work with the pics there. I must say you have not only helped me on this issue but many others who were looking for exact pictures of what stuff to put in for suspension/struts.

Keep it up.

rm1

Thanks to you all and I finally got both my front and rear struts and strut mounts changed this weekend. Although I must add that finding the rear strut mounts was a problem. Somehow most of the car shops did not had it and I did not feel like buying it from the dealer cos they were charging 3 times for the cost.

Anyways after getting the job done last evening I took the car out this morning and realized that I still hear some sound when my car goes over some bump or uneven surface. Is it necesarrily coming form the struts? Should I take the car back for reinspection?

Or is it normal to have that sound? I had this sound and thats why I got the new struts but the sound is still coming? What could it be?

rm1

3rdelement

iTrader: (1)

thinking maybe its the bushings or maybe the springs(wasnt sure if you had changed those out) but sometimes they have a rubber covering that makes noise when it flexes.

yoji6365

This is how I diagnosed the offending sounds from my struts.

For the front struts, hood open, go to one side and grab a solid part of frame and push up and down. You have to push up and down as hard as you can since you have simulate going over a bump. Have someone isolate the area of the noise. The strut shaft nut was not tightened down enough and you can hear a definite clunk .
I torqued the nut to 36 and it fixed that. The other side I had to get a air impact wrench since the nut was spinning.

For the rears, get one more poerson, open trunk, open window, push down at the door and the trunk to see if you get the clunk noise.

I'd check the torque of the nuts either way. The rears are hopefully not making any noise since you have to take out your rear seats and tray.

If youre getting a noise shaking it from side to side, its obviously something else. Try to isolate the sound. Have someone helping you, it makes it easier. 4 ears are better than two.

ArmyofOne

Those are the rebuildable struts? How hard are they to rebuild? i dont have a spring compressor, so i would have to use the one at JP Importz (probably just have jason separate them for me). other than that, what is involved? and how hard/how much ride is sacrificed when converting to non rebuildable?

omaha_lex

you could always try moving the midgets to the front of the vehicle...

rm1

It shouldnt be the springs as I had them inspected at the time I got my struts changed but I am not sure about bushings. It sounds like it could be bushings cos it is impossible to have all the four struts replaced and all of them clonk the same way they were before when I got professional work done on the car.

Considering it is bushings, how much do bushings cost and how much (aprox estimate) would be the labor charges on an average? Are they as expensive as struts to replace?

I paid quite a lump to get the struts replaced and the continuing klonking drove me nuts.

On the other hand I will also try the other method for testing the struts, although the possibility seems light but you can never be sure when it comes to components.

yoji6365

Is the clunking coming from the front? They usually do.


If the question about rebuildables are from the pics I posted, you can see the nut that you need to loosen to remove the cartridge.

I can't say what the differnece in ride is since my rebuildables were shot and I replaced it with non-rebuildables.

If I keep this car long enough to have to replace the rears again, Im gonna use the rebuildables since the cartridges are much cheaper.

Havent owned any car for more than 50k so I doubt that'll be the case.

rm1

The noise comes from front and back but I have a feeling it may be bushings. How much are these for? Anyone got any work done for bushings? If yes for how much and are they a absolute must repair?