Had some clonking and knocking going on recently, thought i'd nip up the nuts on top of the suspension struts.

Whilst doing the three on the drivers side one of the little blighters sheared off so i now only have 2!!! My questions are -

1, Is the car ok to drive still? (need it for work)

2, What do i need to do to repair it?

Any help much appreciated, cheers,

Ritchie.

ps - the cheaper the better cause it's cost me almost a grand this month already!!!!!!

 

Its a cheap but time consuming fix - you'll have to undo the other two and drop the strut and dismantle the top hat to get a new bolt in.
These only need a low torque to tighten them (can't remember the right figure though)

 

right, cheers for that. Reckon i'll give it a go one day this week. Will i need any special tools to do this?

ritchie

 

14.5ft-lbs

http://www.stefanostadal.homedns.org...nd-parts-1.jpg

Stefan

 

Thanks for that - superb, so by the looks of things i'm gonna need to compress the spring am i?

If so can i get the clamps to do so from halfords? (or similar) Gonna have to have a go at this myself (not a complete biff really) cause the car has become a bit of a money pit recently.

Swift response appreciated,

ta fellas.
Ritchie.

 

No you don't have to compress the spring as yuo won't be taking the strut apart.

 

No need to remove spring.
You could do it by getting jack under front cross member.
Undo last two remaining bolts on top of turret.
Jack up front slowly til you can feel top hat and offending bolt then replace it, lower jack whilst feeding strut up into turret.

Another way if this doesn't drop turret to work on properly is to get jack in place.
Undo two bolts at bottom of strut (v tight) to hub.
Jack up front til the strut comes away from hub (support hub with stand or tie up)
Undo last two bolts from turret.
Strut falls away then you can get proper access to top hat.

I think that the two bolts are 17mm and you need two spanners/ratchets to do it properly as they need to be done up to 129 lbs.

 

Got the car all jacked up now and the two bolts at bottom of strut are not having any of it!!!!

Explain this method above in a bit more detail please, can't quite picture what you mean? (in laymans terms would be nice!)

cheers
Ritchie

 

Spray bolts with WD40 then wait an hour. Try again but use some sort of long tube over the spanner/ratchet or a long armed wheel brace. They can be very difficult to shift.

Nick

 

I left WD40 on mine for donkeys and came back over a couple of hours to give it more. Eventually came loose using a HUGE LONG tube over my breakers bar. Mine were as tight as ****

 

Tried wd40 and a bit of heat but to no avail, need to get the right tools i thinks. Gonna get a spanner to fit and like you say a big tube to hopefully crack the sods. No time to do it today though so will have to wait a bit.

I take it these three aren't load bearing but just locate the strut? Does that mean it will be alright to drive around as is till i get time to do it?

On the clonking front i think it was the discs shifting back and forth - have cleaned it all up and put back together, seems better. Does this sound feasable?

Unfortunately i seem to now have another problem to do with steering - i shall elaborate......

 

Two seperate garages said that the steering rack was the most likely cause of clunking so i sourced a rack from a breakers (subaru new - £756 before vat!!!).

Now the car hasn't been tracked and aligned yet, doing it first thing in morning but the steering feels absolutely dreadful now. As you come just of centre in a bend the load lightens up noticably. I think its the power steering becoming lighter but it gives the sensation of the front end losing grip - make sense? Doesn't feel very confidence inspiring.

Have i gone and bought a fooked rack and paid loads to have it fitted or will the aligning sort this??

I'm having a bad week i think?

cheers for all replies
Ritchie.