the dreaded knock
 

Had my car in at my local subaru dealer as i had a knocking noise from the front and rear of my car and it turns out that the struts need repalced. As only the front left and rear left are knocking this is all that subaru will replace apparently. I called Subaru Uk and they confrimed this. I am not at all happy as my car is going to have one side with modified struts(apparently the struts have had a minor change to help prevent the knocking but from what i have read this hasn't fixed the faults) and 1 side with the original struts. From what i have heard the handling of the car maybe affected.

Can anyone shed any light on this and also let me know if they have had struts repalced under warranty in pairs when only 1 strut has been faulty.

cheers

chris

Hi Chris, If I was you I would try as hard as possible to get all four struts replaced. If they havn't been done already you could argue that they will just go soon anyway(although that is what subaru want, as it means you could run out of warranty before it happens, depending on how long you have left).

I've changed struts on one side of a car before, but that was on my very first car - an old renault clio banger. If the other struts have been used for 30000 miles, then the damping will surely not be as effective as the new ones! Would never run a Subaru with uneven handling characteristics.

Sorry I've not been much help: I always buy privately, so no idea about warranties etc, but just giving you another opinion. All four should be replaced! It's a bit half arsed of Subaru to only replace 2 knackered struts, when the other 2 have been on the same vehicle for the same amount of time, and have the same fault meaning they are likely to go soon.

This is std practice I’m afraid.

The mod to the strut does not affect the damping rate, so there is no need to replace the items that are not faulty. Manufactures are not in the habit of renewing parts 'just in case it goes wrong'.

Many years ago, the 'effectiveness' of a shock absorber deteriate at a much faster rate, so it was common practice to renew in pairs, but this is no longer the case so this ceased.

This was also true for cars out of warranty. The customer was always advised to renew in pairs to avoid an imbalance, but no longer.

The only time a component is changed under warranty without it being faulty, is if there is a safety issue.

I work within a mulifranchise company & this is common practice with Subaru, Seat, Citroen, Land Rover, Mini, Jaguar & BMW.

You could try going further up the chain to make a complaint, but the chances of getting a result is minimal, as to be fair, at the moment there is nothing wrong with the items on the RH side.

Phil

lets face it at the end of the day the rear shockers on some models are CRAP! subaru uk just bury their head in the sand & expect us to keep paying for replacements when out of warranty. they are happy to replace them in warranty so they must know something is wrong with the design. how about an en masse e-mail to subaru uk threatening with an expose to top gear. or even fifth gear.