dodged a boge strut bullet

[tmctguer]

a few days ago, i noticed a very loud noise coming from my front passenger wheelwell any time i hit a bump. when i had a spare minute, i would check for the obvious..........something flopping around loose in the trunk, perhaps my newly installed oil cooler lines were hitting the fenderwell, etc. i couldn't find anything.

so this weekend, i decided to jack the car up and find out what the heck was going on. after loosening up the lug nuts, i jack the car up, put jack stands under the car, and go to remove the lug nuts by hand. lo and behold, my front tire is flopping around like a fish out of water.

after muttering several curse words, i get the tire off. the strut assembly looked like it was broken in the middle. OUCH !

i go to the PP website, and look up the technical article on strut replacement. holy cow, i was going to have to remove the brake rotor, disconnect the ball joints, steering linkage, shock absorbers, wheel bearings.............i then check the website for pricing on a new strut assembly. holy cow ! another $400 down the drain. then i figured that i should do both sides to keep things in harmony.

after getting totally depressed, i go downstairs, put the tire back on, and say "f**k it for today". time to do something else for the rest of the day.

the next day, i work on and solve another car problem (a faulty license plate light). i then figured out i would try to look at my strut one more time before making a final diagnosis. i pulled out the receipts provided to me by the PO and i found that new koni shocks were installed in mid-'98. they couldn't have failed already........

i began looking at the strut mechanism closely, and determined that the koni insert had become "unscrewed" form the boge strut assembly. it was just flopping in the wind.

i got out a pipe wrench, tightened that puppy up and reassembled the shock. it was fun getting the main nut into the shock tower, until i figured out that i could very gingerly jack up the wheel hub assembly to get a few mm of extra lift required to get the shock tower bushing and washers installed.

i then jacked up the driver's front tire, and found that the insert was also starting to come loose. i wrenched that one down, too. i went for a test drive and couldn't believe the difference. it felt like someone just put the steering and road handling back in my car.

needless to say, i was jazzed ! to celebrate, i purchased a RS rear carpet set and decided to have my roll bar welded in by my local race shop.

[Jdub]

Wow -- some story!

Can anyone comment on the need to use a low-stick Loctite product in this application, say green or blue (NOT red)?

John

[Kurt B]

Interesting post, but do you have pics? PICS PICS PICS of what you're talking about are always nice.
Know what you mean about finding out it's something small after assuming the worst.

Go ripping through the RPMs one day, then thug, thug thug...oh crap, it's only running on 5 cylinders. Yup, finally blew something up. Knew it. Just knew it. 'Dear God, I promise I won't rev the engine like that again if you just please don't let anything major be wrong.'

Get to a gas station and have a look just to be sure it isn't something stupid and find no 2 spark plug wire has come off. #%#$# never gets on there quite right. Push it on, listen for the snap, start the car and Bingo, got all 6 back. Then it's back to revving the engine like there's no tomorrow.

[Early_S_Man]

tmc,

One can never overestimate the importance of applying the proper torque to strut cap nuts ... and that is why I ALWAYS remove the struts from the car and put them in a vise for insert replacement! At least a 'ballpark' torque figure can be arrived at ... to apply leverage a certain number of inches from the strut centerline, with body weight checked on a digital scale with a fresh 9 Volt battery.

You say you have receipts, and a shop did the replacement job, huh? If you took any digital pics of the end result their 'shortcut' incompetence ... it would be very interesting to hear their reaction?

I guess Blue Loctite wouldn't be a bad idea for anybody doing the 'swing the strut out from under the fender lip' method of quick and dirty strut insert replacement! But, you ought to take the time to be sure that the threads are reasonably clean and dry before applying the Loctite!

Kurt ... now just WHO was praying?

[Superman]

Beautiful, Warren.

Actually, there may be some basis for using mild Loctite on suspension pieces. It could keep fasteners from loosening, it could help prevent corrosion and it wouldn't hurt anything. Those parts get practically welded together anyway. And finally, I have always considered suspension fasteners to be somewhat important in the safety scheme of things. There are certain kinds of fasteners that I tend to double-triple check, and they include suspension fasteners. I know there are experimental 3-wheeled cars out there but I'm not willing to participate in that research. Vehicles should have either two wheels, or more than three.

[jwetering]

Kurt Kurt Kurt....

Go ripping through the RPMs one day, then ... 'Dear God, I promise I won't rev the engine like that again if you just please don't let anything major be wrong.'

But...after the fix is made....

Then it's back to revving the engine like there's no tomorrow.

Now, I'm no god lover, but a promise is a promise no?

[Laura-Hergesheimer MotorS]

Oh my gosh!!

I just looked into the car, what the heck?
A couple of weeks ago this car was a very neat, clean looking set of wheels. With an interior.....now there is just a very lonely looking race seat and dash.... all you see now is metal. I guess you really wanted to see lower times Rick.

[tmctguer]

not that your husband had anything to do with that.............he's the guy that got me hooked up with a great instructor at the POC. PLUS he happens to have given me a few ideas about mod's........

this is all HIS fault !

seriously, after the roll bar is welded in place, i'm replacing the floor carpeting, then putting an RS-style carpet kit in the rear of the car. i will probably put a 2nd race seat & harnesses when i jump to the time trialing mode. that's as far as i'm going to go.

anything more extreme will be done on another car............