G
gankin247
Guest
A Farm and Fleet store was running a strut sale recently and I had all 4 of my struts replaced on my 1996 GP with 97K mi. When the mechanic finished, he told me he had a hard time replacing the driver side front strut, that the strut was pinned back towards the windshield and he had to "pry" it forward to get the old cartridge out, and that there was now noise coming from the strut. He told me he had never seen anything like that before, that my strut was a older style, and that he could not understand why it was making noise except to say that the strut "must have been damaged prior to them working on it".
The noise turned out to be a "banging" noise everytime I went over a bump, and a grinding noise whenever I turn the wheel all the way to either side. There was absolutely no noise prior to the strut replacement and the car never suffered any damage.
I took my car to my local trusted mechanic, who was able to fix the banging noise, which turned out to be the cartridge moving around inside the strut. He told me, other than the Farm and Fleet mechanic not putting the strut back together properly, he did not see anything wrong with the strut, other than, when replacing a cartridge only and not the entire strut, sometimes the strut doesn't go back together as well as it had when originally assembled.
I still have the grinding, scraping, creaking noise when I turn the wheel. I contacted the Farm and Fleet service manager, who turned out to be the same person who worked on my car. He said the noise is coming from a worn strut bearing. I asked why there was noise now, when there was no noise prior to the repair. He told me that, when you install a new strut, it puts more pressure on the strut bearing than the old worn strut, and that is causing the noise.
Does this seem right to anyone? If not, what do you think could be causing the noise? Could it be caused by poor/careless installation? I'm a little suspicious, since the strut was not put back together properly in the first place.
Thanks for your help.
The noise turned out to be a "banging" noise everytime I went over a bump, and a grinding noise whenever I turn the wheel all the way to either side. There was absolutely no noise prior to the strut replacement and the car never suffered any damage.
I took my car to my local trusted mechanic, who was able to fix the banging noise, which turned out to be the cartridge moving around inside the strut. He told me, other than the Farm and Fleet mechanic not putting the strut back together properly, he did not see anything wrong with the strut, other than, when replacing a cartridge only and not the entire strut, sometimes the strut doesn't go back together as well as it had when originally assembled.
I still have the grinding, scraping, creaking noise when I turn the wheel. I contacted the Farm and Fleet service manager, who turned out to be the same person who worked on my car. He said the noise is coming from a worn strut bearing. I asked why there was noise now, when there was no noise prior to the repair. He told me that, when you install a new strut, it puts more pressure on the strut bearing than the old worn strut, and that is causing the noise.
Does this seem right to anyone? If not, what do you think could be causing the noise? Could it be caused by poor/careless installation? I'm a little suspicious, since the strut was not put back together properly in the first place.
Thanks for your help.