deegaw11

iTrader: (17)

i made a thread recently about my problem. my front driver side wheel always has a loud pop when i go over anything, that wheel also vibrates like crazy when it goes over bumps and recently my steering is really loose now. it has been like this for a while now and today i decide to shake that side of the car and the car literally went up and down like 6x but when i shook the other 3 wheels it would only go down and then up and stays there. so is that driver side strut dead or is it something else?? will 1 blown strut affect my steering? that wheel basically feels like it wants to break sometimes. can ppl tell me symptoms of a blown strut? how will it affect me in the long run?

eddie

iTrader: (1)

The way you desribed it, it does sound like a blown shock. Has the clunking sound gotten any worse?
I blew out my driver front and over the course of a week it sounded like the front wheel was about to come off. I'm currently trying to diagnose what I think is a blown rear coilover and the symtoms appear to be the same.
If you want a replacement to the OE shock (if it's OE) then call one of the premier coliover shops in the country (Muellerized, RobiSpec, etc.) and see if they'll sell you one they took off a customer car. Sometimes customers don't ask for the stock stuff back so you might get lucky.

x838nwy

yup. sounds like a buggered front strut to me. basically the strut has lost all damping ability. That will be something to do with the gas inside it having escaped or your piston valves having gone the way of the dodo for some reason. If you don't have any damping, the wheel will be happily bouncing along making the steering wheel light cos the load on it is not contant (and even zero sometimes) I guess. Also, you may have broken the strut mount.

best bet would be to take it to a shop, take the strut out and just inspect it. Sometimes if it's real bad you see oils and marks on the guide (shiny cylindrical thing that goes up and down). If you don't see anything, remove the springs and just compress it slowly. Fully compressed, let up go and it should rise gradually due to the gas pressure inside. If it just goes down and stays there, or if it refuses to contract it's broken. You _can_ repair it but if it's blown proper then you might want to get a new set 'cos it would be safe to assume that the other side it probably nearly gone also.