Re: Help! After Strut replacement Smooth ride on normal roads but bottoms out unusually super rough and loud over bumps

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jmontoya21
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jun 14, 2018 1:57 am

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Help Suspension experts and experienced dyers
So I diy my 2010 maxima front strut replacement with original springs, the ride ended up unusually rough with loud bottoming out over bigger bumps and pot holes to the point that i feel that it gots to be something wrong with my installation or parts.(was not like this with oem worn out struts 129k).

I went with New Monroe OE Spectrums from Rock Auto and new Monroe Strut mounts and Monroe Bellow and bumper kit as well, i was very careful to document the removal and disassembly as to make sure and put back everything as oem, (took pictures and marked things). there is one caveat, the lower retainer, i believe is called (circled red in the picture below ) which holds the rubber bumper I had to leave out because it would not fit the new rubber bumper of the bellow kit and it would sit loose and make noise (pictured below). by carefully looking at the assembled strut assembly i do not think that not having this lower retainer is crucial or causing the loud banging, (bottoming out) but i may be wrong.

Does someone have any idea or experience with this situation?
is there such a thing as worn out springs? 129k on them.

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amc49
Posts: 1183
Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2017 7:24 pm
Car: '11 Nissan Versa
'17 Nissan Altima

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Depends on how thick that piece is. If you run out of thread on center nut with still space and not pulled tight to the mount at the center rod then it will bang until it breaks something, the strut being loose like not tightened.

Can't tell any necessary thickness from the pic there.

You pre-assemble the strut with no spring on it to check for that when the parts change up from being exact. The top mount when nut is tight cannot be loose at all on the rod.

If springs didn't do it before not the springs.

Lots of times aftermarket strut parts get mismatched as they try to fit them to more than one model to lower inventory cost, you have to be the problem identifier there.

Could be the new mounts if picced there, they look quite a bit thinner than the OEM one picced as coming off the car. Unless missing parts not pulled off old mounts to go on the new ones.

jmontoya21
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jun 14, 2018 1:57 am

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Thank for your observations amc49, you are correct, the picture of the new mount is missing the spring ring or bearing making it look thinner, how ever it comes with the kit and i made sure to include it in the installation.
I did not how ever check everything with out the spring unfortunately, I spoke with my mechanic and he doesn't think is the springs either, he thinks I may be missing parts that came with ether the strut or mount kit, which I'm fairly sure I'm not, I may have to bring it to him to take a look, he says that he doesn't bother with struts any more he just replaces the whole strut assembly, If any body have any more suggestion i would appreciate it , I'd like to fix this my self. I will report back when i get it figured out.


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