I recently had my front struts replaced. After about 5 hours of waiting, the mechanic came out and told me that my drivers side front strut was not sitting straight up and down, rather it was leaning back towards the windshield and they had to pry the strut forward to get it out. The mechanic said he had never seen anything like that before, and he asked me if the car had ever been in an accident. I told him no, and that I had never had a problem with the wheel at all. He then told me there was now noise coming from the strut and he could not figure out why.
The noise turned out to be a loud banging noise. I took the car to a different mechanic, who told me the banging noise was from the strut banging around after not having been installed properly. He was able to fix the problem.
Soon after I noticed a loud grinding noise when I turned the wheel all the way to the right. I also noticed that, while backing up with the wheel turned all the way to the right, the front drivers side tire feels as though it "wobbles" or "wiggles" as it turns. I took the car again to a mechanic, who told me the grinding was from the right front upper rubber mount being worn, and in need of replacement. As for the tilting strut, this mechanic also said he had never seen anything like that before. In light of the fact I had never experienced any trouble before the new strut, and in light of the fact that my strut is an older type that uses cartridges that you replace from under the hood with the car on the ground, the mechanic wondered if, when the other shop was going to remove the strut, they jacked up the car and began to remove the strut, causing something to move. He also told me that the strut on that side was a stiffer than it should be.
Has anyone ever seen anything like this (a strut tilting back)? It tilts far enough back so that the metal bar that sticks up touches the back of the hole the strut is in.