replace front struts on 99 camry.

thanks for replies. I wanted to replace front struts on my 99 camry because of milage 152

000. Car rides and handles ok. Tire wear ok. Maybe I should wait until it develops troubles ?
Reply to
wp51dos
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They deterriorate gradually so its not like one day they are bad - but at

152k they are surely worn. I replaced mine at 80k miles and was like the car was new again and more responsive. You'll notice a big difference when you replace them. I'd do all 4 as you will need a 4 wheel alignment when you are done. Car will be much safer with new struts.
Reply to
Wolfgang

======================== Best test for a shock (short of dyno-testing) is to drive it fairly aggressively - but carefully - over rough road. If the car remains under control, then the shocks are, likely, okay.

If one end or the other tends to "wash out", then new shocks (or struts) are indicated. ======================= Most common form of tire wear indicating worn struts is "cupping" - you may not see it, but can feel irregularities in the tread by running your hand over it. (try this with a glove first, to insure you don't get cut by bits of metal or glass that may be stuck in the tread) Would be created by struts losing damping effectiveness and thereby allowing excessive tire movement in response to road irregularities. Edge wear or center tread wear would be indicative of alignment problems or incorrect inflation pressure. My own idea, is that I do not replace struts solely based on mileage. As long as they perform well and are not leaking, I leave them in.

--------------------------------------------------------- copied from someone else: Best test for a shock (short of dyno-testing) is to drive it fairly aggressively - but carefully - over rough road. If the car remains under control, then the shocks are, likely, okay.

If one end or the other tends to "wash out", then new shocks (or struts) are indicated. ================================== The "test rig" that Jason refers to is known as a shock absorber dynamometer.....and I own one.

Basically, it gives you a graph of the pressures produced as compared to the shaft velocities at which they are produced when the shock is moved at different speeds - ranging from a shaft velocity of one-inch-per-second to

20 i.p.s.

Basically, a shock that creates 200 pounds of resistance pressure while

moving at a shaft velocity of five i.p.s will better control a car than a shock that only produces 100 pounds of resistance pressure at the same shaft velocity.

We use these graphs a bit differently in racing applications to "fine-tune" the suspension with shocks, but the above information is pretty much all you need to know for standard passenger automobiles....more shock pressure at a given shaft velocity controls better than less pressure at the same velocity.

When internal valves and springs weaken and wear out (imagine how many cycles a shock valve control spring experiences in 50,000 miles of compressing to open and close the valving each time the shaft moves in or out) , they allow fluid to pass more easily at lower pressures - usually with no external leakage to suggest that any sort of problem exists.

The so-called "bounce test" only tells you if a shock will control a car while negotiating "Mickey D" parking lot speed bumps at less than five mph with a carload of rug rats and Happy Meals.

"Hand-testing" a shock off the car moves the shaft at a velocity of approximately one-half i.p.s.

A shock can "feel" good at slow "bounce-test" or "hand-test" speeds of one i.p.s. or less because it is only passing fluid through its designed, low-speed, bleed orifices and/or bypassing the seals, but be a complete

failure at higher shaft velocities once it gets up onto the valving....sometimes, actually providing less resistance at five i.p.s.

then at "bounce-test" velocities once the valves open up.

On a smooth road, the shocks will likely be working in the 2-6 i.p.s. shaft velocity range....which simply cannot be duplicated by bouncing on the bumper of the car.

Best test for a shock (short of dyno-testing) is to drive it fairly aggressively - but carefully - over rough road. If the car remains under control, then the shocks are, likely, okay.

If one end or the other tends to "wash out", then new shocks (or struts) are indicated.

Reply to
nospampls2002

handles ok tires not wearing funny

i think i will wait

Reply to
wp51dos

hmmm.....I just caught your nym (what version of DOS...?)

wp51dos...are you 'warping' to us on OS/2 from 1992 or something?!?!? ;)

Reply to
Hachiroku

He's yakking about some ancient Word Perfect version, is he not? WP used to be the choice of most lawyers, before Word caught up.

Reply to
sharx35

Even after Word became something useful, and WP 6.0 came out for Windows, lawyer's offices were STILL having us set them up on wp51dos, because all the legal secretaries were being trained on it.

No, I been messing with software since I was 17, but these gals could do things on a keyboard MUCH faster than someone weilding a mouse! There were two I remember in particular, one was Puerto Rican and had such a thick accent you could barely understand her, but she could type about 80WPM while doing the formatting on the fly!

Reply to
Hachiroku

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