LeSabre noise

Seems I remember a similar noise on turns, but the car had to be going at least 5 mph ... it was the front brakes. In December 2006 a front brake job stopped the noise.

I do not keep my records itemized: In April 2007 I had a new air conditioning condenser put in, 2 front struts, and a wheel alignment at 106,892 miles for only $797.46. I had the front struts put in because it is my son's car and I was afraid he would loose control in an emerengy situation.

In September 2007 I had new rear struts,all wheel alignment, and a new fuel filter at 112,457 milies for only $544.50.

This is on a 97 LeSabre, all 4 struts were the original struts of the car. I guess the point is be prepared to pay more than a car with shocks.

The struts are probably worn out, no matter what the primary problem is.

You didnt say what kind of noise is present, but it is not inconceivable that the CV joints have also "gone South".

It could be a lot of things, Tim.

Probably bushings, then. Bushings alone are not necessarily a severe problem. But if those struts have never been changed, it is almost a certainty that they are worn out.

How many miles on this car??

The sound is coming from the top of the struts. I could feel it with my hand when the wheel is turned. When the wheel turns the strut turns and it is where the spring meets the frame on the top.

On top of the struts are sealed bearings. If they make noise while turning the wheel, then they are worn out. IMO, struts should be changed every 75k miles max and the bearings checked at that time. The bearings are usually good for about

3 sets of struts.

There are end cap bearing plates up there. They deteriorate over time. They need to be replaced. You'll have to pull the struts and have a shop with a spring compressor compress the strut in order to remove the bearing plate. This is a very common problem.

I have done a couple of those within the last year or so, but cant picture right now exactly what the top plate looks like. Neither of them had anything that looked like a bearing, nor was there any place for mechanical wear, outside of some foam bushings which are more for cleanliness and sound deadening than anything else. Maybe I am just having a senior moment.

They are dead easy to do if you have an impact wrench and coil compressors, but the OP should know that if he does it himself, he will have to have the front end aligned afterwards.

The plate has the bolts that stick up through the fender. Put this into google: strut bearings pic

I am with you now.. I have not detected wear on the two or three that I have done.

Thanks for the post

109,000 don't know if these are original struts

What I can see from looking in the wheel well is a yellow plastic looking ring that the springs sets into. I will look again to see if I can see the bearing now I know what I am looking for.

I think AutoZone has a spring compressing tool, but I have never tried changing a strut. Not sure if I should give it a shot or not.

Stop! There has been all too much mis-information in this thread, about changing these bearings. You cannot just get a spring compressing tool and change these. Struts have to be placed in a compression rig in order to compress the springs. These are extremely high spring compression rates and to attempt to pull these springs down with clamp type compressors is beyond unsafe and well into the realm of stupid.

You can get the strut out of the car with no difficulty at all. Take the struts to a shop with a real compression rig, and let them do it. The bearing plate is the plastic plate that you can see (barely) at the top of the spring. It is maybe 1/8" thick (maybe a little less), and about 6" in diameter or so. It has bearings molding into it which you won't see from looking up at the top of the strut.

These bearings are common failure items in GM struts. It's common for them to wear out anywhere from 40,000 miles on up, but generally they fail at much higher mileage. Best to do both sides at the same time. When they are done, you will typically notice a nice absence of groaning when you turn the steering wheel, and even better, you will notice the steering wheel neutralizes better after turning.

If you have very high mileage on the car and the struts are the factory originals, you might want to look into just replacing the entire strut. Prices vary depending on location, but I know I can buy the entire strut assembly from GM for around $120 each. Yank the old ones out, throw the new ones in. New bearings, new shocks, and new springs (though the springs

*never* fail). Bolt it all together and send her off for a front end alignment. Aftermarket prices probably won't vary an awful lot from that GM price.

I agree that these things can be dangerous if you are incautious.

But I dont agree that you cannot remove them safely with a strut spring compression tool. Naturally, you need good clamps, not a cheap piece of crap. But it can be done very safely and easily.

It is very true that you need no compression tool of any kind to remove the strut assembly from the car. You only need a compression tool, of whatever variety, to take the assembly apart once you have it out of the car.

Thanks Mike.

I'm always ready to learn something new, but I've never seen a compression tool for struts. I've tried years ago, to use a conventional coil spring compression tool and it wasn't even close to useable. But - maybe there is something out there now.

I'll tag on to my own reply - which is a sign of a really bad mind... I really should have said that I've never seen a set of strut compressors that I thought were worth a crap - safe. The conventional style that pair a set of threaded clamps offer a high risk of release if not used properly and can allow for creep along the coil. I don't really like them and sure would not recommend them to someone, especially if that person is not fully aware of the risks when dealing with loaded coils.

I have two different sets of compressors designed for struts. One is better than the other. In some cases I find it easier to use three clamps on an assembly rather than just two.

With an impact wrench, I can pull them down quickly and evenly, and they lock onto the springs so that they cannot slip off. Should they break, that would be a different matter, but they are robust and have never given any indication that they are near their limit.

It takes me about 1.5-2 hours to remove, refit, and replace the front struts from a Buick LeSabre of the 1990-2000 era. That is, from the time I jack them up, I can be through about two hours afterward.

I cannot align the wheels (or really, dont want to go through the string procedure), so I reset the struts using a bubble angle gauge. In this way, I can get the front end back together within 0.5-1 degree of what it was when I took it apart. (That may be far off, but is better than nothing). The customer can then take it to an alignment shop, or I can do it, without any real consequence.

When a beginner does this sort of work, he has to mark everything, be very aware of how things came apart, and be careful in reassembly. But he can do it if he takes his time, marks everything, and reassembles carefully.

The first and worst job I ever did was the rear end of an 84 Fiero. I couldnt keep it in the road to get it to the alignment shop. Everybody has to learn.

I think I'd be more comfortable with three as well. I've tried compressing struts with clamp type compressors and never did like the way they offset and made me fear they were going to slip.

I agree - I don't really fear the compressor breaking.