Struts

Ok.. I have a question about struts.. I had the oil changed in my 96 SL2 and the tech told that the struts where shot and needed to be replaced.. He said that the rear ones were so bad that they were "Shredding my tires".. I looked at the tires when I got home and I didn't see any signs of the tires shredding... I am going to replace the struts.. But I am going to do them myself... I wasn't going to pay someone $600 to replace them...

Thanks for the help..

Ben

Reply to
Ben
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Lol, I wouldnt go back there again. How do you know the advice was true?

You need to goto the front of your car and push down on the bumper repeatedly until the car gets bobbing real good. Then jump back and count how many times it continues to bounce afterwords. If it doesnt, then they are good, if it bounces more than 3 times then they are certainly bad. Do the same to the rear.

Reply to
blah blah

Ok.. I did what you said... Car bounced about 1 to 1 1/2 times and stopped bouncing cold... I guess I am ok then.. But what is thing about "Shredding tires".. I have owned alot of cars and trucks and have never heard of a bad suspention "Shredding" tires before.. I know they they can make the tire wear funny and get poor mileage of them... Oh well.. Thanks for the info..

Ben

Reply to
Ben

make sure you look at all sides of the tires, including the inside tire wall which would not normally be viewable unless you get under the car. I have seen tires that were shredded on the sidewalls before, but these were low profile tires that had a puncture so had been run at too low a pressure. make sure that you have good clearance all the way around as well even when turning.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Shuman

The guy is giving you BS. Sounds like something you'd hear from a Midas or from other muffler/suspension/whatever places. If you were shredding your tires you'd know it, probably bobbing up and down like a cork. Because you haven't experienced that and see no signs of "shredding" pretty much tells the story.

Reminds me of the last time I was at a Midas sometime in the late 80s. I went for exhaust work but the guy told me I needed new shocks. I remembered I'd heard clunking sounds from the rear end of my shit '85 Escort. "Yeah! Yeah! That's it!" the guy said. Well, I don't allow myself to be succumb to sales pitches and I didn't get the shocks. And I discovered later the clunking was a golf ball in the hatch wheel well.

Reply to
Box134

Yep... I agree with you about tires.. I have had tires come apart on me before.. Bad batch of tires... I did inspect the tires.. I crawled under the car and looked at them all... Nothing.. I couldn't see a thing... Oh well.. I am not going to worry about... I do need new tires pretty soon though..

Thanks for all the help.. Ben

Reply to
Ben

I bought an '89 Mazda 323 SE in 10/03. My first car and only necessary lesson in buying a car cheap and as-is from a stranger. After buying it I had the car looked at (yeah, I know I did it backwards) and one thing the guy pointed out was that the springs in the back that surround the strut were collapsing. They were actually breaking at the top. He said it wasn't worth fixing on an old car with as many problems as this one was turning out to have as many problems as it did and it would just make the ride bumpy.

About a month or so later I went over a small bump and heard a loud clunk from the rear driver's side. After that every little pebble or crack in the road made a loud clattering. I called a trusted mechanic (co-worker's nephew) and asked him about it, mentioning about the springs. >

It turned out when I brought the car in that the top end of the strut had rusted so bad that it broke free from the body and was just clanging around in there. Only the spring was still holding it.

In any case, I suppose this is what your guy was alledging. That the spring might be hanging down and cutting the tires. Seems a stupid lie since it is something you can easily look at yourself. Just not very creative, I guess.

Reply to
Richard

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