Blew a strut this morning.

Is it just me, or are the potholes worse this year? I hit a good sized one on pilot knob road this morning and blew (or broke?) my front-passenger side AGX strut. I didn't think one hit would take a strut out like that, but it's definately gone. That corner bounces and clunks like crazy now. It still drives straight and I can't see anything else broken on the suspension. I do like my 70-series rubber on 14 inch wheels though, didn't hurt that at all.

Oh well, time to find another agx to throw in there. :evil:

 

what about the warrenty...U just bought them recentally...

Mohd

 

Yeah, but the fronts I bought used, so I don't have a receipt or anything. I was going to check the warranty, but I kinda doubt I can claim anything.

 

maybe just your tophats

 

heh. yeah, that could certainly be what the new clunking noise is. When I take the front end apart to replace that strut I'll sure put in new top hats.

I'm going to be really good at working on front suspension soon...

 

its almost impossible to blow a stock subaru tophat however. They're made of very ompliant rubber, and a blown top would drastically affect turning, if the center ring hand failed, nothing would keeping the strut piston from resting on the bottm of the trunk lid, bottm of the strut near the hub would bind too.

 

^what about a group N tophat??

 

Well my top hat isn't destroyed, the only thing might be the bearing could have been damaged. But it doesn't take too much free play in that bearing to make noise, which is what I think Justin was referring to.

I'm only hearing the clunking on bigger bumps, usually where the wheel drops down vs pushed up. But the strut on that wheel has lost all its damping power too, so hopefully the strut is the extent of the damage.

 

group n tops are pretty much the same thing with stiffer rubber. When i installed mine on my rears they looked 95% identical. theyre pretty durable. a pillowball made out of aluminum that's getting older can pop though, some bend pretty badly too.

 

So I jacked it up tonight and looked at everything. The clunking noise is coming from the strut itself. If I work the suspension up and down a bit I can feel play on the shaft where it goes into the strut body. I compared this to the other side and I couldn't feel any play there.

 

I just replaced the strut with another used AGX. The blown one still has a gas charge, but most of the oil is gone, if you push it down it just bounces right back, no resistance at all. I hope this one holds a while.

 

Thanks. I was planning to wait until I had new top hats to replace that strut, but I got too tired of the clunking so I just did it. My old top hats aren't blown, but you can see some cracks in the rubber where they've been flexing. I think something stiffer will hep.

 

Joel, sorry to hear about the incident. I got a spare agx if u want. Contact me for more info,

Yia

 

Ahh, I didn't know you had a spare. I bought three used AGX struts from tbone, they're well-used, but they still seem to be in good shape. So I was able to replace the blown strut with another AGX. Which position strut did you have as a spare?

 

I got one from the right side. I don't know if u can use it but maybe the pistons are interchangable if one goes bent. Let me know, I can drop it off. Its just sitting here.

Yia