I generally am opposed to the use of used parts to replace wear items, but another economical choice would be to replace the front struts with complete units from a salvage yard. No matter which repair route she chooses the strut will have to come out of the car, and with the mileage on her car she’s bound to end up with struts with fewer miles.
@wesw to replace the strut mount you’d have to remove the strut from the car, compress the spring and disassemble the unit, and take out the upper mount. It can’t be welded as it’s steel and rubber together.
What breaks is the rubber isolation bushing and I don’t see welding that back together. You basically will have a rougher ride because of this.
The strut piston rod goes through both halves of the upper mount. The only way it will come out of place is if the lower part of the strut is disconnected from the steering knuckle or the lower ball joint breaks completely off. Otherwise there is not enough play in the system for the strut to come out of position.
It can reach the point where the rubber deteriorates enough that the strut piston rod goes up through the roof or the car, or at least hits it. It won’t cause the wheel to lose control but at this time it will be like a completely worn out strut, only noisier.
The biggest danger is to the mechanic who doesn’t know the mount is broken because as soon as the lower bolts are removed and the mechanic pulls on the strut to separate it from the knuckle, it will fall out. I had that happen to me once.
No way! That was waaaay too expensive for shocks/struts for an older car. 500-600 tops and even then that’s paying a lot. Your strut wasn’t broken, if it was broken you wouldn’t have been driving it into the shop i can put a guarantee on that. All shops will lie to you either for your money but that is a lot more limited big name places. Pep Boys is your best bet for stuff like that in the future. Call the shop first too and see if they will install parts you already have and if they say yes (most will) then you can go to autozone and pick up the parts and save another buck.
You just revived a 3 year old thread and you are recommending Pep Boys. Good Greif !
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Why don’t you add some insight to your critique. Just another empty quip with no leg to stand on. I took my car there for my struts cuz i don’t have a spring compressor and didn’t feel like messing with it and they charged me 250 for labor and i brought the parts and they did a good job and also i don’t know if you noticed but i started out by saying for future reference cuz maybe she will have another car issue in her life time.
In addition to what Volvo said, (really, Pep Boys??), most shops will not install provided parts. Even if they do, they won’t warranty the labor or parts (as they shouldn’t).
Good grief…it’s not that hard to find a good and honest independent mechanic!
Pep boys would be recommend only above the quick lube station. Not a place I would recommend for anything more than tires.
As far as driving around with broken strut. Could be fine but I would anticipate some handling issues. be careful driving around with that little one.
I have a 9 month old girl and I have an bigger appreciation for my parents and motherinlaw who are all asking to babysit more. Its a conflict of who gets to watch her more. So far we have not had one day of daycare for her. Even if we did, I cannot imagine it costing in that ball park locally. Yikes.
After three years or more, the only thing to say is where did all these folks go?? Are we being a little too irritating maybe? Not flexible enough for just general conversation? Just something to think about as we yell at each other for non-sense issues.
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Occasionally I have felt insulted. What works for me is to sleep on it rather than immediately respond with a counter insult. The next morning I have either forgotten or realized my post needed clarification. I notice Carolyn closed the Break vs Brake thread due to a political insult slinging match.
When I’m insulted, I think of the chair breaking underneath that smug college recruiter I was trying to sell to. Works better than picturing the audience naked. Just out of school I made a sales call to this college recruiter that thought he was hot stuff and berated my competing college. Somewhere toward the end of the no sale, sales call with his nose in the air his chair broke on him and he fell on the floor. I thanked him for his time and made my exit thinking God is watching and vengeful, and thinking at least my college had decent chairs. So go ahead guys and insult me. I’ll just picture you sitting at your computer and falling on your butt.
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So your college chairs were sturdier than this . . . ?!
Heh heh. Opps, ten characters.