Done! Bought 4 Monroe QuickStruts for killer price! (update - became a fiasco!!!)

[redgtxdi]

Well, 3 days ago I sent Monroe an e-mail about possibly finding a solution. (Bad batch #'s, etc.)

And I simply replied to the e-mail I got from them originally.


Wonder if they're just "ignoring" me??

 

[redgtxdi]

UPdate...........

Had the guys at my local Big O (handle our work trucks) check it out. (They're also a Monroe dealer). Owner told me he'd give me his opinion. When I went to pick up the car (oil change) owner was out & worker bee told me he test drove it & it sounded fine. (methinks he checked nothing).

Soooooooo.............before I swap it out again tomorrow, I decided to tighten the center nut on the strut about a half-turn to see if things might've relaxed in the strut. Well, when I tried this on the D/F strut (since replaced) it was a smooth turn. On this one, however, the sucker took the rubber for a ride (or rode on the rubber itself) and made a gnarly rubber-skidding sound. I backed the nut off & came back to the original position where it started to tighten, then loosened again & so I drew it another half-turn to "tight" again.

Any idea why it did that??

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: redgtxdi
UPdate...........

Had the guys at my local Big O (handle our work trucks) check it out. (They're also a Monroe dealer). Owner told me he'd give me his opinion. When I went to pick up the car (oil change) owner was out & worker bee told me he test drove it & it sounded fine. (methinks he checked nothing).

Soooooooo.............before I swap it out again tomorrow, I decided to tighten the center nut on the strut about a half-turn to see if things might've relaxed in the strut. Well, when I tried this on the D/F strut (since replaced) it was a smooth turn. On this one, however, the sucker took the rubber for a ride (or rode on the rubber itself) and made a gnarly rubber-skidding sound. I backed the nut off & came back to the original position where it started to tighten, then loosened again & so I drew it another half-turn to "tight" again.

Any idea why it did that??

Because that's how struts are put together. If the torque necessary to slide the rubber across the spring is less than that necessary to turn the nut, it will. You can try holding the top of the strut with something, but they don't make it easy.

I finished replacing all my shocks last weekend. What a nightmare. It's too bad the struts didn't work out for you...because you certainly saved yourself a lot of work vs. taking your old struts apart.

I hate gland nuts.

 

[redgtxdi]

Thanks Jagec!! I guess that makes sense. (I'm assuming rubber went for a ride *somewhere * I just wasn't sure exactly where.

Front strut has the big bubble head on it, and it's very hard to see what's moving inside (if anything).

Now, the strut was mounted, so it sounds like maybe I turned the strut shaft on its own axis???

There's a square at the top, so maybe I need to hold that square while I turn the 7/8" nut. (THAAAAT oughtta be fun!)

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: redgtxdi
Thanks Jagec!! I guess that makes sense. (I'm assuming rubber went for a ride *somewhere * I just wasn't sure exactly where.

Front strut has the big bubble head on it, and it's very hard to see what's moving inside (if anything).

Now, the strut was mounted, so it sounds like maybe I turned the strut shaft on its own axis???

There's a square at the top, so maybe I need to hold that square while I turn the 7/8" nut. (THAAAAT oughtta be fun!)

Basically what you have is the upper spring seat (that big metal piece on the top) with a piece of rubber between it and the spring. The shock itself is bolted to this piece via that nut you see on top. The shock is keyed to fit into the top piece (otherwise it would just turn with the nut when you tried to tighten it). Front struts are even more "special" because they have a bearing that allows the entire strut to swivel when you turn the steering wheel. As long as you didn't keep tightening for too long after you heard the rubber protest, I wouldn't worry. If you tightened it a lot (1/4 turn of squealing rubber), I'd check to make sure that there isn't an angle to the spring seat that you're supposed to preserve. I know that in mine they were directional..there was one side that was supposed to point "out" so that the spring was compressed evenly. If it was way out of whack, one side of the spring would be more compressed than the other at any given time. Can't say for sure what the long-term consequences would be--maybe nothing, maybe premature shock failure due to torquing--but I don't really care to find out personally.

Try the square on top. I know that mine didn't have that. Lucky

 

[redgtxdi]

Well, let's jump to 12/22/07...........things *MIGHT* be solved. (I reserve judgment in lieu of a solid month of quiet, first)

I have now installed QUICKSTRUT #7 (3rd passenger/front) in the QuickStrut fiasco!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Went back to my local Pep Boys & had them thoroughly look thru the "date code" #'s. My local one had the same date stamps on 2 other of the same part # (171678 right / front).

Sooooooooo........we went to work on the phone & started calling other PepBoys. Finally found one that had a couple in stock that were a different date code. (06226 was bad, these were 06205).

First thing I noticed is that Monroe's Quick Strut is definitely NOT well insulated compared to Toyota OEM. I took the old OEM strut assembly & gave it a good pounding. Couldn't get it to rattle from ANY point no matter what I tried.

Then I took the Monroe Quick Strut & sure enough.......banging my first against the spring will cause the thing to rattle most notably!! At this point I feared the worst. Fed up.....I installed it anyway. I spent a good 5 minutes making sure that the strut was sitting in its bolt/stud holes as most liberally as possible to ensure the most friendly position possible. (Probably doesn't make a difference once all the bolts are torqued, but hey, I tried).

Took it for a test drive & guess what..........SILENT!!! No clunks......no squeaks.......no rattles. I gave it the dummy-dot test &.....nuttin'!!! I took it over some speed bumps........nuttin'. Took it on some s-curves over dummy-dots......nuttin'. COULD THIS TRULY BE THE LAST QUICK STRUT I INSTALL???

Time will tell......but in the meantime.......I ***HIGHLY*** recommend going w/ OEM components. Use whatever strut you want........but DEFINITELY use oem mounts, bearings, stoppers & rubber isolators......PERIOD!!!

(enter exhausted smiley here) P.S. Monroe NEVER returned my e-mail for help! :|

 

[redgtxdi]

As an update to *this* forum, I have since changed the P/F strut a 2nd time w/ good results so far. (that makes 7 struts total) And Monroe *did* finally answer my e-mail after about 1 week, but just said 'sorry' and to call the warranty dept. And lastly, automotiveforums has turned up someone else w/ a "rattler" thus confirming my suspicions.

I will probably be changing out my P/R tomorrow (part # 171680). This will officially be the EIGHTH Quickstrut I've done.......E-I-G-H-T-H!! (Did I just say that??)
:shocked:
While Monroe's explanation of "assembly issues" in the fronts, but not the rears seems to satisfy their knowledge base, it doesn't mine. I *definitely* have a "rattler" in the P/R. It is less severe than in my first one (D/F) and the 3rd one (P/F) but it does it just enough to keep reminding me it's there and that's enough for me to consider it a problem. I didn't pay for "eh, just ignore it", I paid for "ahhh, that's quiet!".

I have a sneaking suspicion that (based on my investigation of date codes) that this is probably related to the "assembly" (verb) of the strut and not the "parts" themselves, though I can't rule it out.......BECAUSE my P/R has a date code of '04 and I doubt Monroe would get bad batches of parts spanning 2 years.

I have a feeling that if I had Toyota's "SST" tool (specifically the one that holds the upper spring seat still while you tighten the nut) that I could probably have made all of these struts shutup......BUT......My next concern would be how often I'd have to "tighten" the assemblies before things got too tight & ruined??

*IF* I'm correct, then I'd love to know which part is loosening enough (or loose enough at the start) to cause such a "rattle". My best guess is that it's between the upper spring seat and the mount itself. (Monroe probably got more "front" complaints due to the added bearing, but obviously the rears are not immune).

 

[jagec]

The only two nuts in that assembly which you did not tighten yourself when you installed the struts would be the gland nut (holding the shock in the strut housing), and the nut at the top (which basically pinches the upper spring seat between the shock and the nut itself, also keeping the spring compressed). IIRC the torque spec for the gland nut was in the ~70 ft-lbs (but you'd need a special tool, or a REALLY hefty crescent wrench/channel-locks to tighten it), and the torque spec for the top nut as also in the ~70 ft-lb range (but you'd need the SST to hold the upper spring seat still while tightening). You could probably overtighten by 10 ft-lbs or so without worrying about overtorquing, but really they shouldn't rattle if they've been torqued to spec. And, of course, make sure your axle-carrier-to-strut and strut-to-body nuts+bolts are all torqued to spec...but you should have already done that when you installed the things. A bit of Locktite would ensure that they held that torque...but 70 ft-lbs should be enough to do that already. You wouldn't need Locktite in the gland nut...trust me, those things are ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO REMOVE after the strut's been in place for a few years.:|

 

[redgtxdi]

Yep......that is absolutely correct. And I agree that the gland nut down where the shaft enters the strut housing is definitely not the culprit. (it's not even accessible on the Quickstrut unless you disassemble the assembly)

And all of these details was exactly how I was able to track these noises down.

Process of elimination!!! :thumbsup:

When I would have to pull one of these off to replace 'em, I was 100% certain I had everything torqued well.

When I tugged, tweaked, wiggled & jerked the sway bars, end links (top and bottom) and axle carriers was how I knew..........again......it was somewhere in the strut assembly.

And lastly........when simply replacing the assemblies was solving the issue.........I *knew* for a fact that there's something amiss in the assemblies.

Monroe has SUCH a great concept with these things.......If I owned Monroe Company, I'd be climbing the walls until I figured out how to make them foolproof and thoroughly solid!!! A lifetime warranty on stuff that doesn't work is a lose/lose situation for manufacturer, distributor and end user!!! (make that lose x 3)

 

[Colt45]

funny, when I do it myself there's no problems.
spring compressor ftw

 

[redgtxdi]

Welp.......it's done!

8th Quickstrut!! This particular one had an '05 date code and visually looked as good as any so I slapped 'er in. (Only notable difference was that the bottom of the spring had a rubber "sleeve" for the first few coils, unlike the '04 date code and similar to my D/R which is also an '05 date code. I don't believe this to have anything to do w/ the rattle, however, as the rears are different than the fronts *and* the rattles are isolated in the top of the strut assemblies)

Got started late yesterday so juuust managed to get it in around dusk. Test drive last night was perfect. If all 4 corners start rattling tomorrow, I can say that I at least had one good drive w/ total strut silence!

I don't know what else to say. I'd like to know EXACTLY where the rattle comes from, but since I'm not takin' these suckers apart, nor receiving a paycheck from Monroe to reverse engineer these things, I can only speculate that it's between the upper spring seat and the mount........but again.....that's only my best guess assuming that all the rubbers are doing their job.

Wednesday when I get back to work, I'll be dropping it off at the local Big O. If they're gracious enough to recheck alignment for me, I'll probably leave things be. If they're a little peeved that *they* have to recheck/redo my alignment because of Monroe (for whom they're a rep anyway), then I'll discuss getting w/ Monroe to have Monroe pay for another alignment.

And if these suckers ever rattle again (50/50 chance), I'll have Monroe do a *COMPLETE* redo at the auto shop of their choice, but this last 8th strut......will be my last. I am simply exhausted from changing struts.