well i lowered my car and im always worried about blowing my Tokico Illuminas. its because around my house there are many bumps and potholes. but hte city is starting to fix them. but still i hit them sum times and then it makes a loud noise. so how do i know if i blow a strut with them still installed on the car. or do i have nothing to worrie about???


thanks

 

Not sure about aftermarkets or newer style OEM struts, but I know a sign used to get excess grease on the strut leaking.

 

i always wondered if the pepboys demo display of a blown strut was accurate. Iunno if you guys are fimiliar with it but if someone can lend thier 2 cents into this matter it would be nice.

 

anyone???????????????????????????/

 

Its DIY really, just press down on a corner of the car and see how bouncy it is.

 

when u run over a speed bum (slow ofcouse) it will bounce less then 3 times....

 

bounce less than 3 times is good or bad?

 

yeah, basically if your running over a bumpy surface your car will feel like it bounces around a lot.

I think the speed bump test lalamax suggested seems pretty good...

 

Its good, a functioning shock will dampen out the movement quickly. Bounciness means the shock isn't doing its job.

 

I think it goes like this.. Push down on one end of the car. Make a sharp push. If it comes up and doesn't go back down, the struts are ok. If it bounces more than once, that strut is no good.

A

 

Ditto what Andrew said. Have a friend help. Park you car on level ground. One of you press down all the way on a corner and release quickly. The other watches for any bouncing. Pick a point to fixate on and make sure you are at eye level. Do it for each corner. Sometimes bouncing can be subtle if you don’t know what you are looking for, so you may want to try it a couple times. The speed bump test and leaking oil are not reliable unless your struts are really bad.

Even if you do drive on bad roads daily, I would be surprised if your struts gave out in less than 2 year, especially if they are Illuminas. Since you recently lowered your car, I would suspect a few things: First, you may not be used to the harsher ride, especially if you also moved to lower profile tires. Second, bumps that were no problem with your stock springs may be causing you to hit your bump stops now. Third, something broke or came loose or your springs/struts were not installed properly. Common mistakes are not seating the springs properly or leaving out the dampening pad. Also look for interference from things like your rear sway bar if you have one installed. Good luck.

 

Like what's been said already... do the "bounce" test...

I did have a couple more questions...

1. How lowered is your car? What springs do ya have on there?

2. Are your bumpstops cut?

 

ok my bumpstops are not cut and i have h techs

 

Sorry to tack onto this post, but it seemed most related to my problem. I'm a new poster, and can't start a thread of my own. I tried to find the answer somewhere, but couldn't find anything that really applied.
I have an '03 Maxima, approx 38K miles. It's been making a sort of rattling noise in the front end for a while now, not all the time, just intermittant, but real annoying. Finally took it to the dealer, and they're telling me both front struts are "noisy". Not necessarily busted, but noisy. Seems to me to be very similar to the problems with the struts on the '04. Quoted me $985.
1. Could this be something other than the struts?
2. Is that a bit much to pay for new front struts?
3. Do any of the '03s have the same strut problem as the '04s?
4. My family's owned a '91 Maxima and a '98 Infiniti I35. The Maxima's struts were fine until 74k, and the I35 is at 91k w/o a problem. Seems a bit fishy to me that both my front struts would go at 38k. Am I wrong? I've hit a few potholes, but nothing crazy.

Hope none of this is repetitive, if it is, just point me in the right direction. I'd appreciate all the help I can get!

 

Rattling when? When going straight? Turning? Fast? Slow? Over bumps?

That's bullcrap... don't pay that much for it... you can get the parts cheap online (2 OEM replacements for about $125-150) and either DIY or have someone cheaper do it.... PM Fashizl... he's the service manager at the Merchant's in Alexandria off Route 1 and he does almost all the suspension/tire work for the local .Org guys...

Post here: http://forums.maxima.org/forumdisplay.php?f=14 for local help...

Not sure what the 04s are facing, but I've a 2002 with 39K miles and have never had strut problems... had my stock struts/springs for 35K and they were good when I took em off....

 

The rattling noise is definitely when I go over bumps. There's a bunch of speed bumps in my apt. complex, and even going over w/o pressing the gas at all it'll rattle. Sounds kind of like rattling dice in a cup.
And if I go to a service place with struts I buy myself, won't they be a bit skeptical about putting it in? Like if I have a problem with the new struts, I can blame them for installing them poorly.
I wouldn't be so irritated if I hadn't waited so long to take the car in, and now it's over warranty by just under 2000 miles. And the car's not even 3 years old. That coupled with the fact that NO ONE I've talked to has had strut problems anywhere near 40K.

 

When mine blew the car was super bouncy...but I did blow two rears simultaneously. It felt like the back of my car had hydrolics.

 

Like dice rattling in a cup? Struts are enclosed, fluid-filled, pressurized vessels. The functional parts inside should not make that kind of noise. It has to be something open and free to communicate with the surrounding airspace. I doubt it is anything serious, just annoying. Crawl all over your car and look for anything loose or foreign. A squirrel probably stashed acorns in your fender, or your little cousin slipped pennies down the vents, or you have dice in a cup in your glove box. The mundane possibilities are endless.

Oh, and for $1000, what your mechanic will do is leave your car outside for a couple days, brush out the pebbles that got kicked up into your engine bay, take your money, and have a good laugh.

 

Yeah but it will bounce like that ( i am sure you all have seen cars on the roads that do that) if the strut is severely damaged. Sometimes they become stiff or noisy...

for it to bounce like a ball is really the most extreme you can get.

 

You pay these places to install stuff, so they should be able to justify you paying them labor charges by providing good work, regardless of the part that goes in... if they don't, then you can blame them for poor installation. If the part fails, then that's the fault of the manufacturer, assuming installation was done correctly. You're right in that some places might not like to do it... but in my experience, most places will.

I say just get some buddies and do it yourself... its not that hard... look for Housecor's write-up in the Stickies...

Like I said before, send a PM to FASHIZL or just call the Merchant's on Route 1 and ask for Delvin... he can give ya a quote on installation, and I can tell ya that he'll do a good job, as can many other guys who go to him. There are also plenty of places in your area that'll do it for much less than the dealership...

Btw, I doubt that struts would be replaced under warranty anyway...