My brothers 96 SE has tokico struts and ground control coilovers. his car makes spring popping sounds whenever he turns the wheel. We have some bearings for the top of the struts. When we took the strut assembly off this is what it looked like. Can anyone tell me if this is how its supposed to be? The U shaped plastic spacer just fell out when we removed the strut assembly. Where does that piece go?
Anyone have a FSM diagram of the suspension?
Thanks for any help.

 

Looks like the strut bearing is broke. I am almost positive. I havent dealt with this but I seen a pic in the 4th gen forums showing a broken strut bearing and the rubber had just broke off.

 

Thats not right at all. But its totally fixable.
Buy new strut bearings then RTV them to the stock upper mount. That should fix it 100%.

 

Where does that plastic u shaped spacer go??? is the bearing the black and gray plastic piece. I have two of those, why would i need to rtv them?

 

The whole setup is a mess. Toss that U shapped thing. I have never seen it in my life. Hell I cant even tell what it is.

Go buy new bearings (yes the yare black and grey) and RTV them to the upper mount (the metal piece with 3 bolts sticking out of it) so they will not fall down and get smashed underd full droop.

 

yea the U shape thing is pointless...i tossed mine...the popping is from teh bearing...

 

or lack of bearing..

 

mine bearings completely distintigrated. nothing left except a piece of plastic. had to get new ones and RTV it.
btw ive never seen that piece before either.