Had been driving for months hearing a slight rattling noise coming from the front passenger side - thought it was a loose screw in side the passenger door.
was driving and hit a pothole - thought the front tire blew out but went to tire shop and when worker pulled tire off saw that a BIG spring looking thing above the tire was out of place?

when i drove the front of the car bounced up and down if I drove faster than 20 miles ... felt like I did not have shock adsorbers ...not a mechanic so do not know if this is fixable?

 

Are you saying your actual spring broke?

Or did it merely pop out of the perch somehow?

Either way is fixable, but you must have hit a pot hole REALLY HARD to do something like that

 

That is unheard of a spring just pop out you might have a worn out strut mount or the spring gotten weaken but it is fixable just have to inspect the strut itself and the mounts so you know what caused the spring to pop out of place

 

For months on the front passenger side I have heard a rattling sound or sound like something was loose when I hit a pothole or road bump.... I was getting to the point to where I was about to get it checked out .... I was driving about 40 miles and I hit a large pothole and was at the top of this street that went down like for 20 feet then you went back up ... after I hit the pothole .. the car flew forward and bounced heavily for about 3 or 4 good bounces as the road got lower before I could stop.

I dont know how this spring was connected to the car - but I dont remember seeing it so visible whenever the front passenger tire was off...

I hope it is fixable as i was about to give up on this car.

 

Assuming the spring just somehow came out of the perch and is not cracked/broken (or the strut either for that matter), you simply need to remove the strut and spring and reinstall them. If the spring is cracked/broken then you'll need to replace it obviously - grab one from a junkyard or from a car being parted out here.

 

get new springs and struts.
it probably broken due to rust/age/etc. these cars are over 25 yr old...anything can happen.

your struts are probably in rough shape too. if you're going to keep the car for a bit then for your safety get new springs and struts.

 

Take a picture?

 

we see it at work almost monthly, even just last week we had a Buick LeSabre where the spring completely blew out of the rear lower control arm and is on the road somewhere lol. i think if you live by winter/summer cycle climates and are by potholes it happens

 

Well those old style shocks found on most older domestics (and even the "modern" LeSabres that they were still building in the mid 00's) seem a lot more plausible for the spring to pop out. Heck those you can just pop right out with a pry bar when changing the springs. They do kind of just sit in there.

The odds of a spring randomly popping out on a modern MacPherson type spring/strut combo just seem so low to me. Especially with "tall" stock springs, they're in there so tight that barring the spring itself physically breaking (or a poor install in which it was never seated) I don't see how it can come out assuming the strut stayed in place.

Being in Texas, I've never even seen a cracked/broken spring from rust or corrosion. Apparently that is a thing up north, but I've never once encountered it here. And it looks like the OP is from Texas too, so I would be shocked if his issue is from rust/corrosion.

Would definitely like to see a pic from the OP.

 

weve had some McPhersons blow too, one broke in half off the strut and went into the guys tire

 

Thanks everyone for the good info.... I am not a mechanic...
I'm in Dallas, TX.
I hit a big pot hole as I was about to go downhill on a road and the car bounced real hard about 3 times before I could stop.

The spring didnt appear to be broken but more visible than before.
What is the estimated cost and repair for something like this?
I was able to take 2 pics one of the damaged wheel



and one of the undamaged wheel...

 

You keep asking questions we have no way of answering properly since we still don't know exactly what happened to your car (i.e., no picture).

It *sounds* like the spring is undamaged and merely somehow came out of one of the perches. In that case, all that needs to be done is to re-install the spring. This is a 20 minute job with a spring compressor and some basic hand tools - but as to how much a shop will charge you? No idea. It definitely shouldn't be remotely over an hour of labor. Not sure what the going rate these days for shop labor is - maybe $75 or so?

 

The spring is ok...but looks like the strut is broken or seized. Look at the pic of the passenger wheel...the strut doesn't go all the way up to the top of the pic. Get new front struts and probably need a new strut mount and bearing. Ball park is 1.5 hr labor.

 

Ah okay I see you added pictures after my post above.

Wow that is crazy. Like Dan said, your strut is either seized or broken completely. I'd love to see what your upper strut mount looks like - as in, did the strut rod break, or did the strut mount fail so badly that the strut just fell out of it with the upper nut still intact/threaded onto the strut rod.

Can you open the hood and take a picture of the strut mount there? It'll be at the top of your wheel well arch under the hood, with 3 nuts holding it on. It may have a little black cap in the center of the strut mount, if so remove that and take a picture of the mount.

If your upper strut mount is toast you'll need a new one of those as well. And of course, if your strut physically broke you'll definitely need to replace it.

What would be quickest at this point is to just grab an entire strut/spring assembly at a junkyard and swap the whole thing on as a complete unit. That way you don't have to fool with spring compressors, buying a new strut mount, etc.

Not sure what part of Dallas you're from, but Pick N Pull is having a 50% off sale tomorrow and Thursday. Even without the sale the entire spring/strut combo isn't much (I want to say ~$40 ish). There's several locations in DFW. You can pull the strut pretty quickly with a couple of 17mm wrenches for the strut to spindle, and the upper strut mounts should be 14mm bolts. The brake line just clips onto the strut, and if it has ABS it should just be two 10mm bolts. So a few wrenches/sockets is all you need to pull/swap the whole thing as a single unit.

 

Wow looking at the top pic. it does appear the strut sheared or broke and is non existant in the top half of the spring which would explain the 3 big bounces before being able to stop. Probably a good idea just to swap the complete assembly like previously mentioned and check ball joint(s) tie rod ends. That must have been a sink hole rather than a pothole.

 

Wow thats crazy you better change both struts and top mounts.

 

Here are the strut mount pics

the bad one - on passenger's side?




The bolt or nut does not appear damaged - it seems that whatever screwed into the nut - somehow over time unscrewed itself. i had been hearing a rattling sound but did not know exactly where it was coming from. after this incident I did not hear the rattling sound anymore....

the good one on driver's side





What do y'all suggest i do next????

 

ok here it is one more time...

new - get a new strut along with strut mounts. at this point might as well get two front ones. rockauto prices are pretty decent...if you have no idea what to do...then drive to your local repair shop and they can help you.

used - find a u pull it yard or whatever is around you...find an entire strut assembly along with the spring. again...if you don't know what you're doing then go to a repair shop.

price for struts will vary greatly (50 each to like 90 each). you will most likely need 2. find a good local repair shop and they will be able to help you out. you might need two strut mounts also your strut boots are trashed and maybe you need a bump stop. figure about another 30-40 for the boot/bump stop etc. labor should be about 1.5 to 2 hours.

if this is over your head seek professional help.

 

^^ Well put and to the point except the "drive to your local repair shop" part but i think DanNY may have meant TOW lol. Besides the pic. Of your passenger side where the center nut is used to hold the assembly together so there is NO more strut.The "whatever screwed into the nut" was your strut. Its no wonder the spring shifted out of place. At this point i'd definately have your ball joints and tie rod ends checked and probably replaced too for piece of mind. Its too bad monroe doesnt make a quick strut for 3rd gens. So to the shop with you and get it fixed. How long were you hearing the rattling and probably creeky noises for before it finally gave out? By the looks of it you must have been hearing the warning signs for quite some time. Thankfully this didn't happen on the highway and nobody was hurt.

 

Once again-THANKS now I can explain intelligently to whoever I get to make this repair .... I'm not a mechanic .... I do not drive this car alot and rarely go on the freeway ... when the rattling noise started (I guess 2 months ago) I avoided roads where I had to go fast .... or a lot of pot holes ... I always slow down for pot holes but didnt see the one I hit.....

 

Wow this is so crazy. Your upper strut mount doesn't look damaged at all.

Are we even sure your strut broke? The strut "unscrewing" itself seems very unlikely to me.

I hate to keep asking you to take pictures - but can you take a picture of the top of the strut (if it even exists) between your spring? I'm curious if it actually broke, or if the threads stripped or what. Same angle as in that very first picture you took, but move that rubber bump stop and whatnot out of the way so we can try to see the actual strut rod (or what's left of it).

Had the front end/struts/anything been worked on anytime remotely recently? There is just no way for that nut to stay intact up there, and for the strut to come out (barring some MAJOR MAJOR trauma - like a catastrophic wreck) without damaging the strut mount itself unless that nut was either never screwed on in the first place or it had just barely been threaded on by one turn or something.

*edit* If it hasn't been said or if it isn't obvious, you'll need a new bump stop since yours appears to have been totally split

 

Here's my prediction (guess)...
The nut doesn't seem to have a nylon insert so it's probably a regular nut.

What happens...the banging that he's hearing is the strut nut getting loose from the vibrations. So the threads of the strut is just sawing it's way around the D shaped hole in the strut mount. Eventually the nut just ran out of threads and the strut itself just lost its way from the strut mount. So the OP kept on driving and the bouncing just pushed the strut down. If it's a factory strut it won't come back up on its own.. (non gas charged) or if it's a blown/worn strut the shaft won't come back up.

So I stick by my prognosis...strut mount, bump stop, strut boot, new strut.

James u want more pics bc his user name is fotoman?? Lol

 

Nah...he can drive it. He drove it home like this...what's a few more miles.