I have the struts abd springs for my protege5 ready to go. But I'm hearing some odd noises over nasty numps. Ive checked all the control arm bushings, sway bar bushings, ball joints, tie ri ds, etc. Didn't find anything loose ir noticible play. Which leads me to think strut mounts. As this is my daily/family car, I can't have it down for long.
How do I check the mounts prior to dissassembly?
Most of the time, the shock shaft comes through the top of the mount, and it should not turn if you put a wrench on the shaft. I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule, but that's pretty typical.
95% of the over-bump noises I fix these days are swaybar related. When you jack the front end up, it puts stress on the swaybar components that makes it very hard to pick up the small amount of slack it takes to make noise. If you can create the noise by grabbing the roof and rocking the car side to side with it sitting on a flat surface, be very suspicious of swaybar bushings and links.
How much trouble to get new strut mounts and replace the whole kaboodle at once? Last time I did struts I just got new mounts too since the old ones were, well, old and I didn't want to replace the struts only to have to go back in later if a mount went bad.
replace the mounts w/ the new struts
you'll thank yurself later
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