My '09 has newer front struts along with the sway bar links that were put on by the previous owner about a year ago. The problem is that the whole front of the car now sounds like an old truck that is about ready to fall apart. It sounds terrible! It squeaks when going up and down the bumps in the road or just turning, even when both tires are suspended in the air. The dealership looked over the car and said the struts need replacing. I have lubed the whole suspension except the top of the strut with WD-40 with no luck of getting rid of the squeak, which leads me to believe the dealership is right. The current ones are aftermarket quick struts, and I am going to replace them with OEM ones in the next week or so. The question is, should I replace the top mounts, bushings, and isolators just to be safe since they are aftermarket as well or just reuse them? I know for certain I will be reusing the coil spring, but not sure what else. It's a 2009 with 170k mi. Thanks in advance.
Barely broke 8n yet 170k I cannot imagine struts causing unless extremely worn it very bad mfgr. Even that struts aren't too complicated to mfgr. Springs can creak slot wen aged. I would be looking replacements. 170K weighted miles can be a bit different . My 09 is always overloaded . Tools etc see it in a picture . Still very quiet given this fact . Matter fact most don't hear a thing . No radio on etc . I'd be be very interested to know what's found.
The car is in pretty good shape, other than the aftermarket struts that were installed by the previous owner not too long ago. Just started this a couple of months after we bought it.
That's really wild because struts the bottom portion thereof so if they reuse the springs then usually they're reusing their top plates which are one of the bigger wear items or they have to buy them separately usually when you buy just the struts with no springs and no tops all you're buying is the shock absorber in the tube with ears on it to mount to the hub I mean I would think even a cheap Chinese manufacturer shouldn't be able to fubar that too badly but I guess of course I'm wrong I usually use tokico KYB that sort of manufacturer. A few more bucks but not enough to break the bank for sure and generally I try to buy them complete with springs top plates ready to bolt on the car so we're not having the compress springs and do all kinds of silliness and let me tell you back in the old days of my Corollas in the '80s and early '90s we generally always bought the springs and they cost about $89 a pair and many times they were wound here in the United States and the strut assemblies came from wherever so I'm not sure what's happened here but I guess the cheap struts could be the thing it'll be interesting to see what happens when you pull the whole mess apart I'd be interested in wheel bearing condition and all that All those things together up in the front end can make a humongous racket.
Well, one of the wheel bearings were replaced by the previous owner. So I at least know one of those have been done. The only other thing that was irritating until I found out what I was was a terrible sound that sounded like marbles all the time. It was a golf ball and a piece of wood stuck ontop of the skid plate in-between the bumper and the radiator, so you never know what the cause of some of these noises are.
You learned your lesson on aftermarket parts didn't you? Why wouldn't you replace all aftermarket parts with OEM?
Think previous owner put China lower struts and maybe the used top plates etc . Disaster . Kyb and tokikco are the Asian go to suspension mfgrs per SE.. the aftermarket has us covered . And the blow out companies are buying up NOS nobody wants to hold and closing out amiyaga or whatever they're called . No reason to buy utter junk
The previous owner put the cheap aftermarket quick struts, so yes, I am only putting OEM on. And yes, with Toyota's, OEM is the best and only the best. With my old Ford truck, it really didn't matter.
I have used KYB, Bilstein and koni for years, never the OEM. Never had a problem. PO did something wrong or just flat out lied to you.
I agreed with everything you said except that it didn't matter with the Ford truck. Get Fox shocks for Ford
I used KYB in the early 80 i don't think they were OEM yet but possibly we loved the Gas A Just ..models not GR2.
It had a hex adjustment to the babing under cap can be adjusted on fly . Could be autocross quality . Could be called race I guess . They made for all the sports cars. Celica rx7 skyline all those
