Start thinking about struts?

[JHZR2]

Car is 08 vw rabbit with 67k mikes. Runs, rides, drives perfect. Suspension does great and responds to bad road surfaces really well.

Recently when going over speed bumps, I've heard some crunching from the front end. On my saab, I noticed that after a number of years, tried changing the sway bar bushes, and still had the noise. It went away when I installed Bilsteins and new shock mounts.

So... Thoughts on this? No noise under normal driving, only speed bumps... But again, this is similar to past experiences. Wonder if it's worth even looking at the sway bar bushes. The thing with those is that they can be pretty inconvenient to mess with.

Thanks!

 

[Nick1994]

Have you crawled underneath and checked everything? Check the upper strut mounts, my VW's were replaced at around 135k miles. I've got the original struts and they're getting weak but still do surprisingly well for their age and abuse they get.

 

[chrome]

Are you getting a "crunchy squeak" as the suspension compresses and extends over the larger bumps?

Most likely the front sway bar bushes. However, on the mk5 platform, the bushes are not easily removable from the brackets. To get them out, the entire sway bar needs to be removed (involves dropping the subframe a few inches", then drilling out the captive nuts from the brackets before they separate.

Most people just replace the entire sway bar with an aftermarket unit, which include the conventional brackets and poly bushes.

 

[The Critic]

Check the front sway bar bushings and the lower control arm bushings. Struts are rarely the answer to a lot of common suspension issues.

 

[eljefino]

Are you at the halfway point in car ownership? Most people wait too long and get new struts right before they get rid of the car because they're bored with it or tired of paying for repairs/ maintenance.

Though I know you're more willing to spend $ on quality maintenance.

 

[JTK]

That's not a lot of miles, but at ~7yrs, is probably the point in which you'd notice the difference with new struts.

Like eljefino said, if you intend to keep the car, maybe swap them out in the not so distant future.

 

[rjundi]

Seems a little rare and early for struts unless cruddy parts. Hopefully the Rabbit is Euro made.

Personally I have owned vehicles in the 150k-240k range ANY never changed out struts. The 240k was in need though around 200k.

Our LGT needed $300 in work around bushings however struts are fine.

I would do diagnosis before jumping on struts. My guess is average joe hears a crunch say I need shocks or struts which they get and also $25-$100 in rubber.

 

[Bladecutter]

Another test would be to have someone drive the car on a bumpy road, while you drive alongside in another vehicle, and observe how the tire reacts to the bumps. Too much oscillation means that they aren't performing properly anymore.

Then you will truly know if the struts need to be replaced, or if it might be another part instead.

BC.

 

[Mr Nice]

I wait till the car has over 100K miles before replacing struts.

I did the struts / shocks on a 2006 Accord at 130K miles with Monroe SensaTrac .

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
Check the front sway bar bushings and the lower control arm bushings. Struts are rarely the answer to a lot of common suspension issues.


See, my first hand experience was the opposite. I could see nothing wrong, so I threw money at the most obvious culprits - the ones you mentioned, and the noises returned the next winter.

Struts have fixed it permanently.

The issue here isn't ride or handling, its noise under the fairly strong compression of speed bumps. Same issue I encountered on my saab, which the typical solutions didn't solve, and which struts did.

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
The issue here isn't ride or handling, its noise under the fairly strong compression of speed bumps.


I had the same issue with my Buick and I immediately suspected the strut mounts, but long story short, it was a worn out transmission mount that was the culprit. The same mount that's constantly under the torque twist of the engine.