THSCC Forums

I posted this to the rally list, but I figured that we
have enough Subarus competing that I should
mention it here too...
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Well, here's something the Subaru rally folks
may need to address, I know that I'm going to.

I've been having some clunking in my front suspension
lately. Hmmm, I figured it was just the stock
strut tops getting a work out. Well, I was wrong.

I'm installing some STi strut tops, front and rear,
so I have the car up on stands with all the wheels
off. I notice that I can lift one side up and down
about 1/4 to 3/8 inch. What the??

Here's what I've figured out has happened. The strut
tops for the front have a bearing in them. This
makes sense, since you're turning the wheels, the
strut needs to turn, hence a bearing at the top.
The bottom (exposed to the strut top and inner
wheel well) is a normal looking sealed bearing.
The top (open to the engine bay) is not sealed.

My bearings have enough crap in them that one
has seized entirely, the other can only move
about 1/8 of a turn. So, once they froze, they've
been UNSCREWING THE STRUT TOPS! And that's where
the clunking has been coming from. I never expected
that, because of course the nuts were torqued
properly, AND they were nyloc type nuts that shouldn't
unscrew themselves. (When properly torqued, of course.)

I would imagine that doing the Sandblast rally twice
would have a lot to do with this, plus the strut tops
being 100,000 miles old anyway. However, I'm going
to build a cover with some thin sheet metal and some
foam to keep my spanky new strut tops from experiencing
the same difficulty.

For the Subaru rallycrossing types, I would expect
that getting some packing foam, and holding it down
with duct tape would certainly be sufficient. Take
a look at your strut tops, from the engine bay side:
you'll be looking at exposed bearing in grease and
thinking "what the???"

It's certainly going to be a bolt I check much more
often in the future. Of course, tightening it is
a super pain, because the whole strut wants to spin.

Live and learn, every type of car teaches you
interesting stuff.

Anders

_________________
Lina Racing: As Seen On Radio

Ooo, hmmm.

Study of the factory manual yields that there *is*
supposed to be a dust cap on there!

However, my aftermarket suspension protruded
enough that it didn't fit... and I forgot this
long ago. So, that whole story is only for people
with wacky suspensions.



Also, "Hooray Strap Wrench!"

Cheers,
Anders

_________________
Lina Racing: As Seen On Radio

Yep, I've had mine loosen up after swapping suspensions before, and I just had to torque them down again & they were fine after that. The Koni adjustment knobs stuck out far enough that I had to cut a hole in the rubber dust cover to put it back on. the Tein HG tops stick out the same, but the tops are larger diameter, so I had to cut them more to get the dust covers back on. But I ALWAYS put the dust covers back on - I live on a dusty dirt/ gravel road, so my car sees that on a daily basis.

I guess at this point I should remind you of the question I asked while driving your car at the rallyx...

Me: Wow, this car sure does rattle a lot. You sure there's nothing loose anywhere?

Anders: Nope, everything's tight!


Uh, I told you so?

Yup, you did. Where's the 'egg on my face' smiley???

Anders

_________________
Lina Racing: As Seen On Radio