New Strut Assembly 03 Malibu

[Ryan Marvin]

Hello all,

I recently replaced the strut assembly on my 2003 malibu. I replaced the original struts because at 215,000 miles they were knocking as I turned the wheel. I replaced them with a set of Monroe’s and now there is a distinct spring noise (squeaky, like someone having fun in a bedroom) on both sides. Any thoughts as to the cause or ways to get rid of that sound? Everything has been torqued down to specs (18 ft lbs on the mount bolts and 89 ft lbs on the knuckle. The strange thing is I can’t seem to recreate it bouncing the car, but the noise was definitely not there w/ the old struts. It sounds like the spring, but why would the spring sound like this being brand new?

Thank you for your time!
Ryan

Topic

[EricTheCarGuy]

Try spraying a little WD-40 where the spring meets the strut. If the noise goes away, then it’s likely an issue with the new struts. Often there is a rubber damper on the lower coils or on the strut land to help prevent noise. If it was there on your old struts and not on the new struts, this could be the cause of the noise. Outside of that, I recommend going back over your installation to make sure everything is installed and fastened correctly. More info on finding noises here.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/diagnosing-noises-in-your-car

Please keep us updated on what you find.

[zero]

I would check everything that moves with the suspension. Sway bar links and bushings, ball joints, any suspension bushing. Was anything else undone? Did you use quick strut assemblies, or piece it together?

[Ryan Marvin]

Figured it out after taking the strut assembly out and re-examining.

The brown jounce bumper(It’s black on the catalog below) at the top of the dampener has to be shoved into a bracket at the bottom of the upper plate. I don’t see this in the instructions on the pdf online nor did I see this info in the paper installation manual provided for these struts. The instructions do mention that the bearing plate may need to be rotated in order to fit in the mounting bracket, although at first glance this wasn’t an issue, because both(left and right assembly) came shipped with the upper plate in the correct sequence. The problem is, it took one full rotation of the upper plate in order for the jounce bumper to fit in the bracket at the bottom of the upper plate. If the upper plate is not rotated one full revolution, the jounce bumper will not fit in the bracket as it is not centered over the bracket.

Thanks everyone for your help!

http://www.monroe.com/assets/downloads/english/monroe-quick-strut-installation-instructions.pdf
http://www.monroe.com/en-US/catalog/e-Catalog/171672

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