Air ride struts question....

[Gau8mechanic]

I got the ball joint clunk in the front when I hit uneven surfaces. I checked them out with a dry park test and found the uppers bad. Replaced the upper control arms a couple months back. Still have the sound though. Lower ball joints looked fine. Radius arm bushings looked fine. Had my instructor take it for a ride and he says the upper strut hat could be bad on the fronts. Now I know on a conventional coil spring strut assembly, the upper hat can be replaced. I can't seem to find any repair info for replacing the upper hat on the air ride struts like we have. Is it a replaceable part or is this integral to the entire strut/bag assembly? I'm annoyed by this noise and don't want to find out I need to replace both front strut assemblies to make this better. Any thoughts?

 

[beerdog]

Here is the skinny. The upper strut can get noisy and clunk. The rubber isolator can tear and seperate and still not leak. Officially, the top of the OEM strut is not replaceable. You cannot purchase a replacement part. It is possible to remove it and replace it if you had a donor unit such as a leaky strut with a good top. It is not that hard. Just rmove the nut a carefully tap the top off. You need to be careful to not damage the oring as you will not find a replacement. The top of the strut can also be inspected while on the car by removing the top nut. Nothing will come apart. Easiest thing is to buy a new OEM air strut on Amazon. Amazon seems to have the best pricing. Every now and then very good condition or NOS struts shows up for sale here. Also, replacing the top may not eliminate the clunk. There is a thread or 2 on doing this. I know I made one a while back. I will ty to post a link to it.

I also had an Arnott one develop a clunk. Check on if you have an OEM strut or an aftermarket like Arnott. Always buy OEM air struts. The aftermarket ones all suck.

 

[Neil]

Sway bar end links make a bad clucking sound when they go. If they are old try replacing them first. They are easy to replace and relatively cheap.

 

[M Darrah]

If the hard plastic parts (top and bottom) of the spring are yellow, then you've got the OEM. If the whole thing is black, it aftermarket and it's probably not worth trying to fix. I think Beerdog had an aftermarket spring and the shock inside actually broke, which would cause clunking for sure.

BTW, technically it's not a strut. It's a spring or bag. Mark VIIIs don't use MacPherson struts. Some people will give you hell if you call it a strut. Ask me how I know. :wave:

 

[beerdog]

Remember, strut rod bushings are notorious for clunking when bad.Also, you can some times rock the car back and forth by hand and hear if the top of the air "bag" is noisy.

 

[Gau8mechanic]

Endlinks are already replaced. Strut rod bushings?

- - - Updated - - -

If the hard plastic parts (top and bottom) of the spring are yellow, then you've got the OEM. If the whole thing is black, it aftermarket and it's probably not worth trying to fix. I think Beerdog had an aftermarket spring and the shock inside actually broke, which would cause clunking for sure.

BTW, technically it's not a strut. It's a spring or bag. Mark VIIIs don't use MacPherson struts. Some people will give you hell if you call it a strut. Ask me how I know. :wave:

I have stock "bags". lol. Any way to check them to know if the guts broke on them or what?