Front right strut keeps blowing out after curb impact
 

I kissed a curb pretty hard on the front right back in October 2018, and had a load of work done at a local collision specialist.

Completely bent the control arm in half, and had brake fluid leaking.

I thought it was going to be a total loss with a bent frame, but insurance ponied up and shelled out over $5000 in repairs.

Repairs were finished on October 17th, and she felt like new again.

Fast forward two months into late January, and I'm seeing an oil spot being dropped by the front right area, shortly followed by a thumping noise.

Took it back to the collision shop and they diagnosed it with a leaky strut, and replaced it under warranty with an OEM strut

About a month later in mid-March..... same exact issue.

Another OEM strut replaced under warranty.

One full week later..... same exact issue.

I took it to a local Toyota dealer and they looked at it and diagnosed the same problem, blown strut, no other problems.

Collision shop is now going to order an aftermarket strut (not sure which brand) and going to be replacing it free of charge next Thursday.

After three blown struts I hope this will be the fix.

Has anyone ever experience anything like this before?

What else could be causing the problem that neither the collision shop or the dealer has noticed?

I do live in western Massachusetts where potholes have been bad this year, and the shops suggest I stop "slamming" the potholes....But I've been diligent in dodging anything major. This can't be the problem...



I'll try to decipher the parts list from the estimate;

Front Suspension:

Repl - RT Lower cntrl arm

R&I - ENGINE HARNESS AUTO TRANS

Repl - RT Lower cntrl arm bolt

Rpr - Susp Crossmember

Repl - RT Knuckle

Repl - Stabilizer bar

Repl - RT Stabilizer link

Repl - RT Strut

Repl - RT Stabilizer link nut

Repl - RT Spring seat

Repl - RT Seal

Repl - RT Strut mount

Repl - RT Hub assy

Steering Gear & Linkage:

Repl - RT Outer tie rod

Something has to be tweaked, it's not bad luck 4 parts in. MacPherson struts are simple, that's why they're so prevalent. The strut is the upper control arm. The LCA locates the lower ball joint, the strut and spindle hold everything up and down. Not a whole lot going on.

Or the same guy is doing the job every time and butchering it?

If the spindle/upright/whatever Toyota calls it were to be bent it could side load the strut and cause a leak?

Yep. Something is side loading it somehow. There is no way that it just coincidently blew 4 like that even if the worst installer in the world worked on it.

Something in this area, it wouldn't have to be a lot.

isn't that the wheel bearing assembly?

Couldn't it also be the control arm thats bent?

That contains the wheel bearing, yes.

Bent lower control arm wouldn't really load the strut in that way. It would move the wheel in or out at the bottom, or forward/back. The ball joint would isolate any force from the strut.

Bent lower control arm was replaced per the OP.

You should post exactly what parts were replaced from your receipt.

Thank you for all the responses.

I'll try to decipher the parts list from the estimate;

Front Suspension:

Repl - RT Lower cntrl arm

R&I - ENGINE HARNESS AUTO TRANS

Repl - RT Lower cntrl arm bolt

Rpr - Susp Crossmember

Repl - RT Knuckle

Repl - Stabilizer bar

Repl - RT Stabilizer link

Repl - RT Strut

Repl - RT Stabilizer link nut

Repl - RT Spring seat

Repl - RT Seal

Repl - RT Strut mount

Repl - RT Hub assy

Steering Gear & Linkage:

Repl - RT Outer tie rod


Once I get home from work I might be able to snip out any personal information and post the full estimate.

You have a new spindle (knuckle). Looks like basically everything on the corner was replaced.

I'm out of ideas. Maybe back to the same Bubba replacing the struts and never getting the spring on the hat/strut correctly?

:iono:

Does replacing a strut involve tearing down that whole right front area?

If not, maybe I should have them break down that whole front right and reassemble it?

Did they check the frame to see is anything is tweaked in that regard?

What did the alignment look like after?

The complete strut comes out in 5 minutes. Wheel off, 2 big bolts to the knuckle, brake line bolt out, hood open, top nuts off, strut on the bench.

I did both front lowering springs in maybe 20 minutes max, the rears take a good bit longer with the trunk liner and LCA in the way.

MacPherson front suspensions are silly simple, that's the point. There has to be something else going on. I can't imagine you can bend a spring, but maybe?

Both the shop & dealer said frame was intact and not tweaked whatsoever.

According to the collision shop... when the car goes up on an alignment machine; it can detect any imperfections in the frame. And none were found.

I'll have to inquire about what the alignment looked like when they first did it; and I'll see if they can get me another alignment when they put the aftermarket strut in next Thursday.

I'll see if I can also get a printout of the alignment and post it here.

wheel alignment machines to not check for unibody structure damage at all, i would take this car to another body shop and have them check it something has to be wrong for it to keep blowing struts. aftermarket struts are not the answer if OEM parts keep failing.

Maybe the shop isn't holding the piston in place when installing the top hat nut?

Going to town on the top nut with an impact wrench?

I’ve done a lot of struts and shocks with an impact. Haven’t blown one yet. Did the BRZ springs with an impact and no compressor. I’ve never seen springs with so little (almost zero) preload.

OP, do you see any visual damage to your shock towers?

If the guy installing it is zipping the upper mount on with an impact and spinning the shaft too much it could be undoing in the nut inside the strut. If the same guy did all the replacements I'd bet even more on that.

Thank you everyone!
 

I showed this forum post to the collision shop that has been doing the OEM replacements, and they seemed to take it more serious this time.


They put in a KYB strut about 2 weeks ago now and I've had no issues so far.


Thank you everyone for the responses!

lol kissing the curb is quite the under statement.

fwiw the OE style struts do not have an interior nut attaching the damper to the strut housing like the inverted struts offered by the aftermarket like Bilstein.

Spinning the shaft could be a problem, but like others modern seals are pretty tough and it'd take a real hammerhead to consistently fuck something up that bad.

https://www.tein.com/classroom/inverted/img/zu_01.jpg


My guess is that their 'oe replacements' came out of junkyards or fleabay or a less than reputable source. Body shops do that all the time around here and put 'oe/similar replacement' for the full OE price and pocket the difference from insurance companies.