Suspension parts- mileage only or age related?
 

Good evening folks,


The reason this has all come up is simple. My 86 has very low mileage- heck even the orginal rear suspension links are tight! Well, a front strut seems to have gone south and now I'm looking at what to replace.

Generally, I've replaced most of the parts when cars are 10-15 years old- but they are ussually pushing 200,000 miles. This one recently turned 80,000.

Checking today- lower ball joints seem pretty tight- will they go another??

If it was your car- what would you replace???

Struts, lower ball joints, idler arm bushing kit, boots, strut mounts, etc + the thrust and control arm struts which I believe don't last a long time.


Michael

When the ball joint boots split, it's time to replace them. An alternative is to spray solicone on the rubber parts to keep them from going bad.

Hi Guys ...

Are you saying that its a good thing to spray all the rubber parts with a Silicon spray ... I vaguely remember reading somewhere that silicon spray dries out rubber ... ( or was that plastic ..) ... either way I'd like to know what can be used on rubber boots and stuff around the CV's and suspension parts to keep em in good condition ...

Thanx ..

That was plastic. Spray your door seals too.

Time and miles are both factors, but miles have relatively more influence.

If a is strut bad, replace it, and remove the top strut mount and clean and inspect it thoroughly. If the chassis has less than 100K miles the strut mounts are probably okay.

The struts can be replaced singly. They don't have to replaced in pairs. It's not uncommon for one strut to fail completely as evidenced by lots of oil loss while the other is okay. These high gas pressure "de Carbon" type struts maintain their damping characteristics throughout their life and then usually fail completely unlike conventional hydraulic shocks that slowly degrade with use.

Always replace the strut dust boots when the front struts are replaced as they will likely disintegrate before the strut fails.

If no other problems are observed and the car drives okay, leave everything else alone.

Duke

I think age also is a factor. My '86 300E had 67k when I bought it in 2002.

I noticed that it was fishtailing and when I inspected the rear links, the rubber was craked on the control links. Also, the rubber in the differentil mount bushings had deteriorted. I went ahead and replaced all the links on the rear end and the diff mounts also. I also replaced all four sub-frame mounts. The sub frame mounts had no elasticity in them and were craked pretty bad.

Thanks!!

Just check those items for play, and replace as needed. There is really no great labor savings in doing other repairs (such as control are components) while swapping front struts, since the springs stay in.