Are my struts bad? or something else

MARSHIN2 · Jul 7, 2012

Heres a vidio of the noise it makes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQO54ysF-xM&feature=plcp

The noise is produced when i drive straight or even when i get out of my car.Theres no play in my wheel. I installed brand new upper control arms last year that a bought from tas auto. I took a crowbar and moved the stabilizer links and they are fine, no noise and look good. So only thing left that could go bad are the shocks, right?

AllGOnoSHOW · Jul 7, 2012

If your shock was blown it would bounce a lot more than that.

Your signature needs to be resized its to big

AllGOnoSHOW · Jul 7, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9F5seAtBy8

Compare to yours. Especially how the end bounces freely quite a bit is a good indication It's blown. Yours still has resistance.

Does your shock have grease/oil around the shock everywhere?

Suspension makes noises period

twofast4u · Jul 7, 2012

sounds like the upper control arm/ball joint. Those are fairly common to go on our cars

001Stunna · Jul 7, 2012

With the car turned off and parking brake on, jack each front corner in the air...

Check tierods...grab wheel at 9/3 and push and pull to check for play...there should be very minimal play but not clunking. If you lock the steering wheel there should be no play at all.

check upper/lower balljoints...grab the wheel at 12/6 and push and pull for movemenet...there should be no movement unless you're strong enough to compress the damper as you pull on the bottom of the tire(you'll be able to see this if you do it)

jack the whole front end in the air. get under it (after the car is secured in jack stands) and grap the front sway bar and shake it, do the same with the endlinks. make sure the bushings are not worn and that endlinks are not worn/broken.

as the car is in the air inspect the shocks for leaks, inspect the springs for cracks or possible broken one.

MARSHIN2 · Jul 9, 2012

Does your shock have grease/oil around the shock everywhere?

The one thing i did fail to mention is that the rubber boot around the strut is damaged. I can see the inside of the strut, the boot basically hangs there.
I left this out because honestly its been like this for sometime, and i wanted to see if the problem could be something else because i don't wanna throw money around on new parts. I never replaced the boot because it would be more work then just to replace it and im not sure if i can just buy the boot.

So i guess my main question is can i be safe to assume its the lack of the strut boot that caused damaged and the sound. Like i said, i just replace upper control arms. there is no play in any direction when the wheel is in the air, therefore it cant be the ball joints. the noise happens when im going straight and to my understanding sway bars make noises when turning. So it has to be the shocks right?