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Strut Top Mounts Worn or Failed

HollySSV

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Good Morning,
Thought I would post for fellow owners that have front end knock in VF or VE commodore front suspension. The factory rubber strut top mounts tend to fail around the 50,000km mark on some vehicles creating the knock in the front end over bumps etc. To test if they are worn out:
1) raise one side of front on Jack stands.
2) place a large bar under the raised tyre. I used a bench press bar.
3) pull up to simulate compression on the suspension then let it drop.
If you here the knock sound on the drop, it is a good indicator that the strut top mounts are worn or failed. My VF SSV only intermittently knocks. But this is a indication they are on the way out.
I will try to upload a video that I took .
cheers
 

vywgn

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Other way to know if they have worn is if the top plate is higher than 1cm off the strut tower
 

87VLCALAIS

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Another source of knocking from the front end of the VE/VF suspension is the sway bar tie rods that tie the sway bar to the strut. They have ball ends like the steering tie rods and these ball ends wear. As the load on the sway bar changes as the car moves over undulations the ball ends rattle. The rattle is amplified through the strut mountings. It's most noticeable at slow speeds and sounds worse than it is.

It's a pretty quick and cheap fix.
 
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