TRD Strut Blown after 2 months. What's next?

[Compeer]

Originally Posted by Ecefour

A few months ago, my '07 Yaris started making a clunking noise on the passenger side front. I was at 140k miles with the OEM struts, so I decided to swap them for the TRD units. I bought the TRD struts from the Toyota dealership two months ago. I also bought nearly every part of the strut assembly (springs, bearings, strut mounts, etc). I installed them on the 19th of November and immediately started hearing a similar-sounding clunking as before. Like a complete fool, I spent hundreds of dollars throwing every possible part at this thing. New axle, lower control arm, outer tie rod, and sway bar end links. I also checked the torque on many suspension bolts, and i confirmed motor mounts weren't an issue. Everything (except for the axle) was purchased from the dealership. Still, the damn thing continued to make the noise. Finally, I decided to ask the mechanic to inspect my car. Today he called and said that the passenger side strut is blown. This is incredibly frustrating to hear. Either my mechanic is off base (I did recently undercoat my Yaris so he could be confusing the fluid film for the strut fluid). Or the strut is truly blown, and I spent copious amounts of money at the dealership and still got burned. Toyota doesn't sell the TRD struts individually, as far as I can see, so at a loss at this point. Can I get a refund from Toyota? Did I potentially screw up the installation? I'm starting college again in two weeks, and I'm almost completely broke at this point...

I still need to retrieve my car from the mechanic this afternoon. I'll ask him to confirm that it was strut fluid he saw, and not the fluid film. But really, I don't know what else can me making the noise at this point.

they are really easy to test, take it out of the car and try to move it up or down quickly. It should slide in and out slowly but stop any sort of sudden movement. If you can easily force into up and down quickly its stuffed.

If it is stuffed this is under warranty, they have a 100,000 km/3 year warranty.

Its weird tho, mine have been on the car for 140,000 km and 14 years and are still in mint condition. Are you sure this is not your lower control arm bushing? these go and make that noise.

If the strut was stuffed it would be bouncing and hitting the bump stop on that corner over bumps. If the strut is not leaking its almost impossible for them to be stuffed unless they are just ancient and the oil inside has slowly dried up to the point of no return.

Can you bounce the car up and down on that corner without the strut trying to stop it?

[sh0rtlife]

Originally Posted by Compeer

they are really easy to test, take it out of the car and try to move it up or down quickly. It should slide in and out slowly but stop any sort of sudden movement. If you can easily force into up and down quickly its stuffed.

If it is stuffed this is under warranty, they have a 100,000 km/3 year warranty.

Its weird tho, mine have been on the car for 140,000 km and 14 years and are still in mint condition. Are you sure this is not your lower control arm bushing? these go and make that noise.

If the strut was stuffed it would be bouncing and hitting the bump stop on that corner over bumps. If the strut is not leaking its almost impossible for them to be stuffed unless they are just ancient and the oil inside has slowly dried up to the point of no return.

Can you bounce the car up and down on that corner without the strut trying to stop it?

hell ive got shocks that are from the 50s that are still good...the odds of one simply failing without ABUSE is like winning the lottery ...and your right it would flop around like a fish every little bump in the road and you would feel it in the wheel