Rear suspension knocking... solutions?

Hi! I've had my 89 accord for year now, and about 2 months after I started getting it I kept hearing this 'knocking/creaking' sound coming from the passenger side rear wheelwell location. I folded down the seat, and popped off the plastic cover that allows access to the strut. I tightened the SHIT out of the nut on top of the strut, and it was better for a few months. Then it started doing it again, and the bad news is that it doesn't seem like I can tighten the nut anymore. It's also happening on both sides now. Anyone else had a problem like this? If I removed the nut, and maybe threw in some washers and retightened it would that help?

Thanks!

time to replace the struts

and your upper ball joint could be on its last leg

The struts seem okay, the ride isn't bouncy or anything

Okay, please help. I had an ex honda tech look at it, and we were both stumped. If you pop off the little cover to the rear struts, and then hop on the car's frame to get it to bounce a little, you can see the strutnut 'moving' in relation to the strut tower, which it should not be doing. I checked the upper rear balljoints and they're both fine, it's DEFINITELY the big 17mm nut on top of the struts.... I tried tightening it, but it keeps spinning the shaft of the strut. I put visegrips on the top of the strut shaft to keep it from spinning, but the metal of the strut just keeps tearing off in the visegrips. Is there SOMEWAY to keep the stupid shaft from turning?! It's driving me nuts. Does anyone have a diagram or picture of the rear suspension? I'm trying to figure out why this thing is even lose!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

ok the creaking is a tell-tale sign that your upper balljoints are about to break.
Usually the strut doesn't make any noise like that but if you want to tighten up a strut you need to use a wrench and a plier. You hold the top point of the shaft with the pliers, it will have a rectangular lip for you to grab it. NEVER clamp anything to the shaft itself, only the tip. Your struts will leak if you scratch the shaft. Then, while holding the tip, you turn the nut clockwise with the wrench until it stops, that means you've run out of thread. It's kind of like when you adjust your valve lash

Trying to remember how the strut is assembled... I swapped out my springs on my maxima yesterday and if I remember, they're the same basically. Starting from below... you should have a small mount on the strut rod which mounts up against a metal plate. That metal plate should push against a piece of rubber underneath the strut mount. After the strut mount, there should be another piece of rubber which keeps the top of the strut firmly against the strut mount with a washer/bolt on top. If either piece of rubber is damaged or if the mount on the rod is broken (unlikely), then you'll have noise and loose feeling suspension. Is the strut mount secure? Those are the only sources of noise at the top of the strut. I think my struts had a hole for an allen/hex wrench to fit into so the bolt could be tightened. Using vice grips on a strut at ANY place is never a good idea. Best case, you might have to rethread. Worst case you could be out $160 like me and have to order two brand new tokico struts! So be careful... One good thing is the rears are fairly easy to replace/dismantle. You could take it out and have it back in in 30 mins or so.

K, like I clearly stated, it is NOT the ball joints. Like I clearly state, the noise is coming from the movement of the strut mount. Like I clearly stated, tightening the nut removes the noise, but I can't tighten it anymore because I can't hold teh shaft still. As far as I know these are OEM struts... is there any way to keep them from spinning while trying to tighten that damn nut?

NOte: Please read what I write. It isn't the freaking ball joint, and it annoys me that some member wasted a few minutes responding to something unrelated to the problem

PS: The top of the strut shaft is NOT rectangular, nor does it have a socket hole for an allen wrench.

There has to be a way to hold the piston rod while tightening the nut. That would be a major flaw in a strut design. Any engineer would not leave that out. My Tokicos have a small indention for an 8mm wrench - the gabriel/monroes, the hex? Maybe you had that same indention, but it seems you were too busy stripping the threads off the top of the strut to check. Before you destroy what's left of them, take the whole assembly out and inspect it. Maybe there's a notch for a wrench nera the top of the piston rod.

I think I speak for anyone else here... We're trying to help your dumba$$ figure this out. You obviously can't figure it out, so don't bite our heads off for making suggestions. Sometimes you'll learn other things so be open minded. No one wants to help a smart a$$, even though you are probably just frustrated. Take it easy man. It's just a freakin noise, lol.

Again, there is no indentation for an 8mm allen wrench. There is nothing. It was originally just round, slightly smaller in diameter, then as you go down it started having threads, which increased it's diameter a bit. The nut goes onto that, and underneath that is the strut mount. I'm not a dumbass, and I'm not new to cars. I've replaced entire suspensions myself, but I've never had this sort of problem. Does anybody know any 'tricks' to keep the shaft from moving? I would really like to tighten this stupid nut!

Thanks!

http://img285.imageshack.us/img285/1608/strutnut8dc.jpg

Service manual shows hex detent in top of strut. If you don't have that, then you may not have a stock strut. Still, as they have said before, there should be some engineered way to hold it. You sound like you have mechanical skills though, so I'm giving you the benifit of the doubt here :).

Barring that, if you have enough thread sticking up above the nut, you might try filing two opposite sides down flat, so you can then hold it with a small wrench. The nut should still be able to be removed with the threads that are left.

A last ditch would be to chisel a notch in the top of the shaft, so you could hold it with a flat-head screwdriver, but I doubt you would get enough leverage that way.

Even more desperately, you could tack weld something to the top to hold (small nut perhaps), but that would be tricky.

Of course, you could just take the freaking thing off, and get another strut.

Let us know how this all ends up, eh, and good luck.

I like that idea... what Robs89LXi said, filing the sides down (one of the many reasons to have a dremel). That way you can easily put a wrench on it to hold it. Just be sure it's not too thin, but is flat enough that you don't strip it. You could always re-file it, but getting it right the first time woudl be nice. Honestly, I would have tried the vice grips like you did, but at some point, they're going to strip. Always do. Just depends how much you have to tighten/loosen. If filing the sides down doesn't work (although it should if you have 5mm or so to play with) then I would suggest picking up a $30 pair of rear struts on ebay. If your's are stock, it would be an equal or better replacement than what you have now and it would save you a lot of frustration. There are only three bolts holding the strut in, so it's pretty easy to get it out. Then rent a spring compressor (free at Autozone, etc), remove the spring, and then cut off the nut. Your home free.

I was joking with the remark. I ask lots of questions too b/c I know there are tricks to doing things more easily. I can imagine your frustrated b/c it seems you have a unique part. I'd be pissed off too! If your strut is suspect, I'd just replace it. You're gonna have to deal with this all over again if/when you get ready to replace them. Since you just got the car, might as well start fresh. Good luck!

Thing is, I'd rather not replace it. It's cold out, and if I'm going to replace a strut, I'd rather do all of them at one time, and put in something nice like bilsteins or something.

Then get some bilsteins? :P

No, but seriously.. I have a noise like this too but everythign is tight. I think my ball joint may be going out according to a memebr that posted..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by suvsareretarded

Okay, please help. I had an ex honda tech look at it, and we were both stumped. If you pop off the little cover to the rear struts, and then hop on the car's frame to get it to bounce a little, you can see the strutnut 'moving' in relation to the strut tower, which it should not be doing. I checked the upper rear balljoints and they're both fine, it's DEFINITELY the big 17mm nut on top of the struts.... I tried tightening it, but it keeps spinning the shaft of the strut. I put visegrips on the top of the strut shaft to keep it from spinning, but the metal of the strut just keeps tearing off in the visegrips. Is there SOMEWAY to keep the stupid shaft from turning?! It's driving me nuts. Does anyone have a diagram or picture of the rear suspension? I'm trying to figure out why this thing is even lose!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Is the moving verticle or horizontal?

If it is horizontal, that tells me that there is a problem in the upper strut mount.... I'd say dissasemble the entire strut and check to make sure all the parts are in OK condition, and as you stated, you have done suspension work before, so i'll leave it up to you to decipher what parts are good and what are bad.

Good luck.

No, the movement is vertical. Like I said, the upper ball joints are fine. The suspension is kosher, it's just this stupid mount, and my inability to tighten the nut. :\

I had those sounds before! it was the upper balljoint! it broke on me and after replacement, no more creaking sounds! hope this helps! Cheers!

How long was it creaking until the upper ball joint broke on you?

about 12-14 months! then wooshhh! whole damn thing came off! the car was loaded with 5 persons at the time and i guess it cant stand the weight no more! :barf: i actually dint know what was causing the sound untill the incident happened! learned it the hard way! :rockon: