Blown shock
 

Not sure what I did. I put Swift springs on last weekend. I put about 300 miles on the car and today I find a puddle of fluid by the wheel. Further inspection, I find the front left strut is leaking. I must have done something when changing the spring because the car hasn't been driven hard at all. No potholes or anything unusual. Basically I've only driven it to get an alignment and then I drove it highway miles to Chicago and back for a preseason game Friday night.

Really not looking forward to dealing with the spring again, but oh well. Any chance someone has a spare driver's side strut in good shape? Yes, the car is in warranty, but I can't really blame Nissan in this case.

Clintfocus is selling a whole set which is almost brand new.
Keep the rest as spares?

As an FYI, they don't sell front struts. Only Koni makes a replacement

impact gun killed it? :confused:

Is the strut from a G37 the same?

Did you use a clamp on the bar?

As far as tightening the top bolt, yes. I used a small vice clamp on the shaft and tighten the top nut with a ratchet.

Thinking back, I think I know what I did wrong. I didn't get the top hat aligned perfectly with the strut. So, when I went to put the bolt back in the bottom on the strut, the strut was not true. I had to force the bolt through with a rubber mallet. I guess the slight twist in the strut caused it to fail.

Any suggestions on getting the top back on in the correct position. I marked which direction was front and tried to keep it lined up based on the location of the abs clips.

Welcome to my $500 mistake! Someone suggested that when I was having trouble and I should have listened to the guy screaming "NOOOOOO"!

You're screwed. Be happy you have one working. Buy a new strut and ask a shop to do you a favor.

Was the mistake using a clamp or mis aligning the strut?

Clamp. Even a scratch will screw your seal. I lost both.

Hell an impact gun is 10000x better than a vise-grip on the shaft.

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk

ouch... yah, scratch on the shaft will break the seal.


GL with your replacements. :tup:

I have a new strut on the way. Is there a notch or flat spot on the shaft to hold it so the top nut can be tightened?
Any tips on getting the top hat aligned?

when i do struts that have particular orientation, after removing it from the car, i take a look at the unit from the top to mark on a piece of cardboard on the floor where the braket or watever reference point is to the hat orientation. just make sure it is placed back the same way. no real science here...

mark the most front tower bolt as well before removing it from the car.

also, it always helps to crack loose the shaft nut while the strut is still on the car.

yeah eithe break it loose on the car if that doesn't work you may need to use either a wrench or strut socket on the top of it to hold the shaft while you break the nut loose with a wrench. something like thishttp://repairguide.autozone.com/znet...3f807cb0d5.gif you could also use an impact gun to zip the nut off the old shock