Whats Gone Wrong At The Top Of Of The Susp. Mount?

[johnhenry 20]

Evening all

 

after pulling the car up the drive heard a 'bang/thud', got the bonnet up and;

 

noticed the suspension mounts, where the damper has the bolt securing it, there is a 'bowl' shaped bit housing the nut and an earthing wire connection.

 

this bowl was now sitting like 1cm above the black rubber bit around it

 

have i wrecked the top mounts? if so, bugger. if no what have i done?

Cheers

John

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

theres a chunky washer that goes before the nut. Is that there? that takes some of the strain off the cup, so without it you can get some mis-shaping

[davey sprocket 14]

What condition are the struts in?

Have you recently done some work on them?

Are both sides the same? If they are, I'd look elsewhere for the source of the noise. If the top rubbers are old and soft, they can have quite a big gap like you describe.

[johnhenry 20]

brand new top mounts, brand new dampers and springs, the whole setup is brand new. the bowl is now sitting well above the rubber top mount bit, ill try and get a photo tomorrow

cheers

John

[martyn180 9]

Someone had this on the forum a couple of weeks ago. Either missing the washer or the washer was in the wrong place. Iirc my washer sits on top of the strut , then the mount.

[BlueBolt 156]

Not sure if I posted about it but I had this a couple of weeks ago...

 

Thought the top nut had come undone, then took it all apart to find the washer missing on one side, surprising the difference a little washer can make!!

[davey sprocket 14]

I'm sure the reason the strut top is sitting too high could well be due to the washer not being there....

....but John is describing it going bang and ending up like it... I don't see how the washer can suddenly disappear?

 

Still not sure from your posts John, are both sides the same?

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

I was thinking that the lack of washer may have made the cup part dome all of a sudden causing a bang

[johnhenry 20]

i've attached a picture - from what i can see, i've been a bit of a div and put the washer above the main dome/cup?

 

drivers side

 

passenger side

 

should the top cup be sitting inside the bottom cup to prevent this? i have a feeling it should :/

[welshpug 1,646]

drivers side looks fine, passenger side looks bent.

 

 

make sure the spring/bearing/top spring pan is mounted ok.

Edited June 28, 2012 by welshpug

[davey sprocket 14]

Yep, I'm with Welshpug.

 

And no, you haven't got the cup bits the wrong way round, the top one is not supposed to be under the big one.

 

The gap between the two cups is caused by the 'squishiness' of the rubber doughnut in the top mount... if you jack the car up, you'll see the gap close up as the weight of the car comes of the strut. I'd take a pic of mine but it won't help you much because I have uprated rubbers, so there's very little gap.

 

You do need to see why it's not sitting square on the passenger side though, like WP says.

[johnhenry 20]

thanks one and all for the help!

 

i remember the things being abit of a mission to sit level so they might have slightly 'jolted' out of place, hence the bang when it was let down off a jack, i did it slowly, its being silly i guess!

 

cheers

John