JRD-Cam

Hi, The car went back today and the top mount bearings were replaced. The top-caps now sit level and ~5-7 mm clear of the chassis. Apparently the new bearings had seized, so were replaced with another set of new ones. The whole coil over shock seems to rotate with steering inputs, as it should, now. Hopefully this issue is sorted now. I took the opportunity to give the scuttle a clean and poked out the various sludges from the drains...which will hopefully cure the excess moisture in the car 🙂 . Thanks rum4mo for you support and I hope you got your job done too.

Hi Rum4mo, many thanks for your reply and apologies for my slow thanks. The car went into a different garage to get a window regulator changed. The mechanics there thought the top caps, were behaving normally. The car will still go back for checking next week as it makes a lot of noise on its full steering locks, which it didn't when it was new, the car was delivered with 13 miles on it. So I don't buy the it just needs bedding reason for the noise. I'll let you know the outcome later. Thanks again.

Hello, I was wondering if anyone can confirm whether the shock top mounts should be tight against the chassis? Free floating top mounts seems wrong. The other car we have has several bolts holding the top mount in place. The recently changed ones move around with steering lock and I assumed that the strut and nut, visible from under the scuttle and cap, should rotate on the bearing, or else why go to the trouble of having a bearing? Below are the worst situations where on the driver's side with full RH lock on (1st picture) and the LHS with fully LH lock is also creating a large gap. Straight wheels and the gap mostly disappears. I think the springs are radially expanding or contracting as the steering wheel was turned by my daughter and I was observing the springs, depending on which direction the wheel is turning, which makes sense for the top of the shock unit being locked solid against the bearing. When turning on close to full lock the car makes a horrible scraping noise, particularly when it is cold. The car did go back to the garage last Thursday and Friday to be checked again, but apparently no issue was detected. Or have the incorrect, too long, shocks been installed? Many thanks in advance for any comments about this issue. It'll be helpful to say that this is not normal or it is normal to the garage. t