Why do the salvaged set of smooth silent struts now creak & groan on my car?

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Thickasmud
Confirmed BX'er
Posts: 55
Joined: Fri May 30, 2008 4:26 pm
Location: London England
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Why do the salvaged set of smooth silent struts now creak & groan on my car?

Post by Thickasmud »

Whilst I was changing the front top mounts I decided to swap out my existing struts for the salvaged pair, which I know worked smoothly and silently on the donor car. Before fitting I filled with LHM turned them upside down and left for a couple of days, to re-soak the felt slider washer.
Looking forward to a less crashy ride due to the known bad top mount I was disappointed to feel and hear creaking and groaning as the car rose for the first time after all my efforts over the weekend. The ride is now quite harsh and no longer smooth. During the work session I changed the top mounts, struts, leak back pipes, FDV, hand brake cables, coolant and topped up at least 1l of LHM lost during the FDV swap.
Whilst nothing is leaking, the handbrake works, steering is smooth and the FDV is no longer seeping, I feel a bit fed up as the car is riding far worse than before.
Having searched the forum for BX'ers with similar symptoms I note the advise to rotate the piston shaft 180 degrees using a hex key. UNFORTUNATELY I detached the struts from the spheres and fittings when recovering them so have no idea of the pistons original position.
Other than putting my old struts back in, any ideas how to proceed.
Thickasmud
Confirmed BX'er
Posts: 55
Joined: Fri May 30, 2008 4:26 pm
Location: London England
x 4

Re: Why do the salvaged set of smooth silent struts now creak & groan on my car?

Post by Thickasmud »

Bled the front brakes, made sure the PAS was clear of air then cleaned and lubricated the front height corrector; it made no difference . So I re-read the two online forum guides I had found on the web!

http://www.citroen.tramontana.co.hu/suspension
http://www.mars.dti.ne.jp/~ynar/bxorg_a ... /m05e.html

The first one was my primary source, which I read before removing the salvaged struts, the second I found later after running into problems. I suspect the crucial omission in the first "how to" is picked up in the Japanese link,

"Put the mark to upper mount and sphere support block with paint or scratch . It is required as a mark at the time of re-assemble"

So based on this I intend rotating the top mounts whilst struts are insitu to see if its the top mount,s wear pattern causing the issue.
However if this is the issue surely then both strut and top mount need to be replaced together, as new units or matched complete from donor car, something I was unaware of and have not read on the forum.
RobC
BXpert
Posts: 582
Joined: Tue Aug 15, 2006 11:15 am
Location: East London
My Cars: 1991 Citroen BX 16v
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Re: Why do the salvaged set of smooth silent struts now creak & groan on my car?

Post by RobC »

I've just cured some creaky front struts by putting the car on high, lifting the plastic protective bellows, spraying halfords finest spray grease onto the silver bit at the top, followed by citaerobics. For good measure put a squirt down the hole at the top too.
1991 Citroen BX 16v
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