Should I replace the strut bearing too?
 

Hi all,

I am replacing the struts, strut insulators, and the strut mounts on a 97 ES300. After inspecting the condition of the old parts, I decided not to replace the strut mount bearings because they are so expensive and the old ones seemed to be OK, turn easily, and I could not see any signs of damage.

Now, I'm wondering if I should also replace the bearings. What worries me is that the bearings seem to be constantly pressed between the strut mount and the spring upper seat with the weight of the vehicle. So, I'm concerned that even though the bearing seems to be fine disassembled it may not be fine under load.

I think the dealer typically replaces the struts and bearings together. Any thoughts on this?

I recently changed all struts and front bearings . suggestions

- Make sure buy right struts
- Make sure you have some extra ( Backup ) tools because i broke 3 extentions.
- Compress both new front struts and release at same time , both should come up at same time. ( I bought KYB struts one was tighter than other so returned them )
- When reassembling make sure the the direction of bearing with the struts and spring is right . It is good idea to use paint marker.
- Before opening nuts,spray with WD40 on all nut and bolts
- Make sure apply grease to nut and bolts
- After changing stuts do allignment ( Pepboys charged me 60 bucks for all 4 )
- It will be good idea to check your breaks ( I have spare rotor , I resurfaced the front rotors and changed at the sametime )
- Also check for bushings . I used junk cleaner and then applied grease from outside .
- Check boots . I cleaned them from outside , dirt between the boots can make their life short
- It took me 2 hour per side.
- I suggest change the bearings if they are old . I changed mine , they looked good .
- If on test drive you feel knocking sounds , just tight the top nut of the struts under the hood.
-Good Luck

I'll try this and see when I get the parts. My old struts are relatively easy to push in and they won't pop back up. I have to pull them up and they are harder to pull up than to push in.
I assume you're talking about placing the bearing with the upside up. It seems that the bearing is sort of cupped and the cupped side sits on the spring upper seat.
I do need to do this.

I hope I have diagnosed the problem properly and the knocking and thumping noise that I am trying to fix is due to the strut mounts and not other suspension/steering components. I guess this is the kind of chance you take when you're not a trained technician who's worked on the same problem many times before. I'll let you know how it turns out after I'm done.

Well, I put the new strut mounts in and that seems to have fixed the problem. Here is a list of parts that I replaced:

- strut assembly/shock (L/R)
- strut mount (L/R)
- strut mount bearing (L/R)
- spring insulators upper/lower (L/R)
- strut bumper (L/R)

I should say that the quality of the ride has improved significantly and it now rides maybe even better than our 2001 ES300. This cost me big $$ though. I believe that the thumping noise was due to the worn out strut mounts only and I really didn't need to replace the other parts.