Is my suspension strut damaged? (Pictures)

leachyd

Weird_Nev wrote: »

The part you can see (Or rather not see) is the Gaitor that covers the strut and keeps the damper rod free of dirt. They are rubber, and perish over time until eventually when you jack the car up and the gaitor extends far past it's range of movement and snaps apart. You cna see that that is what has happened with the diagonal bit of the boot connecting top and bottom.

It's what happens over time. There is no way that will have happened as a direct result of the work to the caliper, you don't go near that end of the strut to work on the brakes other than in jacking the car, which may or may not have been what caused the gaitor to snap in the first place.

The consequences of it being like that? Grit might stick to your damper rod and wear the shock out a bit more quickly.

Ideally, you should ahve the boot there, but it's probably an hours labor to replace since you have to remove the strut, hold the spring in compression and remove the top mount to replace the gaitor, then reassemble the whole lot.

I don't see how the garage could be held liable for that: It may or may not have been in that condition before it went to them, and I'd not be replacing it FOC as a garage if you came back to me.

By the "state of the strut" what do you mean? IT looks fine to me with no obvious corrosion, and it's quite normal on some cars for the top of the damper body to stick up proud like in that photo. (with the flat round platform about to make contact with the orange rubber bump stop above).

Thank you so much for replying in so much detail - really appreciate it.

I agree, its unrealistic to expect the gaiter to not deteriorate over time, and yes - it's probably not worth the hour's labour to replace! And certainly, I wouldnt expect it replaced FoC!

With regards the strut, i was reffering to what you mentioned - the gap between the platform and the rubber stop. Being a layman, it didnt look right to me, but i wasnt sure - glad to know that this isnt necessarily a problem, and is often normal. I thought that this could be the reason for the heavy knocking that began a few miles after taking it home, but suspect from your reply, that this isnt likely to be the cause, and perhaps as others have suggested, some bolts may not have been secured tightly enough?

Weird_Nev

I take it that photo was taken with the wheel on the ground, so the strut was as it would be when the car is on the road?

That looks about normal: They often have a surprisingly short amount of travel before the sdamper body engages the bump stop. They use it as a kind of progressive spring - for the remainder of the travel the strut compresses both the spring And the bump stop, giving a rising spring rate through the range of suspension movement. That orange bit is a firm rubber substance, and can compress a lot (though it takes force to do this). There is nothing in that photo that would cause knocking.

There's also nothing that you'd need to undo to replace a caliper that would cause knocking on suspension movement. Calipers are usually attached to the wheel hub (Well, hub carrier) through just a couple of bolts. it's child play, really, childs play, to unbolt, swap a caliper, and bolt a new one on. As an indication me and a friend rebuilt both front calipers for our racing Mazda in 90 minutes, and it was the first time either of us had done it. 10 minutes tops to replace the caliper, and two bolts.

So, The knocking: There are any number of things in suspension that start to knock. Without knowing your make and model and age of car, who knows? Perhaps try and nail the problem a bit more specifically, such as front or rear, on one wheel bumps, when turning right or left. It's very hard to isolate suspension noises. Things like worn anti roll bar links can knock at every bump, and yet not actually be detrimental to the car in any real way. Ball joints and bushings perishing can be a bit more serious and clunk like mad.

Take it back to the garage to see if they can identify it perhaps, and just let them check over their work, but I find it hard to see how a brake caliper change would lead to a new suspension knock.