Can a bad strut bearing damage the spring

[teehee]

Make

Saturn

Model

Outlook

Year

2009

Miles

155,000

Engine

3.6 LLT

My 2009 Saturn Outlook that just received a donor engine from an 09 Cadillac CTS that is detailed in another post.

Before the motor had quit I had replaced the shocks, struts, control arms, bushings, etc.

Even with all the new suspension parts there was still a “clunk” noise when turning. I also noticed that the front coil spring on the driver side was hanging off of the lower strut mounting pad. I removed the strut and repositioned the spring. The noise wasn’t completely gone but seemed to happen less. While I was removing the engine I noticed that the spring was hanging off the lower strut mounting pad again. I decided that the upper strut bearing must be bad and was binding the spring and twisting it off the strut whole turning. I’ve installed a new strut bearing and a lower spring isolator (was torn) and for some reason I can’t get the spring back on the strut in the location it belongs...when you put the end section of the coil onto the lower plate and line it up with the groove and spring stop, it forces the diameter of the spring outside of the diameter of the lower strut plate, (make sense?). Is it possible that the coil spring is distorted somehow from twisting from
The presumed bad bearing? I’m hating this!!!

 

[billr]

I would be surprised if the spring is damaged. Springs, in general, are quite tough. Suspension springs like that have such a large wire size (3/8"?) that it would take many tons of load to permanently deform them.

 

[Mobile Dan]

I think that if the spring was binding bad enough to make it jump off the strut, your steering would feel "wrong". Seems more likely that your spring is the wrong one, or your strut is the wrong one. Compare your parts to the other side of the car to see if you can find a difference.

 

[teehee]

Sometimes you just need another set of eyes....a buddy of mine looked at the spring and right away said that it was broken and missing 3 or 4 inches! I picked up another strut assembly today at a salvage yard and he was right! Swapped springs and
Everything is back to normal.

 

[JackC]

Wonderful, thanks for letting us know.

 

[teehee]

I think that if the spring was binding bad enough to make it jump off the strut, your steering would feel "wrong". Seems more likely that your spring is the wrong one, or your strut is the wrong one. Compare your parts to the other side of the car to see if you can find a difference.

Dan you were also correct in your suggestion that spring was wrong! Being broke definitely made it wrong! Thanks

 

[NickD]

Ha, reminds me of my kid's 2000 Taurus, front struts were bad, just wanted to replace the strut, but after taking it apart, springs were also bad, plus the upper and lower cushions. Would have been a lot cheaper if he just purchased the complete strut assemblies and a heck of a lot less work.

Also used foot long stabilizer links that were always breaking, can't you find a road surfaced like a bowling alley to drive on?