olvanish

Today I was on the way to work enjoying the ride to work and everything seemed normal with my Stang. No noises that were not there before or anything. While parking I had to turn the wheels all the way to the left in order to back in and while I was doing that the car was still in motion and that's when I heard a loud metal to metal noise that almost sounded like I hit something heavy. After having replaced my front bumper 2 weeks ago I said "goddammit, some idiot left something in the middle of the parking structure and I must've missed it". Surprisingly as I backed up into the parking stall I didn't see anything in front of the car, but it did feel weird backing up. Then I realized it wasn't anything outside the car-- something must've broken. I got out and saw my front left tire at a 75 degree angle instead of 90 so I thought maybe the ball joint popped, but because I was moving at a slow speed it didnt tilt like it does in other cases. Upon inspecting the ball joint and the tie rod end I realized it wasn't the problem so I popped the hood and looked at the strut mount which looked normal. I then felt the strut main shaft at the top and it came out. Turns out it broke in half right where the bottom portion of the strut mount bushing is. I went to work, but spend a good amount of time thinking about how I'll be getting the car towed and how I'll get the parts in a timely manner, but I also thought about what causes it to break. As you can see from my mods the car is lowered and I also have the adjustable strut mounts which I moved all the way towards the outer part of the car to get rid of negative camber and I think that might have something to do with it. I guess I need to figure out a way to move the upper part of the spindle that the strut attaches to in SOME direction (not sure which one because by inspecting the strut main shaft I can't tell which way it was pushed, if that's the case) to prevent this from happening in the future. Any suspension gurus out there can point me in the right direction? Or is there any other cause why this might've happened?
P.S. the new strut is already on the way. Can provide pictures of the broken part at the top if needed, the strut itself is still on the car till the new one comes in.

olvanish

Took some pics of the upper part just now

SpartaPerformance

I've seen that happen in various vehicles brands OEM and aftermarket units. **** just happens, could be anything from over tightening, rough roads etc...

BTW those aren't strut rods they're strut main shafts, strut rod is totally different suspension part. Post tile confused me at first. LOL

olvanish

Yeah I only realized that after I posted this and I don't think the title can be changed lol I'm just trying to figure out if this can be prevented in the future. As far as tightening I did everything up to the specs. One thing I have to mention about the brand though is that 5 months ago my FRPP coil spring collapsed (1 side 1 inch lower than other) so I replaced both front springs with Steedas and now guess what brand strut failed on me on the other side? lol Might be a coincidence, but I picked a different brand for the replacement anyway.

parchisi

Not related to the strut shaft, but why did you move the tops all the way out for the least amount of camber possible? Why not just get an alignment done to specs to get the best tire wear and decent handling?

olvanish

Because after lowering the car it was at about -2.5 so I did that to decrease it to -1.0 because according to the shop -2.5 is too much to be fixed by an alignment only.

olvanish

Bump. Any ideas besides rough roads and overtightening? I got the new part in and have to install it in a few days....