petrock

Took the girly's stang in for a new set of tires today and the mechanic who installed them put a note on the order form that the drivers side strut mount was bad/damaged. The mechanic wasn't at the shop at the time I picked it up, and the guy I talked to didn't know any more info. When I took a look under the hood the mount appears to be fine. No cracks or dents or anything. Doesn't move when I bounce the front end or anything like that. Are there any specific things I can check to tell whats wrong and if it really does need to be replaced? The cars got 135k miles on it.

Thanks in advance.

JKs95stang

Is the strut leaking?

945LSTANG

are the struts a little loose? are they making noise? where did you take the car?

im having a little trouble believing they are bad. i've never really heard of people having issues with them.

RyansQuick6

The lower part of the mount is a rubber isolator, so it could go bad over time. It's pretty easy to replace. I'd replace it myself and then have the car aligned.

petrock

No, the strut itself is fine. Its the strut mount the guy mentioned. The part that goes up into the engine bay.


The struts appear to be solid. I can't wiggle them by hand. I don't hear any knocks or anything when braking hard or bouncing the front end. Took the car to a local Wheel Works for the tires.


Cool. Thanks for the tip. Can I see the isolator your referring to without taking the strut off the car? With a hand/dental mirror and a flash light maybe? Its all black plastic stuff up there when I look from the wheel well.
I did a little research online and in the factory service manual and the mounts do seem fairly simple to replace, but (as always) money is tight. So I don't want to replace them if I don't have to.

Thanks for the info...

RyansQuick6

It's hard to see because it's under the mount and above the strut, it's literally just a couple bolts to remove it, shouldn't take more than an hour. You can even leave the metal part of the mount attached to the car when you change the isolator

petrock

Yeah, removing the strut is fairly simple. But don't you have to get the front end aligned after removing/re-installing the strut on mustangs? or are you saying just remove the top bolt on the strut and compress the strut down out of the way so I can see the isolator? Would that also require a re-alignment? Thanks for the help.

RyansQuick6

I'm saying get an alignment because it's going to need one anyway if the mount has finally gone bad.

945LSTANG

if its not loose and its not making noise i don't see how its bad.