['88 90Q] Front strut mount is FUBAR

[James Wagner]

<Brian O' said:>

nothing broke, just the rubber on the upper strut bearing bad, probably
happened about 195,000 miles ago. the only thing that does hold the shock
ass. in is the upper washer, that should have a hard plastic ring around the
edge, but yours is probably gone by now !!! thats probably not your wobble
either !! they just make clucking noises over bumps. wobble is probably
control arm bushings or bad cv joint, grease em and replaced boots lately ??
there is a tool for the shocks, any foreign parts place or any tool shop
should have it, its pretty cool, i suffered many of em before i found out
about it !!!!  the upper washer will be tight to the shock and the car when
its new, but about 3-4 weeks later it will be loose again, maybe longer in
your 5 cly. car.

<snip>


Actually, the plastic rings on both sides still exist.  It's good to know
something is going right with this money-pit of a car.

I figured this was the source of my wobble because when I jacked up the car
and grabbed the wheel horizontally, the play from the upper mount looseness
was all I could see.  I originally thought it was a bad ball joint - it
feels just like my girlfriend's Oldsmobooble did when hers went bad.

At low speeds (i.e. 1 mph) it feels like one of the tires is out-of-round,
as you can feel each wheel rotation through steering wheel deflection.  The
tires, while really crappy, are not out of round (I swapped fronts for rears
to check), so I reckoned it was the strut mount or ball joint allowing the
wheel to flop around.

If it's the control arm bushings I think I'm just going to ditch the car.
It's been fantastic, but I'm having to pour hundreds into it every couple of
months for each new problem (exhaust, timing belt, lifters, fuel injectors,
rear toe links, brakes all 'round, etc.).