JeTT 180QC

I've spent the weekend replacing my struts and shocks with a sent of Koni Sports. But more on that later. Three really big issues right now.

1. After replacing the driver's side strut and reassembling, the alignment on that side seems off. Front edge of tire slightly turned outward while passenger is straight. When I replaced the passenger's side, no issue at all. Any explanations? I thought maybe something pushed on the ball joint nuts and maybe rotated the wheel bearing housing, and with the tie rod unchanged, the front edge of wheel is pulled out. I was nowhere near the toe adjustment on the tie rod. I had something supporting the wheel bearing housing while removing the strut and it got wedged under there pretty good...that is why I'm thinking something shifted there. But is there enough play in the camber adjustment to result in a toe issue?

2. As a result of the issues above, I tried to loosen the ball joint nuts to see if I could twist the wheel bearing housing back, enough to get me to a shop for an alignment. While loosening a nut, the bolt sheared. I'm screwed on that one huh? The bolts are not replaceable, just the entire ball joint?

3. Not sure how big a deal this is, but there was no way I could get 60 Nm torque on the strut nut than holds the bushing/bearing to the piston, and 60 Nm on the top strut nut. The Koni Sports have that 11 mm socket to hold the piston, but I could not get much torque before thinking I was going to snap the head off the piston. How critical is the 60 Nm?

Rears were so easy compared to the fronts. The second front was sooo much easier than the first. But I'm not feeling to good about what I'm left with. HELP?

JeTT 180QC

That would be the closest shop I'd trust to resolve my issues.

revisiTTed

Don't even think about driving it that way. Flatbed it. AAA insurance =cheap, bent suspension isn't

ReflexGTI

You can drill out what is left of the bolt out of the nut and replace it with another bolt from the hardware store. The bolt size and thread pitch is a common metric size. Once replaced, you can drive to the repair shop.

TTschwing

You're basically pivoting off the tie rod end which is why the Toe changed. If you look carefully at the bottlom of the control arm you can likely see where the bolts were tightened before you took it apart. return to that position if you can. You can drive (carefully, and not far) with that one bolt snapped. Get the Ball joint(s) replace immediately as well as an alignment..

JeTT 180QC

Thanks...had it towed to the service shop

JeTT 180QC

Ended up taking it to the shop as it was...we'll see what options they come up with

TTschwing

Options? New Ball joints and an alignment. Simple...

JeTT 180QC

But once all reassembled I would have thought the strut would force everything back in position. But maybe if wheel bearing assembly rotated enough, I got stuck on something in the CV joint? Maybe if I removed the strut again and tried to reinsert with hub straighter it might have fixed itself?

Oh well, shearingthe ball joint bolt was what make me call it quits. I had it towed based on comment below. Shop will fix whatever I did...hopefully.

There certainly is a learning curve on these things. First strut took 5 hours. Second took 1 hour. The first strut is where all my damage was done.

TTschwing

The entire hub is pivoting on the strut mount at the top and the tie rod end. Had you not loosened the ball joints it would have gone right back where it was..