Suspension

Soldato
Joined
8 Mar 2006
Posts
13,300
Location
Near Winchester
You will usually feel it when they need replacing, certainly did on my old Uno, it's like there's lots of inertial friction and some stretch in the steering. Or is that just me squeezing the last few miles out of every component on the car?
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
29,093
Location
Ottakring, Vienna.
Yep definitely rough. A top mount is usually a big rubber donut with a bearing in the bottom of it. When you turn the steering wheel the struts rotate - the bottom part is taken care of by the balljoint on the wishbone, the top needs to rotate too and that's where the top mount comes into it.

When they wear you can either feel them rumbling/grinding or sometimes they are so bad that the whole rubber donut tries to turn instead giving you a juddering sensation.

They aren't very expensive :)
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Mar 2006
Posts
13,300
Location
Near Winchester
Should be noted that this only applies to McPhearson strut and similar front suspension set-ups. The top mounts on double wishbones (if they can be called top mounts) usually just hold the spring and damper.

Another interesting thing is that when you see an oval shaped strut top like here (oval is the hole and lower half of the bush), it usually means the car is designed to be sold with and without power steering and the caster angle is changed by just bolting the bush on the other way round.
 
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