You originally posted this in the STi Powerplant forum so can we assume you are talking about factory struts on an '04 STi? Were both front and rear replaced?

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0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

 

Sorry, I missed it in the title somehow. This is the first I've heard of a possible problem with the rear struts but I'll defer to your fellow STi owners for better feedback.

What were the symptoms that they were going bad, by the way?

--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

 

Very common problem. Many STi folks are seeing this happen. Clunking in the rear struts as early as 5K miles. I have 6K and mine are doing it too. I don't know if I trust my local dealer to fix this. They may not be able to "reproduce the problem". It is definitely annoying though.

 

Good reason to upgrade to coilovers

 

I wonder if this happens with v.7 or v.6 'take-offs' installed on other Imprezas. Sounds like SOA has to come up with a fix to avoid spending a bunch of money on replacements.

--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

 

I think it is just the strut design they are using on the MY04+, but don't quote me.

 

Already in process, but who's going to buy my take-offs if they clunk?

 

Find some Forester club member, im sure even with a clunk they will want it! (seriously)

 

Lest we stray from the true topic here... the real issue is that we bought a $32K race car with a defective suspension. I have heard from over a dozen STi owners with the same issue. I wouldn't be surprised if a TSB is issued on this. It's so bad that when folks are going in to have the warranty work done, they are finding the struts are on back order because of all of the warranty claims.

 

Man, this was easy!
I was trying to figure out how I was going to search this forum for "wierd clunking noise coming from left rear strut" and then preparing myself to sort through all the chaff I got.
Never mind!

I also am experiencing this problem, especially noticible at lower speed. Even taking things out of the trunk today an audible "thunk-thunk" could be heard as the load was lightened.

So for ppl who've taken the car to the dealer for this how are they responding? Am I looking at an uphill battle if I go in now? It sounds like alot of others have experienced this too, so does anyone know if a TSB has been issued yet?

And pressing my luck on another topic, has SOA ever agreed to fix the "gum" rubber steering bushings that cause my steering wheel to constantly tilted to the right? Not that I'm too cheap to spend the $24 to get urethane bushings, but the point, as stated, is this is a $32 large performance car that shouldn't suffer these problems.

 

Stupid nasioc is down now or I would have simply cut and paste the directions to fix the clunking. I think it's on Page 4 of the link below. A few folks from the STi board have tried it and it seems to work (I don't know for how long though). Of course you'll have to click the link whenever they decide to get nasioc up again :

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...hreadid=520870

 

14,000 miles... changed mine-
under warranty of course
have the same struts in my wagon and i am hearing the same noise
in there too- warranty won't cover that though... grrrr



aloha from the summit of Mauna Kea