Twisted Rear Strut - S4

[Temmck]

When removing the old donuts, I noticed the circlip was loose on the struts inboard bearing. I twisted the strut to give me clearance to install the clip. Now that the clip is back in place, I can't "untwist" the strut. I can't rotate it in either direction. I have tried to compress the spring but that didn't work. I tried to unbolt the strut at the top of the resilient mount but I can't get the cotter pin out. What is preventing this strut from turning?

[rgh0]

Its probably the spring binding on the seats. Try spraying some oil top and bottom to see if that helps. If not and you still cant turn the strut back to correct alignment then your going to need to release the cotter pin and top nut

cheers
Rohan

[Temmck]

Lots of oil sprayed top and bottom.

From the part diagram, it appears that the top of the strut is cylindrical going through a round hole in the resilient mounts. Why would it not turn? Does the top of the strut get stuck to the mount? Is there a way to break free the top of the strut from the resilient mount without loosening the nut or is the resilient mount sandwiched between the nut and the spring abutment?

I have heard that getting the castle nut off the top of the strut is very difficult and usually leads to damage of the top of the strut - it has to be held from turning by use of vice grips which damage the shaft. It seems like I'm heading down a rabbit hole.

[rgh0]

The strut is fixed at the top but should turn easily in the shock. At full droop it may be jamming, Try using spring compressors ( a couple of cheap racket straps will do it) to take the load off the assembly to see if it turns then

cheers
Rohan

[Temmck]

I tried using spring compressors but having thought about it a little more, I may not have compressed enough. I need to relieve the spring pressure on the lower land, especially at the end of the spring. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

[Temmck]

Success! I was able to jack up the strut while tightening the spring compressors. I had to use a cargo strap to limit the strut outer movement so that the strut didn't pop off the jack. Once I had full corner weight on the jack and both spring compressors tight, I lowered the jack. The top of the spring popped out of the upper spring abutment and I now had room to play.

What happened is that when I rotated the hub, the lower end of the spring rotated out of the spring end nook but became jammed in the lower abutment. It took some prying to free the spring from the lower abutment but once it was free it was easy to rotate everything back to its original position.

Lesson learned. Either refit the inner circlip from under the car or compress the spring before trying to rotate the hub.