Sunfire strut assembly replacment

[woody79]

Well I finally got around to replacing the broken strut assembly on our '02 Sunfire this weekend. The car had been making an odd metal clunking sound for a little while now. I jacked the drivers side up and found that the spring had actually broken in half

This is what it looked like after I wrestled for an hour getting the bottom mounting bolts off the assembly This is the original strut. Not bad considering it had 196k miles on it

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View attachment 18954

Old v's new:

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I got 2 struts from rockauto, only got ot install one though. I really need to read directions when installing stuff .... I set the wrong torque when tightening the top mounting bolts and sheared one completely off the strut .... opps I tightened the top mounting bolt to 33lbs when it was supposed to be 18lbs. First time using a torque wrench. Won't make that mistake again.

 

[kardain]

I've been around the cavalier/sunfire scene for the last 9 years. That's the first time I've seen a spring break like that..