[Seppo]

So i have been hearing this strut clunking for a while, today i finally went to the dealership to get it checked out. They told me i need to replace both rear struts . The car has only 15k miles on it all stock. How could this be? The mechanic gave some explanation that it has to do with the mounting. I had no idea WTF he was talking about. The good thing is that the warranty covers everything, but come on, 15k and the struts are going?

[SmoothSTi]

Oldest issue ever......... Search my friend, search

[VSGTS14]

it's a normal problem.

[holycow]

Working as intended.

[ravenwrx]

my struts were just replaced under warranty at 14,500!!!!!

[supermarkus]

This will likely never be fixed to our satisfaction, it's been reported since 1997-98.

[Seppo]

Well i searched, but i have a hard time categorizing it correctly. I am coming up with hundreds of threads that dont particularly relate to the subject matter. Can someone just please briefly explain what the major issue is? Why are they so unreliable? Thanks!

[supermarkus]

Nobody has ever produced proof that they don't actually function reliably or cause major problems, its just that they make noise at low speeds over uneven surfaces. You can actually get the noise to go away for a time by lubricating the strut or jacking the car up to extend the suspension fully which in effect redistributes the grease inside the strut body to temporarily silence the clunking.

[Seppo]

Originally Posted by supermarkus

Nobody has ever produced proof that they don't actually function reliably or cause major problems, its just that they make noise at low speeds over uneven surfaces. You can actually get the noise to go away for a time by lubricating the strut or jacking the car up to extend the suspension fully which in effect redistributes the grease inside the strut body to temporarily silence the clunking.

But why would the dealer tell me that they need to replace them then? Is that their way for making some money?

[supermarkus]

The dealer would tell you to replace them because they've probably dealt with noisy rear struts before and procedure is to swap the struts out. If it's replaced under warranty, they aren't making money on it. That should be a warranty issue. If you're just getting the clunking, you can do any of three things.

-get used to it and lube them yourself
-replace them with aftermarket
-MAKE Subaru replace them

This is a known issue to SOA and FHI, they have yet to engineer a fix for it. Personally, I know what to do to silence my struts, mine don't malfunction and are not blown...I couldn't care less about the noise for now.

[Seppo]

Originally Posted by supermarkus

The dealer would tell you to replace them because they've probably dealt with noisy rear struts before and procedure is to swap the struts out. If it's replaced under warranty, they aren't making money on it. That should be a warranty issue. If you're just getting the clunking, you can do any of three things.

-get used to it and lube them yourself
-replace them with aftermarket
-MAKE Subaru replace them

This is a known issue to SOA and FHI, they have yet to engineer a fix for it. Personally, I know what to do to silence my struts, mine don't malfunction and are not blown...I couldn't care less about the noise for now.

Great, thanks a lot for the info man. I think i am just going to replace under warranty right now cause i can.