I was under the truck doing some PM today and saw that my passenger front strut is contacting the upper A-arm at full droop. It's rubbing the aluminum can pretty good.

I'm not sure what the actual cause of this is; it's an original strut with 130K miles on it, so it's pretty tired (I have a new Arrnot waiting to go in). I checked the droop and found that at max extension I have 65.5mm from center of hub to wheel arch on passenger (the side that hits) and only 63mm on driver's side. Not sure why, unless the strut's internal bump-stop has compressed over time?

 

Don, the theory developed amongst many of us is that your last sentence is exactly the case, and when the struts wear out, the failure mechanism is to no longer limit droop and thus cause contact between the control arm and the air cannister. The WEIRD thing is that it seems to always be the passenger side first!

If not addressed in time, that control arm will go through the cannister and rupture the air bag. Then it's a bad day. In some cases (like mine) the swaybar end link can break...then all sorts of fun things happen. Cross-articulation faults and such.

My suggestion is to change it out.

 

No question that strut has been hammered in the past. I've also broken that side's sway bar link, and it's actually bent a little at full droop now. I have a spare on-hand, and a strut as well, just need to get around to changing it out.

If I hadn't been so lazy and basicaly spent all Saturday on the sofa I could have done it last weekend. Instead I didn't start tinkering with the truck until Sunday. I'm actually home the next two nights instead of traveling but I have some other work to do on the rig before I get to the strut. Luckily this coming weekend's trip will be very tame. I may go ahead and throw the new strut in the back 'just in case' though. Wouldn't be the first time I've done a field replacement.

 

I think you'd be much better off doing it before you go. Sure, you can repair it in the field, but will you do so before you get sent to bumpstops and your large tires tear up your height sensor wires? Been there, done that...it sucks.

 

Looks like my weekend trip may be cancelled anyway - just heard from the guy running it and his wife hurt a knee and can't make it and I was going to be late getting there myself due to meetings on Friday. So maybe I'll get the strut changed out this weekend after all.