Replacing my car's struts, need advice

A

aScotiA

Veteran XX
**PROBLEM SOLVED, NO NEED TO REPLY, JUST BUMPING TO UPDATE & THANK**

So my left side strut was completely blown up. I did that one on Friday and it seems OK. I'm working on the right side today, I've got it all apart, and the old strut doesn't seem to be too bad. There are a couple rust spots on the spring retainers, and the paint is peeling and chipped pretty bad in some spots, but the actual piston has MORE resistance than the new part when I push down on the fully extended piston rams. Only the boot and bumper at the top of the piston seemed to be damaged (I hit a speed bump going way too fast, it popped out in front of me I swear). When the pistons are fully retracted, the new part's piston goes up much quicker at the beginning, but they top out within seconds of each other.

The car is a '96 Maxima, and I wouldn't be surprised if these were the original struts. If I were rich, I'd just pop the new part in. But if I can save $100, that is a tempting choice. I'll be replacing the bumper and boot no matter which part I put in, so this effort hasn't been all for naught.

TW car experts, what's your advice?
 
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You are a fucking idiot if you dont replace both sides at the same time.

Its just the way things are done.
 
Point noted, I'll take a couple other responses. If I were looking at this from a 3rd person perspective, I'd probably say the same thing.
 
Sigh.. the sun setting at 4:30 is totally gay. Time to set up the work lights, I got at least another hour to put this shit back together.
 
I used to be a suspension and alignment tech waaaay back in the day

do them both and have your alignment done
 
The reason for doing both is to minimise uneven wear patterns.

If you put a new one in one side, and leave the old in the other ... the new one will compensate to a degree for the older one leading to accelerated wear on the new one.

Do both, and get a wheel alignment.
 
id do it
youll notice it still feels weird with two diff struts even if you replaced the only bad one

alignment is often unnecessary but its piece of mind for you
just make sure you arent gonna be replacing any other suspension part first
 
So the new strut is in, and the car is riding very well. I plan to get an alignment and balance tomorrow even though the car coasts very straight, but I assume the camber is probably off like someone else mentioned. It's probably been 8 or 9 months since I last got the wheels aligned anyhow.

I realized that I forgot to put in the 2 cent gasket between the upper strut mounting bracket and the body of the car right after I finished torquing the strut-to-knuckle bolts. It had been a pain in the ass to work the strut assembly back into the wheel well, and I really didn't want to pull it all back out. I battled in my mind whether or not I should put the gasket back, or just forget about it. Fortunately, I had the idea to take off the upper mounting nuts, and to push down on the A-frame assembly to try to shimmy the gasket in there between pushes. To my relief, it worked, and everything is A-OK. I had a feeling that leaving that gasket out might come back to bite me in the ass if the strut rusted to the body. A job worth doing is a job worth doing right ;)

Thanks for the help doods. I'm glad I did both.
 
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