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Rear strut tower rust repair?


Lysander
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Was working on a friend's exhaust last night (1995 Monte Carlo) and discovered a big problem. What he thought was a noisy strut turned out to be the sheet metal at the top of the strut tower tearing away around the strut mount. The body has rusted and separated around the outside of the strut mount, and a crack is working it's way inboard to complete the job.

 

Has anyone fixed this type of problem on a w-body? Would swapping to a monoleaf rear suspension help? Do they make patch kits similar to those available for Chrysler minivans?

 

Many thanks,

 

Justin

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LOL! That's what I said. It seems that the car is a crappy wrapper for a nice drivetrain at the moment, it has a low mileage supercharged V6 in it with a good transmission and suspension. It may be time to buy a rust-free shell with a blown motor and swap everything over.

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Get another car with a blown motor and swap it, or just junk it. Seriously, that's not worth fixing. You couldn't go with a monoleaf as the strut tower will still take some force from the shock itself.

 

However, I do want to see some pictures of the damage.

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Get another car with a blown motor and swap it, or just junk it. Seriously, that's not worth fixing. You couldn't go with a monoleaf as the strut tower will still take some force from the shock itself.

 

However, I do want to see some pictures of the damage.

 

 

since when do our cars have shocks?

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Get another car with a blown motor and swap it, or just junk it. Seriously, that's not worth fixing. You couldn't go with a monoleaf as the strut tower will still take some force from the shock itself.

 

However, I do want to see some pictures of the damage.

 

 

since when do our cars have shocks?

 

In the Suzuki world at least anything with a spring around it is a strut - and anything without is a shock.

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I think the cammed L67 / 4T65e-HD we swapped into this car might end up in his Fiero, or maybe another Monte I don't know. I'll post back when he gets an estimate on the repair.

 

If it were mine I'd have a junkyard torch out the top of a good strut tower, about 8" tall, hammer it up into the rotted tower, and bolt / weld it in. That way the patch would be captured by the tapering sheet metal and the welds / fasteners wouldn't have to be as robust.

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my best friends 95 lumina did the same thing as that but i think the crack spread down the tower also. MY 94 olds never did that :eek: I am hoping i dont have that kind of problem on my 2000 lumina. I wouldnt put much work into that. Also check the rear trailing arm body mounts which are also extremely common in that year and others

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  • 2 years later...

Any updates from the OP? I have the same problem on my 1999 Lumina 4 door. Murhpy's law that I just redid the head gaskets and lim, and installed a car stereo. Runs great and I sure would like to keep it for many more years.

 

I scoured the internet during my lunch break and haven't found any evidence that anyone has ever fixed this problem.

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Just battled this with my white Lumina. 97, 177k. was getting bad. Before it got undriveable I traded it in, got $2k for it. As much as I hated to part with it, I still have 2 that are rot free.

 

And while I hate to say this, it's true. It's just a Lumina. So in the realm of things, trying to fix it would just be putting good money after bad, these are worth $1500 tops, rust or no rust.

 

Drive it until it breaks through, or swap the drivetrain, or sell/trade now while you can. That's my suggestion.

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Probably no new news. Their really isn't an option to fix, short of aformentioned custom patch panels and whatnot, which really REALLY isn't worth the time and effort for most as their car is either a DD or beater.

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