94 850 replaced sping seat, now squeaks when turning?

[dear1700]

I replaced the struts, strut mounts and upper spring seats on my 850 the other day, but when you turn the wheel I get a squeak. How tight in the center mounting nut suppose to be? Should it be tightened with weight on the front or without?

The squeak is just when turning to the right or left( i.e. like manuevering in a parking lot). and I think its from the BIG washer on the top of the strut rubbing. I got that nut "pretty" tight and was wondering how tight it needs to be.

Thanks!

[Ozark Lee]

Welcome to MVS,

The Cross shaped nuts should be tightened down while the springs are under compression. I don't have anything that will mate up with my torque wrench so I just torqued them via the German method, Gutandtight. The top nut is also difficult to torque to a specification since the strut needs to be held in place with either an Allen wrench or a Torx so the same method applies.

What brand of strut bearings did you use? If you bought aftermarkets like Scan Tech they were likely bad out of the box. The large inverted castle washer really shouldn't be touching anything so it is difficult to see how it would be causing any noise.

...Lee

[FCPEURO]

+1

Sounds like you tightened them while the car was still up on the jack stands. Loosen the nut back up, raise the car back up and then lower it back to the ground so that the suspension rear seats itself, then tighten the nut back down. This should get rid of that annoying sound.