Using car without strut braces. Ok or not OK?

[wiganz4]

Been going thru some suspension refresh and final bit is strut braces clunking. Driving me crazy but after renewing nuts and torquing to spec it's still doing it. Removing them all together solves the issue so it's definitely them causing it.

Question is, is it ok to drive (and I drive carefully plus the car's a 2.0) without these on until I get hold of a pair to fit in hope to solve the issue?

 

[enuff_zed]

Been going thru some suspension refresh and final bit is strut braces clunking. Driving me crazy but after renewing nuts and torquing to spec it's still doing it. Removing them all together solves the issue so it's definitely them causing it.

Question is, is it ok to drive (and I drive carefully plus the car's a 2.0) without these on until I get hold of a pair to fit in hope to solve the issue?

The fact that they clunk when fitted should be telling you how much stress is being passed through them.
That’s a no from me.
Forget the torque to spec theory. Every chance your torque wrench isn’t accurate anyway.
Tighten them up as much as you can.

 

[colb]

They are structural to the car and need to be in place when driving the car, give them some more tightening till the noise is gone.

 

[Nick W]

I would go along the tighten em up and don't bin a structural part of the car route but also think maybe the rigidity they provide is enough to expose another problem such as worn bushes or loose nuts etc elsewhere down the line. Also it's not uncommon for the tops of shock towers to crack, enjoy the chase.

 

[wiganz4]

I would go along the tighten em up and don't bin a structural part of the car route but also think maybe the rigidity they provide is enough to expose another problem such as worn bushes or loose nuts etc elsewhere down the line. Also it's not uncommon for the tops of shock towers to crack, enjoy the chase.

Just had a look at the sway bar bushes. They aren't perished, and the handling seems fine but I can jerk them up and down slightly by hand so I'm presuming after new drop links being fitted it's taken any play out of the set-up and the noise is resonating thru the strut mount and into the hollow brace bars. Ordered some to fit next week. Probably should of done these at the same time as the drop links. Every day's a school day eh!

 

[enuff_zed]

Just had a look at the sway bar bushes. They aren't perished, and the handling seems fine but I can jerk them up and down slightly by hand so I'm presuming after new drop links being fitted it's taken any play out of the set-up and the noise is resonating thru the strut mount and into the hollow brace bars. Ordered some to fit next week. Probably should of done these at the same time as the drop links. Every day's a school day eh!

Assuming you have actually done the obvious and tightened the strut braces more?

 

[wiganz4]

Assuming you have actually done the obvious and tightened the strut braces more?

Oh yeah. New flange nuts and cleaned the contact surfaces. That's why I ruled it out that it was them at fault in the end. They're acting like amplifiers and also the shock goes thru them to hit the firewall. Hopefully this is the solution.......but ya never know with these things!

BTW you said there's a chance my torque wrench won't be accurate anyway. What makes you think that?

 

[brillomaster]

What are the apparent torque specs for a strut brace, out of interest? The size of the socket needed to do it up will also give a clue towards the torque.

Don't read too much into the inaccuracy of a torque wrench comment - even the most expensive wrenches won't be 100% accurate, all will be +/- 2% or something. To be 100% accurate it would have to calibrated every year.

 

[Rockhopper]

I just tightened mine as much as could manage with a sensible sized socket wrench. They need to be very tight. Ignore published torque figures.

 

[enuff_zed]

Oh yeah. New flange nuts and cleaned the contact surfaces. That's why I ruled it out that it was them at fault in the end. They're acting like amplifiers and also the shock goes thru them to hit the firewall. Hopefully this is the solution.......but ya never know with these things!

BTW you said there's a chance my torque wrench won't be accurate anyway. What makes you think that?

Have you ever had it calibrated?
We used to get our torque wrenches calibrated every three months but even then we would use a properly calibrated and mounted calibration gauge to check the setting we needed before we used it on an aircraft. The setting on the wrench was NEVER quite correct.
If you always store your torque wrench securely, not clattered around in a tool box, and you always wind the setting right back to zero when you’ve finished with it then you have maybe a 10% chance it’s fairly close to being accurate.

 

[Pondy]

Uncalibrated torque wrenches are just a bigger socket wrench IMO. Wild guess at best.

Mine has been smacked with a lump hammer several times, used and abused, and never calibrated (and it was cheap to begin with). I don't take much notice of any 'click' now.

 

[BMWZ4MC]

I always check the ambient temperature before trusting mine.

Regarding creaking strut braces - I used to crank the bolts as tight as I could, and they still worked loose. Now I use a torque wrench with the same outcome.

 

[wiganz4]

Have you ever had it calibrated?
We used to get our torque wrenches calibrated every three months but even then we would use a properly calibrated and mounted calibration gauge to check the setting we needed before we used it on an aircraft. The setting on the wrench was NEVER quite correct.
If you always store your torque wrench securely, not clattered around in a tool box, and you always wind the setting right back to zero when you’ve finished with it then you have maybe a 10% chance it’s fairly close to being accurate.

So you're stating there's hardly any torque wrenches in use that are accurate? Fascinating, although worrying at the same time.

Im no engineer but I'd say torque specs are really there to give a reasonable guide as to how much compression a fixing or component requires. I won't be worrying too much about absolute accuracy but if something is meant to be say 30nm, or 120nm I'll at least be in the right area.

I'll leave you to the aircrafts, I've enough headaches with this 21 year old banger!