Hi guys I need some quick help if possible. Put new struts on a few weeks ago. Dropping the truck off at the shop for an alignment now. The strut nut is squeaking a bit. Super annoying does it on every bump. I can make it stop for a bit by turning it. So its barely too loose.

The shop claims they would have to remove the strut, compress, then tighten. I'm pretty sure if they just put the tool on there and gave it a quick snug it would stop the squeak without removing the strut.

So the question is can you tighten the strut nut a bit without compressing the shock? I mean the weight of the truck is compressing it some as is. There is a hole in the top of the stut mount that looks designed for tightening without removing. I think the shop just wants more money to take it apart.

 

I had the same problem 2 years ago. I would get a noise every time I went over a bump. It turns out I hadn't fully tightened the nut on the passenger side strut assembly. I reached under and was able to tighten it with a wrench, problem fixed. Not 100% sure about the driver side.

 

Sweet thanks! The driver side is even easier to reach than the passenger. Its wide open to the hole on the strut from the engine bay or you can go in around the tire. So as long as it can be tightened while on the vehicle which it sounds like it can I'm good to go.

 

They wont align it claim that i need upper control amrs with joints, lower ball joints, and outer tie rods. They want $1600 to do it. $301 on Rockauto to do it myself with all Moog grease able.

For the upper control arm do most of you guys go with the ck20006 Moog over the RK620006? About half the price greaseable vs non?

 

I used the CK620006 last year and the fit/quality seemed fine. The uppers literally take 15 20 minutes a side. If you plan on doing the lowers, you may want to make sure you have or can get replacement Lower Control Arm bolts. There are several posts and horror stories on the forum and from my experience they are all true!

 

On the lower they didn't say anything about the lower control arm just changing the ball joint. So I was planning on grabbing the Moog CK upper arms, Moog lower ball, Moog outer tie rods, and Moog stabilizer ends.

Plus the lower controls are expensive so if I can get away with it I'd rather drop 350 instead of 600.

Was hoping to get it all on Amazon today and install saturday but they don't have the upper arms with Prime so I can get everything but the upper arms by friday.

 

Installed everything in Moog. Front end feels 100 times better. Truck feels solid and new. Took 2 hours on the passenger side and 1 hour on the driver side. Hilarious the tire shop wanted $1600.

 

Glad to know you had a "good" experience with the replacements. I think I want to do this to my front suspension as well and add a front level kit at the same time.

 

Definitely do it all at once. I've had it apart 3 times now in the last year.

First time I did a leveling kit front and back. Took like 6 hours because I couldn't get it back together.

2nd time decided to add struts and front brakes, and was like I should do the front end but dont know what it needs so I didn't do it. Took 4-5 hrs.

3rd I go to align right after doing struts and they say they couldn't so I tear it apart again and do the front end. Took 3 hours

I get better and faster each time but if if I could go back I would have done it all at once.

 

Man for that cost I wouldn't be able to stomach paying that. Good thing you did it. Since alot of parts can come off easy once you are in there, I just took the entire front end back in time to how it was. I paid a mechanic $900 just to put 2 struts and 2 tie rods in and I thought THAT was a rip off. So when I decided to renovate my front end on a 2006 Raider 4 wheel drive, there was no way I was going to pay someone. I do not have a problem doing the labor. It's just finding the time. And I have a 2 week reprieve from work and I installed everything as follows:
2 Moog Wheel Bearings - the higher priced ones but got them both for $175
2 Moog Lower Control Arms - both open box and paid $100 for both off Ebay. They had no grease fittings so I paid another $60 for 2 problem solver ball joints from Advance Auto and they let me buy and return the press
2 Moog Outer Tie rods both for $46 from Amazon
2 Monroe Quick Struts for $226 shipped but got $30 back on a rebate on Amazon
2 Moog Sway bar links for $40 after discounts at Advance Auto
2 CV Axles from Advance Auto. After discount paid only $90

Had to buy new lower Strut bolts, 6 wheel bearing to knuckle bolts and paid a total of $60 shipped from a dealer. So all parts came to $767 I believe. But if you look at all those parts in the list, a mechanic would turn that into about $3500. They are already removing some of these parts to do jobs like hub bearings or even CV axles so while in there, the removal of an outer tie rod is just 18 rotations, strut is 3 nuts and one long bolt, CV axle just falls out practically, the sway bar links are 2 nuts, lower control arm is 2 bolts, and all these things come right off most times and the knuckle ties alot of it together. I was able to install all those parts in 1 hour per side, torqued top spec. I did manage to use days earlier to take it apart but I really didn't kill myself doing it. I couldn't have spent more than 2-3 hours to jack it up and things apart. I bet I spent more time searching for the parts.. I was waiting for the parts anyway. I have a brand new front suspension and steering is like the day it was new. Absolutely worth doing. The lower strut bolt was the only difficulty but since I was changing the lower control arms and struts, it just made sense to remove the strut and control arm together and get a new bolt. On a good ending note, I was able to get those bolts out, press new $10 ball joints in the 2 stock control arms and sell them for $100 as a pair. I also compressed the factory springs and put $50 into a new pair of struts and sold them for $125. Gotta love the internet.