Recently purchased 2000 dodge stratus and will be replacing the front struts. I've gone to autozone and oreilly and many online vendors and all the vendors only have a "strut mount kit" which actually consists of washers and bushings minus the actual strut mount in the picture. Some photos are a little more honest and just show the bushings.

I really want to replace the bearings and bearing plate, but noone sells these and I am wondering if my car is engineered differently than what I have in mind. The Haynes manual is incredibly undetailed as it dedicates 3 pages mostly to the removal of parts just to get to the strut.

If you have any information as to where I could purchase an actual strut mount w/ bearing I would be very grateful.
Thanks.

 

They are coil over shocks, not struts. You'll only need to replace the shock cartridge and reuse the coil spring.

Take a look at Rockauto.com for the bearing hub assembly and shocks.

 

exactly... there is no strut mount because the front doesn't use a strut! a strut replaces the upper control arm. your car has a n upper control arm so it doesn't have a strut it has a shock!

 

Yeah, I'm lookin at the Haynes and that seems to be the case. Nobody seems to carry shocks for this car though. Not autozone, not rockauto.com... when I enter the year, make, model, the only compatible parts that are displayed are struts.

The previous owner had the car inspected and the printout read that the struts needed to be replaced. The part numbers listed confirm that the word strut wasn't generalized to mean anything that functions like a strut, but they are actual struts. These same parts are reccomended on rockauto.

The part numbers are monroe struts 71311 and 71565. These are said to be compatible by about a dozen different sites and a few brick and mortar stores.

I'm hoping when I get in there I'll have everything I need.

 

because people have gotten so use to 'generic' terminology and really don't care what the correct term actually is.

so call it a strut or call it a shock, it is what it is, just get what ever parts are available and you'll probably be ok with that purchase.

they call the rear shocks struts also.

 

If you look at a Stratus coil over shock sitting on a counter, it would also be called a strut. The difference between struts & coil over shocks if defined by the suspension system they are used in. If a car can be driven without it, then it's a shock but if the vehicle needs it to drive, then it's a strut.

On a stratus, the correct name would be a coil over shock. On my 280Z, the same looking coil over shock is a strut.

 

[quote=sapporo;2272194]because people have gotten so use to 'generic' terminology and really don't care what the correct term actually is.

so call it a strut or call it a shock, it is what it is, just get what ever parts are available and you'll probably be ok with that purchase.

they call the rear shocks struts also. It is a strut. Look up the difference.

 

NO no no....it is a strut. I have a 2000 Stratus and just ordered 2 front and 2 rear "Struts", as well as 4 strut mounting kits.

 

I replaced the shocks and/or struts and there is no bearing plate. no bearing at all. Haynes manuals don't include much about what a car isn't so that was frustrating. The strut mounts are just bushings and washers which really do need to be replaced. Mine were ground to dust. I should've replaced the sleeve and bumper stop but I leftem alone.

This was done to "fix", heh, my suspension problems. Turned out my motor mounts were pretty bad so i replaced those too. One of them took 2 weeks to replace due to the fact that a friend of mine had to build some hardware to get the front motor mount bushing into the bracket. Hammers, files, vices, clamps, nothing seemed to work. In the end we welded it after joining them to make sure it wouldn't come back apart. Had a bucket of water ready to dump it in to keep it from damaging the rubber.

Much better now. Still, it sounds like the bump stop is hitting on the front passenger side after a decent bump. Can't figure out why. Better though.