My daughter took her 2006 Camry to a local shop for front strut replacement (100,000 miles), now there is a rattle thumping sound. She took it to another local shop for oil change and asked them to look at the struts, they said they were not installed properly, does anyone know if this is possible, and can it cause noise? She took the car back to the people that installed them, and was told there is only one way to install, and they are correct; any ideas?

 

Is the noise from the front of the car?

Was the strut and spring replaced as a unit such as using a Monroe Quick-Strut or the strut and any worn parts? This makes a difference in proceeding.

Can a strut assy be installed wrong, yes.

If only the strut was replaced, it is possible the upper strut mount was not properly mated to the strut rod when the strut nut was tightened. The coil insulators or rod bumper could have been left off, upper strut mount not oriented correctly when attached to chassis.

If the complete strut assy was replaced ditto on the upper strut mount not being oriented.

Plus of course to replace the strut requires unbolting various parts.

Suggest you again talk to the second local shop and have them explain why the strut is not installed even you need to pay for this info. Perhaps pictures can be taken and posted here.

Normally if someone was posting about a rattle thumping sound as say when going over bumps, pot holes, etc would state the upper strut mounts are worn or bad sway bar bushings. Given the suspension work done would state there is a problem with the strut replacement regardless of what the shop doing the work states.

 

Thanks for the information; attached are some pictures

 

Can't state for sure.

There are two photos showing what is the upper strut mount bolted to the chassis. The upper mount is the black colored part, it is held to the chassis by the three exposed nuts equally spaced around it.

The upper mount consists of a large rubber material grommet with a steel bushing in the center contained by the black metal part having a larger hole. The strut rod extends through the bushing in the rubber grommet and black metal mount. The rod is retained to the bushing in "rubber" grommet by the large nut visible in the photo.

The mount being "rubber" is free to move around slightly as the suspension moves.

Looking at the photos the end of the strut rod and large nut do not appear to be centered in the hole in black mount as they should be. Both seem to even be contacting the black mount. If this is correct then as the suspension moves, the large nut will contact the black metal mount and make noise.

Look closely, the nut and end of rod should be centered in the hole in the black mount. If not it is possible the upper strut mount was not indexed properly. Indexed as in rotated to be correctly aligned with the frame. The mount can be rotated 120 degrees in either direction and still bolt to the chassis however there is only one correct orientation. When oriented correctly the upper part of the rod and nut will be centered in the hole in the black mount.

You might be able to make the strut noise by having a few people push down on the side of the car to get the suspension moving up and down. You can then watch the upper part of the mount and see and listen if the large nut is hitting the black mount.

If the is problem the strut is installed wrong. The fix may be easier then a complete removal. The 3 nuts need to be unbolted then the upper mount rotated to the correct position.

The above assume the photos are not causing some optical illusion etc and the nut really is centered in the black mount.

Take a photo of the upper mount with camera pointed directly down at mount to show if the nut is centered in the hole in the black portion of the mount.

 

I agree with Joey, those first two pics don't look right with the nut being off centered like that.