Strut-in along

[Caretaker]

I noticed that the rear hatch struts are not opening all the way, causing me to hit my head occasionally when I'm not paying attention. I'm going to try squirting some junk down into the cylinder to see if that does anything.
More importantly, I've noticed that my car seems to be getting a tad floaty lately (115,000 miles). I love the Avalon-like ride, but am wondering what other second gen owners have to say about this. Is this an early indication that my front struts are going bad or is my Vibe just lovin' the fact that it will live in warm weather until the day it dies ? The front struts properly holds the car when going over speed bumps and it also passes the push-on-the-hood test. Any of you have to replace your front struts at only 9 years and 115,000 miles? It is very possible that the floaty feel is from the Pirelli P7 Plus tires which are quite soft and make for a perfectly quiet ride. No signs of cupping or unusual wear whatsoever.

[joatmon]

Hmm.... floaty car, and legal pot in CA. Correlation or causation?

j/k, have a 1st gen, so can't really say, although I've owned 2 high mileage '03 vibes and a high mileage 03 matrix, and have yet to do struts on any of them. But yours put more miles on DC roads than mine.

[jolt]

The rear hatch struts are gas charged. They have properly lost some gas over the years so the hatch does not stay open as far as it use too. You may need the replace them.

The front struts are also gas charged. All struts degrade over time. The change is so gradual that most people do not notice. Strut manufactures use to say any thing over 60,000 miles or 5 years has degraded. The springs also degrade. If you check the ride height of the car, it does not have the ground clearance it had when new.

The soft floater type of ride does not mean a safe controlled ride. I change struts in our mini van after 125,000 miles and it was a night and day difference in ride and handling. I also found a bad ball joint and tie rod end too. Non of the washed out, floppy road handling after that. It was back like new again as you could set back and let the car drive. You did not have to be up on the steering wheel following every dip in the road. It gave my wife so much confidence in the handling that she rear ended another car and totaled the van out. Handling great does not equate to shorter stopping distances on icy roads. That is the difference that new struts can make. I hope you do not have the same results.

[Caretaker]

Thanks for that. Wouldn't I notice a bit of a bounce or a less than quick rebounding of the nose of the car if the struts were beginning to fail? When I go over speed bumps, the car quickly returns to level just like it always has. And since I am not rotating my tires for the next 17 months, I (so far) have not noticed any unusual wear, or road noise. I would think failing struts would tear my tires apart or make them sound like BF Goodrich tires at a minimum.

[jolt]

The old bounce test was good for shocks but does not work so well for struts. If the strut is totally shot and junk, then the bounce test would work. It is more about the nose dive under braking or the amount of body roll when cornering. With struts there can be a long time between being good, degrading, and being junk. Strut manufactures change the valving so that different brands of struts can ride and feel quit different. Typically Monero struts ride smoother, softer, while KYB struts are stiffer, and harder riding. Another part of the ride equation is the tires. The more side wall on the tire, the smoother the ride will be because of the flex in the side wall. An old bias ply tire will ride rider then an radial ply tire. Tire construction and air pressure effects the ride and handling too. If you have no problems with what you have then don't worry about it. Life is to short, so make the best of it and be happy.

[Caretaker]

...he, he.... I have to. I have lifetime XM so I'm stuck with the car for life. I also had to pay $2000 just to have my engine removed for a stinkin' oil leak at the timing chain cover. While I am concerned about my oil consumption and how it might wreck my catalytic converter, the car will have to spontaneously combust for me to get rid of it.