GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hi everyone,

This past weekend I replaced my front and rear struts! I've never done anything like this before and it went very slow, but wasn't too bad!

I did have one question though regarding the rear strut bellow. I've attached a few pictures for clarification.

On the first picture you can see the bellow lined up correctly with the strut housing, but as soon as pressure is applied, because the base isn't wide enough the bellow bends inwards as it compresses.

My question... any idea if this is a concern? I'm afraid of it wearing away after rubbing against the strut bar and damaging or hurting performance to parts around it such as the bumper or strut itself. I know on the fronts one was blown and the rubber bellow (this rear one is more of a plastic) jammed itself into the bumper.

As an fyi, I'm still using the upper spring insulator which has a rubber housing that extends down to cover the strut bar(or like 90% of it) and the old strut bar looked pretty clean.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

Also have a front strut replacement question.

Do my new strut mounts need grease inside them?

My old ones were OEM and don't look sealed from the bearings. They had grease around the nut that attaches to the strut.

The new ones are Duralast from Autozone but are actually a Gabriel product. As you can see in the 3rd picture, they are more of a sealed design. So should I put grease around this bolt in the housing? If so, which type of grease?

Original mount with bolt while still in car: (please click pictures to expand them) Original mount with bolt removed: New mount with bolt in car: You can actually see the new mount without a bolt in this picture: http://contentinfo.autozone.com/znetcs/ ... 3/image/4/

Thanks!

On those rear shocks, are you sure the bellows is on the right way? The two ends look different and the top one looks to be bigger. it should snap onto the shock and fit in with the top part I would think.

As for the grease, if it is a sealed bearing, you should not need any grease on it. You don't want grease on the nut area anyway so it can be tightened properly.

trb wrote:On those rear shocks, are you sure the bellows is on the right way? The two ends look different and the top one looks to be bigger. it should snap onto the shock and fit in with the top part I would think.

As for the grease, if it is a sealed bearing, you should not need any grease on it. You don't want grease on the nut area anyway so it can be tightened properly.

Thanks for the reply! Well I'm not an expert, but the bumper itself goes into a groove on the bellow. It did the same on the front struts.
Because of this, I don't really have any doubts that it is on there correctly. I tried to slide it around the base of the strut bar, so that it was held in place at the bottom but there was no way I could get it to stretch to fit.

Because my spring insulator has a protective extension on it that basically does the job of the bellow, I'm tempted to just cut it out somehow now. (If there is any fear it will rub against the strut bar and hurt it or do any other damage.

Regarding the strut mount on top being sealed... it definitely seems that way. I guess I should call the maker and ask them. The service manual itself though says to put grease, but I think they're assuming the same strut mount that isn't sealed.