Struts and Steering

[Pocketman]

'05 SLE with 70,000 miles

After driving my wife's new Camry, I cannot help but notice how much tighter the steering feels in the Camry. Granted, there's 69,000 milesdifference in the two cars. Several years ago, after replacing the struts in a previous car, it drove and handled almost like new. Is 70,000 miles too soon to replace struts and are my expectations of tighter steering unreasonable?

[GzNutz]

Do you have any mods? The TRD FSTB and RSB make a huge difference in the lara's cornering ability.

[Black Bob]

Struts can go at any time and that, alone, depends on alotta factors--road conditions (potholes), weather temperatures, strut quality, etc. However, there is a certain "garage talk" trend that's been noticed regarding strut failure sequence: the fronts always tend to go first before the rears, the passenger side front always seems to be the first or the worst and the driver side rear tends to be the least last or least damaged. Common thought is that potholes, debris, dead animals are mostly located curbside. Of course this trend doesn't take into effect just plain old bad strut quality.

As far as the steering feeling a little different than a brand spankin' new car, well, that's natural. Also, being that I just replaced my front struts also, a better ride is to be expected. Tighter steering will only be possible if replacing your steering pumps or linkage, not strut replacement. The pressure within the strut does decline over time before absolute failure but the decline is too little to notice, steering feel should be uneffected. On the other hand, strut FAILURE is highly noticeable-- steering straight will will feel like a pull, turning will feel "shaky", you would start to hear a knocking sound from your wheel well over every little bump and there might be excessive bounce even on smooth roads.

[Pocketman]

I appreciate your comments Black Bob. I'll have the struts checked when I have the car serviced. No doubt they are worn after 70k, but I need to keep my expectations reasonable.

My Solara is virtually 100% stock, including the suspension.

[Black Bob]

I just had my front struts changed at a little over 100k miles, not due to preventive maintenance but because one of them just completely failed. Currently I'm at 109k miles and I still have my stock rear struts on.