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Looks like I have a large amount of rust on my rear strut towers, at least around the one that is still there. I heard a loud metal bumping noise last night after driving on "the moon," otherwise known as Northern Kentucky and Ohio roadways.

What I thought was a blown strut turns out to be a jagged hole in the top of the strut tower mount with the top of the strut tucked underneath a bottom ledge. Of course, the top dampner under the seat belt mount is gone as well.

Anyone have work done on the strut towers? Considering the age of these cars I'd imagine this isn't exactly a rare thing.

Is the metal really ripped, or did the spotwelds all fail?

If the latter, I repaired my first MX-3 with exactly that problem. I removed the strut, and the interior and hammered the top part back into place. I then drilled each spotweld out through both layers to clear a large pop rivet. Then working from the inside of the tower, place pop rivets in each hole, so they are flush inside the tower. Use the largest tool and rivets you can fit. Swivel head on the riveter. Good caulk and some undercoat spray, then reassemble! Held without any problem in my car.

Jim

Well, the towers themselves don't look bad at all.
It's just the caps. They are rusty and the metal looks pretty thin to begin with. I guess the metal just ripped out since the remaining ledges are jagged. I figured the caps could be removed and re-welded since the tower metal seems solid.

it sounds like the strut cups on the top rusted out, no big deal. you can buy new ones for about 30.00 a side. replace both, it is recommended to replace them when you replace the struts.

Can you post a picture? Doesn't sound a thing like my repaired area!

The left strut still in place on a rusted bottom support.



The right strut is through the rusted bottom support and rattling around the ledge!
No sign of the top support piece, perhaps I left it in a crater in Cincinnati.

Are these replaceable rear strut mounts? I thought the metal seemed really thin for a major part of a structure.

I believe they have to be cut out, I may be wrong.

Mx3forever: I may be wrong, but I think your towers are in perfect shape. Both of them.
Take the struts out completely Take out the double nuts on the bolts at each side of your pictures. If I'm right (no guarantees I am), you will be left with a perfectly round hole on every tower. I'm pretty sure what's busted is your strut mounts.

yes those are the strut mounts. undo the nuts on top and the black rusty plate will just fall out. you can pick the new ones up cheap, undo the nut on top of the strut and replace, you will need a spring compressor to do this. should only take about a hour to swap both out. ive had about eight or so of these break that i had to replace on my car as well as friends.

x2 on the mounts

All true and good advice, but you don't need a compressor for the rears.

Rockauto.com currently has a sale on KYB struts and strut mounts. Good investment.

Yeah,

Already have an order into RockAuto for strut mounts and struts
all the way around the car. From the look of those mounts, I'd
say the struts are probably shot as well.

Thanks

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I just had the same thing happen to me a little over a month ago. You should be able to just replace the top strut mounts and be done with it. Thats what I did. The funny thing is mine broke right past the AA highway on 275. lol. Where are you located?

Mx3forever wrote:Yeah,

Already have an order into RockAuto for strut mounts and struts
all the way around the car. From the look of those mounts, I'd
say the struts are probably shot as well.

Thanks

The force is strong with this one.