Ok, here the deal. My initial problem can be read in the thread "the dealer hurt my baby...and said it was my fault!!!" in this forum. but here's my dilemma:

Ok, so my car is now at the dealer in delaware. Chris at TRi has my struts in Easton, PA. This is about an hour and half of regular highway driving time.

Now, the nut at the top of my strut is gone, so I guess the strut is just floating around in there. I was told by my usual mechanic that it would only take a small dip in the road to cause my strut to come through the housing. Chris believes that it should take a rather sizable pothole to cause this. Chris's quote for installation is about half as much as everyone else I've called, and I don't have the equipment to do it myself.

My question is, would i be endagering myself, my car, and other drivers by attempting this long highway excursion with my car in this condition?

I'm really stuck here....I need your guy's help!

Thanks.

NoSaabs

Take some of the $$ you're saving and put it on a flatbed. Don't even think about driving it!

I agree with SubEd, have it transported away from those shameless hacks...

just get a rental car for a day. I'd not risk my car like that.

There are 4 nuts on top of the strut - the three that go thorugh the body and the one on stop of the strut piston (that is the one in the center). If it is one of the 3 and the other 2 are there then driging it should not be a problem (those nuts are torqued to only 15 ft.lbs and a lot of people break them by overtightening them). Their purpose is to keep the strut attached to the car if the wheel is copletely unloaded. If it is the one inthe center that attaches to the p iston don't drive it, that is a mcuh more serious problem.



All standard disclaimers apply - it's a scary world out there.

yeah...it's the one in the middle.

oh boy..i'm really f'd.

Yes you are :(

First - Do not drive that car.

That top bolt is what secures the top of the strut to the mount and ensures that the spring will not de-compress. If you jar the car enough to unseat the way the strut sits in the mount, you quite literally have a loaded gun on your hands. At this point, the weight of the car is your friend.

The flatbed idea is a good one. I would get it out of the dealer's incompentant (sp?) hands. Don't worry, a strut is a fairly easy part to replace. You are not as screwed as it may seem.

well, here's the resolve of the whole thing:

instead of paying the dealer the rediculous amount of $ they want for one strut, i ordered a set of kyb/agx's from TRi. My car sits in the middle of the university of delaware (Newark), and a friend of mine has a place we can take it just outside of newark to do the work.

side note: this dude has too much money and toys...he has a testerosa, his daily driver is a red M5, he's got a pathfinder that he plays around with that has over $150 grand invested in aftermarket stereo components. we're taking my car to his farm house, where he has a garage fully stocked with tools and a hydraulic lift...should make this so much easier to do.

basically, i'm going to limp my car there. 5mph, hazard lights, etc. should only be about 20 min. this way. we'll see!

here's another idea i had to improve the safety of this little adventure: you know the cover that is on top of the rear struts behind the back seat? well, i removed those, and i'm thinking about using one to cover that front strut to keep it from like shooting up through the housing. good idea, or not?