Who has purchased strut replacements from Subaru recently?
 

I recall reading that they may have done a fresh manufacturing run recently such that the age and storage may not be as much of a concern.

So, if you did order struts recently AND you took note of the manufacturing date can you please post your date of purchase, the manufacturing date and what vendor you purchased them from.

I may need new struts and will further investigate the source of my squeaking noises this weekend. If I conclude that the struts are the source of the noise I'm not sure if I should buy new mounts too. There is little to no corrosion on my car. Even the plastic bits seem to be in decent shape. Most of the issues have been with rubber parts, leather and sensors.

Re: Who has purchased strut replacements from Subaru recently?
 

The rear upper mounts are prone to rust even on cars that look fantastic otherwise. A former member here named Nubs had a 92 Teal that was absolutely flawless, and he had collapsed rear mounts from rust. The way that they're designed makes them very prone to this. They hold moisture and "junk" above them.

Re: Who has purchased strut replacements from Subaru recently?
 

I've replaced rear struts and rear upper mounts on my silver SVX within the past couple of years. New parts came from Subaruparts.com in both instances. As noted here before, the left mount failed when I was making a turn about 250 miles from home and I knew from the sound and location of the racket that it couldn't have been much else, and upon removal both mounts (or what was left of 'em) looked as if they'd been salvaged from the bottom of the sea. The car is otherwise corrosion-free, but it spent its early years in snowy climes, whereas the teal is a lifetime sunbelt car.

On another trip, also a couple of hours from home, I hit a deep depression in the roadway at speed and the rear suspension bottomed hard, the right-side strut having blown.

Both times I drove home without incident, taking care to check my speed and mind curves and pavement irregularities, as the car was porpoising like Flipper on meth.

I looked for some sort of date stamp or code on the struts and packaging, but found none. Delivery was quick.

No troubles since.

dcb

Re: Who has purchased strut replacements from Subaru recently?
 

Ironically, my car spent the first 14 years of its life in TN and northern GA! It spent one unprotected winter here in upstate NY before Krown opened a franchise near me. It got rust-proofed before last winter and will probably get the same treatment this year. So, I hope the rear mounts are OK. And it is the front where I am getting noises. For some time there has been a faint knocking or clunking sound I notice only at slow speeds on bumpy roads. No one has been able to find anything obvious as to the source and some people here suspected the strut. Now that noise is accompanied by a rubbery-squeaking noise. I'm going to check out all the rubbery bits again but, if it is a strut, I would like to look into my options. I actually like the stock ride.

Re: Who has purchased strut replacements from Subaru recently?
 

According to this thread, Probe inserts should fit the SVX which may mean that Mazda MX6 struts might also:

http://forums.probetalk.com/showthread.php?t=1701159979

Re: Who has purchased strut replacements from Subaru recently?
 

Well I got under the car today and the noise definitely is coming from the right front strut. I can feel the vibrations from the squeak in both the strut mount and the spring. The mount looks ok so I am assuming it is the strut. I will get a professional opinion this week but it looks like I will be buying struts. I need to decide which ones. It looks like the Probe struts being a direct fit was a myth. The Konis apparently leak sometimes. It is unclear if the oem struts are really old or if there was a recent manufacturing run. And then there are these new aftermarket sources people have been talking about. Opinions?

Re: Who has purchased strut replacements from Subaru recently?
 

I'm under the impression that "sometimes" shouldn't be associated with "KONIs" and "leak".

Anyone with a hint of a clue in how manufacturing costs work will know that a super short production run of obscure parts is only a good way to burn off a lot of money. The expense of setup is absorbed in volume. If Subaru were to tool up and build 100 or even 500 sets of struts, they'd take a tremendous bath doing it. To produce them and not publicize it to SVX owners would be inane. These are NOT new parts - there is not a shred of evidence that Subaru has decided to burn a small fortune in producing parts for a quickly dying, short run car.

There are only a few suspension options now:

* Retrofit of modern hardware, a la Crazypilot. This is the forward thinking that the SVX needs in order to survive.
* Dredge up one of the remaining sets of KONIs, if they're not all officially gone.
* Use whatever Subaru stock is on the shelf.
* Wait and see what comes from the two emerging third party contenders.
* Admit defeat.

Disclaimer: The next sentence is directed at everyone, not just Tony.

You think Reading needs some effort? That's a butterfly fart in the hurricane of ways the SVX can go extinct. What do you do when there are no struts left?

I'll go right ahead and say it - if Dayle had half a brain in his head, he'd be tackling this problem right now, and he'd be raking in the profits, even without raking the SVXers over the coals. Leave the swaybar alone, Dayle. Why dick around with turf that's already covered? That doesn't help the community; it cheaply pads one wallet.

I have no apologies for Johnny, either. Pie in the sky aspirations of helping the SVX run with a broken leg won't offer a lot of return when the cobbled up pipes actually ship and SVXi are being parted in droves because no one can find a new strut.

I hold no regrets for owning my two former SVXi; there's nothing like them. One thing I will not miss, though, is the bleak future the car has ahead. Good luck, guys... you're gonna need it. :(

Re: Who has purchased strut replacements from Subaru recently?
 

I will keep the SVX as long as it is feasible. When not I will move on. I am not going to lose any sleep over it.

Re: Who has purchased strut replacements from Subaru recently?
 

Is it simply not feasible to rebuild existing struts? Seems such a waste that discarded units go straight to the scrap heap.

When I ordered the aforementioned rear mounts I got the "Hmm... only (six?) of that side in the country" business from the guy with whom I spoke. Wonder how many there are now? As that's been awhile and I've seen no "they're all gone" mention here, I conclude domestic inventory has been resupplied. New stock, old stock, whatever; it sure would be helpful to know whether there were 5 or 5000 of this-or-that remaining on a shelf somewhere overseas.

dcb

Re: Who has purchased strut replacements from Subaru recently?
 

Gordon (processengr) bought new struts last year and they were labeled 2009. It wasn't clear if 2009 was actually the manufacture date or if it referenced something else.

Re: Who has purchased strut replacements from Subaru recently?
 

Inventory control certainly existed in 2009.

Shipping definitely existed in 2009.

The odds of Subaru producing SVX-specific parts in 2009 are not any shade of good. They defy every sense of manufacturing logic, save for those found in wishes and dreams.

Tony, I'm still your upstate pal when I say this: Since you posted its definition one thread over, I know you know what obstinate means.

Re: Who has purchased strut replacements from Subaru recently?
 

Yes and I also know what we don't know. I think the term cynical would be a better fit in this case. It would be nice if these parts were stamped with a date code and someone had one in their hands. Unlikely though it may be, nothing is impossible.

Re: Who has purchased strut replacements from Subaru recently?
 

There have been a few that have bought new oem struts in the last 3 years. I have not heard of any of them failing prematurely (within 6 months in most cases) in that timeframe. This certainly appears that they realized it was a problem when they were covering them under warranty quite often and they either ran out of supply or decided they should manufacture some more.

Can anyone familiar with the EA Subarus say anything about similar type products being available from Subaru? I know there are aftermarkets but I'm sure someone has at least inquired about it if not purchased them.

I recently bought ball joints and they were stamped with what appeared to be a 2011 date on one bag and a 2009 date stamped on the other. Both ordered from the same location.

Re: Who has purchased strut replacements from Subaru recently?
 

I have a request in with SOA. They are going to check their inventory and see what date information they can dig up. It could take a few days but I will share what I find out.

Re: Who has purchased strut replacements from Subaru recently?
 

I'd have to agree it seems highly unlikely Subaru would resume manufacture of any SVX-specific parts, with the remotely possible exception of something that required very minor tooling changes from parts currently on the line. It's also possible that some goods were provided to Subaru by subcontractors who might be more flexible and hungry and thus willing to make a limited run of 500 of this or that.

And yes, any date on packaging almost certainly references stocking, not manufacture. No doubt there's a manufacture date embedded in a part's serial number, where such exists, but that would take a Super Secret Subaru Code Book (1992 Edition) to decipher.

The pertinent question is, what sort of inventory remained at the time production ceased, and what's there now? For all we know there were 10,000 pairs of struts left lying around when SVX production was shut down. Or not.

dcb