Hey. Most dealers in 'cold weather areas' are being notified about this, but for those of you who want to do it yourself, or have a dealer that is unaware, here is the handy dandy KiaTech guide to solving the Strut Bump Noise!
If you have an intermittent sound from your front end over bumps - it's been described as a knock, clock, thump, bump... all descriptions are a 'soft' sound as opposed to a metal on metal clank, tap or rap - then the first thing you should be looking at is the dust cover/bump stop on the front struts. In colder weather the friction fit of the bump stop against the shock rod is insufficient to keep the bump stop at the top, so it falls down along the shock. This is then struck by the shock body coming up to meet it on compressions, and so it makes a sound. This is a REALLY easy fix, and takes about 15-30 minutes per side, depending on facilities.
Start by raising the vehicle, so the strut is at full extension. Jack the body, not the control arm. Support the vehicle with stands, etc. Safety first, of course.
Now you're able to properly inspect and see if your boots are knocking (couldn't resist...). If they look like the picture below, then you have a problem!
Now all you'll need is a short shopping list. I suggest brake cleaner, a few rags and a tube of urethane. RTV or silicone may work temporarily, but as we proved in the shop this week, it's best to use the best.
Clean the area as absolutely best as possible. The areas you want to focus on are where the green dots are in the picture above. The top of the bumpstop (inside the boot) needs to be glued to the bottom of the strut insulator, so really give it a solid scrubbing. The brake cleaner will soften up the undercoating overspray as well, so now's a good time to take care of the unsightly mess (if you are into that kind of thing).
Once that's done, layer on a heavy 1/4" thick layer up there. You are not going to do any harm if it happens to ooze out a little. You really want to make sure this is done right once, so be liberal. This is just a single glob on there, to show where it should go.
Then just push the boot up to the top, and secure it to cure up. Two options here, one is you can move the bottom of the boot over a little, and it'll sit on the top of the shock body and hold itself in place. Option two is to place something like a long handled wrench as in the pic, below.
After a cure time (depending on the product) you are good to go.
Enjoy!
DIY Strut noise fix
Koup
Lolita
they told me they work just fine. i have tryed many times to do this and i cant get the boots to stay up. here is what im working with. do i just have the wrong stuff? let me kno
