I am replacing the rear struts on my 2004 Forester and I had a local shop swap the springs and mounts from the old struts to the new ones. I got them back and I can't remember if the top hats are supposed to spin like the fronts.

 

I'm asking because with the bolt holes that attach the strut to the knuckle lined up properly, the bolts on the top hats are rotated about 90° from their holes. I feel like I ought to be able to spin it to line it up, but I can't.

 

Did the shop over-tighten these? Is something screwed up?

Rears don't spin. The only reason the fronts spin is because they need to be on a bearing so when you turn the wheel the strut can move properly. The rears, because the rear wheels don't moves left or right, have no need for the struts to pivot on the mount. 

If the mounts do not line up, either the shop put the mounts on however they liked. Or they were not informed of the correct location that the mount should line up with. 

Short story, the rear mounts are stationary and do not pivot like the fronts. 

Edited October 27, 201510 yr by golucky66

Rear mounts don't spin, as said above.

 

There should be an arrow or marking on the top pointing out.

 

If you need to, you can mount the top hat in the car, run a long screwdriver or 12" long 3/8" socket extension through the lower bolt holes and use that to twist the strut body in the direction you need for it to line up. I've only ever had to move them maybe 10°, not sure how well that might work if you really need them to move 1/4 turn.

Sounds like the shop messed up. like was already said there is a arrow on the strut mount this should be lined up with bracket on the bottom of the strut, if its too far out and you try a forcibly rotate the strut with out taking tention off the spring you can end up dislodging the spring off the perch, I know this from experience.

Edited October 27, 201510 yr by Ioku

Sounds like it's back to the shop then! Thanks everyone.

 

I didn't explicitly tell them to make sure they were oriented exactly the same way as they were on the old struts, but I suppose I would just assume they'd have the sense to do that.