Hi
I had my 2012 Fiat Qubo top struts/bearings replaced at 19001 miles by a local mechanic. Within 3 months the offside strut required re-tightening at 19998 miles as it had worked loose.
As no nuts were supplied with the new top struts the mechanic used the old ones.
Now at 22450 miles the near side top strut is beginning to give a thump so I plan to buy new nuts and replace the old ones because after watching the mechanic remove the wiper arm and plastic scuttle it doesn't look too difficult. So some information please as below:-
A/. I assume the three nuts M8 (13mm) are zinc coated flanged type nuts and the larger nut is a M10 (16mm) zinc coated nyloc flanged nut. Am I correct in my assumption?
B/. With the car on the ground and taking it's own weight can I renew and replace one nut at a time without things things going pear shaped.
C/. Finally what are the torque values of the three nuts and one larger nut per top mount.
Once I have this information I'm up and running and thanking you good people.

Hi obuqtaif. I had both my springs and top mounts replaced a few days ago, so I'm hoping not to get your issue.
I would be disappointed to learn that old nuts were used as they are not that expensive, and were probably not torqued properly,if at all.
I can see where you are coming from with your second query but feel that the springs would still need to be compressed anyway(I may be wrong).My thoughts are that something will give when you take off the "big" centre nut.
I hope someone will come back to you with definite answers and will be following this thread.
Please let the forum know how you get on.

Hi ArthurM
Thanks for reply. I will await anymore advice from my superiors on this forum.
Fiat garage want £400+ to renew top struts after being renewed 3500 miles ago.
I'll keep you posted.

Did they use 'old' stock parts.......still some around, or the new improved parts. Easy to tell, the new and good ones have a thick rubber cover over the complete assy, it fits under the wing top and seals all the moisture out. Have a look see.........use a torch if you need, its a bit fiddly, but perfectly visible from the top.......
Cheers Qube O.

Hi Qube O
Thanks for your reply and it appears that the mechanic used the improved parts although I doubt if he never torqued them up. I've never seen a torque wrench in his tool kit.
I see plenty of top struts on the internet which appear not to supply the replacement nuts and this is difficult to understand as to WHY? Mine were not supplied with new nuts.
What I am trying to find out is:-
Are the nuts of the zinc type?
Would I need to use spring compressors for all four nuts even though I wish to replace each nut one at a time?
Finally what torque figures will I need for the three 13mm nuts and the main 16mm center nut.
Thank you.

Hi O. Found these torque settings but are in Nm. I still use Ibs per sq inch. Anyway the three smaller nuts are3.2daNm,the larger nut 7daNm.Says that all the nuts MUST be replaced with new. Hope this helps to answer part of your query.

Hi ArthurM
Thanks for your reply. Been looking for conversion table as like you my torque wrench is in lbs-in. I do assume that you refer to a torque value of N/m. when you gave me the torque values?
Still hoping to get a thread on if it is possible to change over one nut at a time on all four nuts without spring compressors being used as it will save me a few hundred pounds.
Thanks

obuqtaif said:

Hi
I had my 2012 Fiat Qubo top struts/bearings replaced at 19001 miles by a local mechanic. Within 3 months the offside strut required re-tightening at 19998 miles as it had worked loose.
As no nuts were supplied with the new top struts the mechanic used the old ones.
Now at 22450 miles the near side top strut is beginning to give a thump so I plan to buy new nuts and replace the old ones because after watching the mechanic remove the wiper arm and plastic scuttle it doesn't look too difficult. So some information please as below:-
A/. I assume the three nuts M8 (13mm) are zinc coated flanged type nuts and the larger nut is a M10 (16mm) zinc coated nyloc flanged nut. Am I correct in my assumption?
B/. With the car on the ground and taking it's own weight can I renew and replace one nut at a time without things things going pear shaped.
C/. Finally what are the torque values of the three nuts and one larger nut per top mount.
Once I have this information I'm up and running and thanking you good people.

Click to expand...

Hi, I replaced my front top strut bearings a year ago (~13K miles ago) myself and have had no problems since so I'm hoping I can help. I used aftermarket SKF bearings as I couldn't confirm which of the Fiat model numbers were old vs new. The SKF bearing was much better sealed than the old fiat bearing I removed. I'm not sure if the Fiat bearing was the original or if it had been replaced by a previous owner (car was at about 45K when I did this job).

Incidentally, I have a spare set (both sides) of the SKF front top mount bearings which I am looking to sell due to an error by the company I purchased them from. PM if interested. I should add that I filled the bearing unit with extra waterproof grease before installation, I have no idea if this helped but it seemed like a good idea at the time!


A. I do not know the spec of the nuts, and don't see much point in replacing them. My SKF bearings didn't come with new nuts and I reused the originals without issue.

B. Yes, if the car is on the ground you will be able to replace the 3 small nuts (after getting access by removing the wipers and scuttle tray). You do not need a coil compressor for this. The weight of the car and other two nuts will stop the bearing unit from moving. The bigger nut which holds the bearing to the coil unit is more difficult. Again it is easier to undo if the car is on the ground. The difficulty is undoing it without just spinning the shock. When I attempted to use hand tools instead of undoing the nut I would just spin the entire shock. I only managed to undo it by using an electric impact wrench. I expect that I did it up with the impact wrench as well, and then torqued it to a standard torque value for the nut size.

C. I do not know. Sorry. I will have used standard values for the M'X' nuts with my torque wrench.

So, there is no harm in getting access and checking everything is tight. I see no reason to replace the nuts, but by all means do it if you want. Unfortunately, if it is all tight then I fear your bearings have failed.

If anyone find this and is going to attempt to change the bearing themselves then I would recommend the following:

• Get access to the top of the bearing and loosen (but do not remove) the nut which holds the coil/shock to the car.
• Jack up car (use axle stands), remove wheel and associated bolts so the coil/shock unit is hanging from the top mount bearing.
• Use coil compressors to compress the coil so it is no longer pressing on the top mount .
• Get an assistant to remove the top nut so you can remove the entire coil/shock from the car.
• Undo the bearing nuts and replace bearing.
• Reinstall the coil/shock assembly and loosely fit the nut back on.
• Do everything up, remove coil compressors and lower car.
• Do up top mount bearing with the car weight to stop the shock from spinning.

I am not a professional/trained mechanic so YMMV!

Torque tip.

Take your torque bar set to low, place on the nut and turn as in trying to tighten, it should click without moving the nut. Keep doing this until you get close to the point you think that the nut is going to tighten.

You'll now be close to the torque set, it's not perfect but dose get you in the ball park if you can't find the right nut thread pressures.

Write this torque reading down ready for re-fitting, but still be careful when reaching the set pressure.

Hi all. I gave the OP the torque settings for these nuts 5 days ago. There's no guessing at the settings and no overtightening of the nuts. Correctly torqued new nuts will not come undone, especially on a safety critical item. Probably 9 out of 10 times of guessing will do. but it's the 1 out of 10 that matters.

Hi to all who gave me advice on how to re-tighten the nuts on both of my top struts.
I did the job yesterday which took approx one hour. All nuts on the struts were removed and replaced with new ones.
They were tightened up slightly higher than the values given a few days ago and the weight of the car did not require spring compressors as advised by this forum a couple of days ago.
Result: Bloody great as now my little Qubo is running around THUMP FREE.
Once again thank you to all members who took their time to reply and also to the forum.
Incidentally I have contributed to the forum in the past and have now reaped the benefits.

Dranddad said:

Torque tip.

Take your torque bar set to low, place on the nut and turn as in trying to tighten, it should click without moving the nut. Keep doing this until you get close to the point you think that the nut is going to tighten.

You'll now be close to the torque set, it's not perfect but dose get you in the ball park if you can't find the right nut thread pressures.

Write this torque reading down ready for re-fitting, but still be careful when reaching the set pressure.

Click to expand...

good tip -

or just use one of these;
https://www.gumtree.com/p/other-hand-tools/torque-wrench..-vintage/1235879063


a BEAM torque wrench
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=T...=BcIZWf7WAaGvgAbJuYjQDw#imgrc=OmtjyHvnrSuObM:
the pointer moves as you apply torque,
when it starts to "creep" note the figure, and that is your torque value.


I have a couple of these , and they are invaluable when doing Head Gaskets.. where the routine is almost "finger tight" + 90' , +90' , +90'

I go around all 10 bolts, noting the torques they creep at, when I have the HIGHEST figure, I go back around using that on ALL of the bolts.


amazing the discrepancies with the other method ..

Hi
One final word from me on the above subject.
I was topping up my windscreen water bottle when I was surprised to see that the driver's side top strut was full of water due to the the heavy rain over the past 48 Hours up here in the North West. Never noticed it before but then never looked.
It is crazy that the drainage hole permits water to drain directly on to the top strut. SHAME ON YOU FIAT.
So took the wipers/scuttle trim off and put some plastic cups over both top struts (got the idea from the forum months ago) and put it all back together again. The plastic cups were similar to noddles cups that just fitted.
After wipers/scuttle trim was fitted and I was about to drop the bonnet I noted that the wiper motor and arm are exposed to the the elements or is my Qubo missing some type of cover?
F--- it I give up.

Hi OB.re your last but one sentence, that is how it is. I find it's best not to look too deep. I would guess that your standards may be similar to mine as I tend to have expectations that are no longer there. Pity

Hi ArthurM
Thanks for that and yes it appears we have similar standards.
My Qubo was not cheap when new (I did not buy it new) and for the money it appears flimsy.
Based on a van I can accept the short-comings although on a MPV I find it difficult.
It does have it's good points though and I will go along with these.
All the best and happy motoring.

obuqtaif said:

Hi
One final word from me on the above subject.
I was topping up my windscreen water bottle when I was surprised to see that the driver's side top strut was full of water due to the the heavy rain over the past 48 Hours up here in the North West. Never noticed it before but then never looked.
It is crazy that the drainage hole permits water to drain directly on to the top strut. SHAME ON YOU FIAT.
So took the wipers/scuttle trim off and put some plastic cups over both top struts (got the idea from the forum months ago) and put it all back together again. The plastic cups were similar to noddles cups that just fitted.
After wipers/scuttle trim was fitted and I was about to drop the bonnet I noted that the wiper motor and arm are exposed to the the elements or is my Qubo missing some type of cover?
F--- it I give up.

Click to expand...

The only exposed part of the top mount should be just the fixing nut on the top of the strut and a small amount of thread. Everything else should be totally covered by a thick rubber membrane to keep the water out of the bearing !!
Cheers Qube O.

Hi Qube 0
All is as you describe although as there is a drainage hole on the driver's side directly above the top mount any water will and does drain down on to the rubber membrane of the top mount. If it rains hard enough as it does where I live the water will drain away down past the rubber membrane only to be refilled on the next down-pore.
Surely Fiat could have designed some type of protective cover to prevent this once they became aware of it? That is not rocket science.
I'm sure the way I have tried to prevent water seeping on to the top mount will protect them for a few thousand miles until they fail again as appears the norm.

My Qubo has finally had to have its top strut mounts replaced. It made it as far as 41,000 miles and 8 years before they became a problem which may be a record.

Unfortunately I needed to have both shocks replaced at the same time as the strut mounts. It would seem nobody in the factory thought that greasing any of my cars suspension when it was being assembled would be necessary. As a result the tops of both shocks as well as all of the bolts etc were completely seized and ruined by corrosion. Everything was so heavily corroded that the mechanic snapped a very expensive tool whilst trying to remove one of the strut mounts! The tool was under warranty, my car sadly is not anymore and the resulting bill was just shy of £450! This may also be a strut mount related record although not one I'm proud of.

Maybe it would have been better if the mounts failed a little earlier...

Done well, up to 41000..........

Hi
You appear rather fortunate to have gone 41,000 miles before you suffered the same fate as many of our other members well before that mileage was reached.
It took me approximately 2000 miles before I had mine renewed as I couldn't believe a car with just 17,000 miles on the clock would suffer that problem. When the mechanic said this was a common problem (he said it was a design fault) I was as mad as hell.
How the hell can Fiat get away with it.
Will never touch Fiat again.