New struts shot?

[hooterville]

I bought new monroe sensatrac struts about 3 months ago. Now, there is oil leaking out of two of them. One in the front and one in the back. Could one of the rear struts screw up the alignment of the rear end to the extent that both of the tires receive premature wear on the inner tread. I had the rear tires replaced last week and the tire guy said that the this was definately an alignment problem. I took it to the "mom and pop" alignment place and the owner said that it wasn't his fault because the struts were bad. He also said that he doesn't mess with the camber of the wheel, which was a complete shock to me because I thought that alignments aligned the camber, toe, etc. What do you think is going on here? Any suggestions will help.

 

[hooterville]

The rear tires were at about 50+% when replaced. I replaced them because the inner tread was ran bare.

 

[sdpatt]

The oil leaking from the struts after 5 months is both a sign of strut faliure and poor quality struts. They should still be under warranty, but do you really want to put more of the same back on there? Who installed the struts? Could the strut shafts have been scratched during the installation? That would cause the shaft seal failure.

You should take your car to a shop that will do a real alignment. That must also include the camber of the front wheels. The rears on the SHO are not adjustable from the factory. You must install a camber kit to do that. To change the camber and caster of the front suspension, you must drill out the spot welds on the alignment plate at the top of the strut tower. This is accessible when you remove the black plastic covers over the upper strut mount bolts.

 

[Slo-Sho]

I have the Monroe Sensatrac's on all four corners and have had no such problems. Take them back for a free replacement. And BTW, do yourself and your SHO a favor, stay outta the "mom&pop" shops. thumbs_u beer

 

[Hubes]

elaborating on what scott said, moog makes a nice camber kit so you can adjust the rears. i think i paid like 30$ from carparts.com (the jc whitney one).