A year or so ago, I began to hear a knocking noise in the front of the Cirrus when I encountered a bump of any kind in the road. A quick inspection revealed I had a bad left front sway bar link. So I replaced both of them and thought all was well. And it was for about a week.

The next thing I noticed is that the knock had moved to the other side of the car. My 20 years as a tech were telling me that I had a bad strut, which I confirmed last summer.

The issue at hand wasn't with the strut as much as it was with the rubber insulators within the strut assembly. After 20 years, the rubber had disintegrated and was allowing the strut rod to contact the mounting bracket. The left front side of the car was worn, but seemed ok.

The right front strut wasn't looking as good. Bits of what was left of the rubber insulators can be seen in the photo above. Each time I would encounter any kind of imperfection in the roadway, the strut rod would move and contact the mounting bracket.

I decided to go with a complete strut assembly - strut, spring, insulators, mounting bracket, and upper control arm with ball joint.

I found a pair online for a great price and decided to give them a try.

And since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to address another nagging annoyance that has been present for a while. I replaced my front brake pads a few years ago, but did not replace the front rotors. It didn't take long for an awful squealing noise to make its presence known, especially when everything was hot.

I did some searching online and found a set of Mopar brake pads, which were discontinued a while ago. I chose a set of EBC brake rotors to go with the new pads.

This is actually a pretty straight forward project and shouldn't be that difficult. The upper ball joint will need to be separated from the steering knuckle.

The strut is connected to the lower control arm by a long bolt which will also have to be removed.

The strut fork will also have to be separated from the strut. While this may sound involved, it really isn't.

I started by separating the upper ball joint from the steering knuckle.

I then removed the strut fork bolt.

I then removed the pinch bolt that hold the strut fork to the strut and moved it out of the way.

Now the strut is hanging free.

The final step was to remove the four upper mounting bolts.

The whole strut/spring assembly can then be removed from the car.

Removing the upper strut mounting bolts.

Removing the upper strut mounting bolts.

The strut can then be removed from the car.

A quick comparison between old and new parts confirms that got the right parts.

The assembly process is the reverse of the removal steps. I used a chisel to help spread the mounting area of the fork. This makes it much easier to put everything back together.

With the fork attached, I slid the assembly into place and loosely installed the four upper mounting bolts.

The final step was to reinstall the lower mounting bolt.

With everything in place, the four upper strut mounting bolts can be tightened.

With the new strut in place, I turned my attention to replacing the front brake pads and rotors. I unbolted the brake caliper from the steering knuckle and moved it out of the way so I could remove the rotors.

Removing the brake pads from the caliper is a simple procedure.

The old and new brake parts.

The front brake rotor slides in place. I put a lug nut on backwards hand tight only to hold the rotor still while I reinstall the brake caliper.

Once the new pads are installed, the caliper can be bolted back into place. I repeated the entire process for the right front strut and brakes. After all the repairs were complete, I took the car for a road test to make sure everything was quiet, which it was.