78k miles, passenger strut bad again.

[turbodriven]

2011 128i, bought the car with 76k. It was a New York car for the early part of it's life, now in Florida. I was getting shakes on the highway not related to the wheels. Replaced the front struts last weekend and discovered an aftermarket strut on the passenger side gone bad. Driver side was still a good OEM strut. Which means, this is the second strut to go bad on the passenger side. Everything else seemed good over there. Just bad luck?

The bad strut had "made in china" stamped on it. But the OEM one must have gone bad early on (guessing <50k).

[NorthernDancer]

1st OEM strut=bad luck or maybe hit a huge pot hole and blew it
2nd=China; someone wanted the most cheap job possible

What did you replace with? OEM is still good but anything from FCP Euro is good.

[turbodriven]

Originally Posted by NorthernDancer

1st OEM strut=bad luck or maybe hit a huge pot hole and blew it
2nd=China; someone wanted the most cheap job possible

What did you replace with? OEM is still good but anything from FCP Euro is good.

a set of Bilstein B4's

[wdb]

Yes to potholes and just general road edge rottenness taking out the RH strut sooner. Let us know what you think of the Billies please! I hope to be picking up a 128i soon and although it felt tight on the test drive it is 9 years old, and it does have a NY tag.

[Gangplank]

Originally Posted by turbodriven

2011 128i, bought the car with 76k. It was a New York car for the early part of it's life, now in Florida. I was getting shakes on the highway not related to the wheels. Replaced the front struts last weekend and discovered an aftermarket strut on the passenger side gone bad. Driver side was still a good OEM strut. Which means, this is the second strut to go bad on the passenger side. Everything else seemed good over there. Just bad luck?

The bad strut had "made in china" stamped on it. But the OEM one must have gone bad early on (guessing <50k).

Just to be clear you were driving a car with one used BMW OEM strut one the drivers front, and one aftermarket strut on the front passenger side? Yes that would drive like crap. No way that would be ok. I wouldn't even want to drive a car with different shocks front vs rear

If you just bought the car I'd strongly recommend taking it to a good independent shop and letting them give it a good solid inspection. Replace the oil, steering fluid, brake fluid and coolant. The previous owner was obviously clueless or ignorant about cars, safety and maintenance.