Strut possibly hitting fender need some advice!

I have a 98 Toyota Tacoma Pre Runner it was involved in a wreck last October, well when i got it back the steering was awfully stiff so I imagined he replaced the Tire Rods. Well I was driving down the road one day and hit a pretty big pothole and after that my suspension started popping going over bumps and turning etc. Well i got to the point that I was not noticing it and then it started getting worst I replaced my struts last night and the one strut that was busted fixed the majority of it popping and squeaking but I still get that pop every now and then like something is rubbing together. When I was replacing my struts last night I also noticed how close the fender wall was to the strut on the left side (which is the side I imagine the noise is coming from). I was wondering if that could be my problem is if the strut might possibly be hitting the fender to create this pop, which is getting very annoying! If anyone has any ideas plz let me know

 

Did anyone check to make sure the spindle or the lower control arm was not bent? Those parts are designed to fail during an accident. Much cheaper than frame repair.

 

Im not very sure, when I got it back thought the steering was very stiff it messed up the left side pretty good. But how would you know if thats what it is, what are the signs?

 

About the only way is to have a reputable alignment shop measure those parts.

If you have a good eye, compare them to the undamaged side.

Also, bad ball joints can cause the hard steering.

 

Okay, well when I replaced the struts yesterday everything under there seemed to look in pretty good shape its just kind of strange how one strut seems to be closer to the fender wall then the other. Does that sound like something normal?

 

Did the one fender get bent in during the accident. It's thin metal and can be bent away from the struts by hand.

 

The fender would have to been replaced after the accident there was no fixing it, it was beat up pretty bad. Ill try to bend it tonight to see if that'll fix it and if it does not work ill start looking at the things you mentioned. And maybe I can finally get a solution to this problem!

 

Check your lower control arm bushings.

While my experience is different than yours, there was a fair amount of noise prior to replacement.
But the scary thing was - if in a corner and if there was any type of bump, the steering wheel would jump in the direction of the turn causing all sorts of panic.

 

I have not had any expierences like that in mine but I can surely imagine that was a little scary, I will make sure to give it a look. What kind of noises was it making prior to before you change it or when did the noises occur?

 

metal on metal, general sloppiness in steering and control, unexplained noises and movement on near flat asphalt roads...

What was more curious was that my alignments were good.

Another symptom was brake pull in odd directs regardless of road pattern and wasn't predictable in which way it would pull.