My 2018 Escalade front magnetic strut is leaking. Extended warranty says it covers Struts, but does not cover Shock Absorbers. The GM part number 84977478 says it’* a shock absorber, but the nut and the mount say strut!

Every strut is a shock absorber, but not every shock absorber is a strut.

What’* the verdict, is the thing on my Escalade a strut, or a shock?

Looking at it over at Rockauto, I was all ready to come back here and tell you that your 2018 Escalade has struts in front and shocks in back.

Then I did a little more research.

The Internet seems to use [shock absorber] and [strut] interchangeably for this one about half the time, and the other half seems to just list manufacturer and part number and pictures and not ever step out on a limb and say either one.

From shockwarehouse.com:
Struts:
1. A strut is an important part of a vehicle'* steering system and has a significant impact on the alignment angles.
2. It is usually the place where the camber and caster angles are adjusted.
3. A strut also serves as an additional pivot point for the steering system and houses the coil spring.
4. When replacing a strut, it is necessary to perform an alignment as well.
5. The cost of struts is usually higher than that of shocks because they come with mounts, boots, and bump stops as part of their design.
Shocks:
To maintain tire traction, a vehicle needs a shock absorber. If you want your vehicle to stay riding smoothly, invest in high-quality shocks. The vehicle'* components will see less wear and tear with a high-quality shock. Shocks often feature two eyelets at the top and bottom of the device, as well as a stem and an eyelet, or even a post.

Items 1, 2, half of 3, and 4 do not apply to your 2018 Escalade'* front "struts/shocks". Item 5 and the other half of 3 (houses the coil spring) do.

So I took it a step further: Your 2018 Escalade'* sales brochure (attached), page 45, column 1, "CHASSIS AND SUSPENSION" section, says: "Suspension: Independent front with coil-over-shock design/five-link rear and automatic load leveling"

Like I was saying above, I'd generally call this a strut. If you get sticky with the definition (like an extended warranty company probably would) then it can easily be reasonably defined as a coil-over shock absorber, so a shock absorber. For the prices I saw online, there isn't enough juice in this squeeze to try to fight it much because the warranty company has enough written information on their side to keep calling a shock absorber all day long. Overall, I'd say try your best to define it as a strut. I would use the following heavily:

"Along with dampening suspension motions, the front struts contain the front coil springs and are integral to supporting the vehicle. Shock absorbers only dampen suspension motion."

. . . and see how far it gets you.

At a more simplistic level: Uncle Buck'* car, for the movie, likely had no shock absorbers installed at all, but it still supported itself properly and the alignment etc. were not affected by missing shocks. If you did the same with your 2018 Escalade, the front end would have no springs, be completely unsupported, hard down on the ground, and driving it would grind everything underneath on the pavement similar to one of the more interesting police-chase videos.

I'm curious how this goes for you!

Thanks for the reply! I have conceded at this moment with the warranty company after I called them yesterday and had a very frank conversation with them. They did approve the motor mount replacement, and I need to get that done ASAP. I am going to try one more effort to go to an actual Cadillac dealer (dealer I bought it from was a Nissan dealer) and see if there'* anything they can do to help me out. Otherwise I can get the "strut" on RockAuto for about $475 and I'll do it myself.

In the warranty companies defense, they did approve the $1800 worth of AC work it needed in the spring, and then a month later the $3000 worth of bank 2 lifters being replaced. The motor mount replacement quote is $1900 that they are approving, no idea how its that much since I did the one on my Avalanche and its the same design and the part was $100 and it took 2 hours...

Wow, yeah sounds like they are doing right by you overall. Crazy that it has needed this much work!

To close this out:

Got the motor mounts done, total charge (to the warranty company) was $1805.15. Parts total was $706, and $1100 in labor. I did the motor mount on my avalanche, which was the same design motor mount, and the Delco part was $100 and I did it in 2 hours. Thankfully I got that extended warranty!

The kicker was I got home (30 minute 60mph drive) with the truck and as I'm pulling in the neighborhood, I hear the cooling fans screaming. Look down at the temp gauge, and its buried below 160. Pull in the driveway and shut off the truck and pop the hood and the fans are still screaming even with the truck off. Touched the radiator, overflow tank, engine, everything, and it was all almost body temperature cool (its 50F and raining outside). I pulled out my scanner and saw the coolant temp at 111F, and a pending code P0128 for the thermostat being stuck open and not controlling low coolant temp. Waited a bit and the fans shut off. Googled and thats the common response, if the truck doesnt trust the coolant temp it puts the fans in full blast to save the engine.

Went on Rockauto and ordered a new Delco thermostat for $50, and ordered the strut, the newer 2022+ part number 84977478 with the improved seal design on Rockauto for $432. This thing is a lemon! I have another 25k miles on this warranty, and once thats up its gone!

That'* for sure!

Odd that this happened immediately after the engine got moved around for the motor mounts. I'm curious if this fixes it, or if there is something else going on.

That'* cool, I hadn't thought of looking into the possibility of an improved design, even though it struck me as odd that it would have this problem so young in the first place.
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In 25k, you will have replaced everything and then it will be like new again! May as well hang onto it at that point!

Thanks for the follow-up! A lot of folks just disappear when they don't have any more questions. I appreciate you letting us know how it turned out!

I'm curious: What warranty company is this?
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The warranty company is Portfolio Protection. portfolioco.com and was sold to me through the dealer. I did call the dealer when I got the code for the thermostat and talked to the mechanic and he swore he did everything from underneath and barely went under the hood except to disconnect the battery.

Maybe it'* just a coincidence? So many things going wrong on this car that the odds are good, right?