I removed the passenger side rear interior and noticed that there was a gap in between the actuator and the bracket that the actuator mounts to; the actuator was bottoming out on the strut before the intended mating surfaces on the actuator and bracket were touching. I removed the actuator and sadly noted cosmetic damage to the surface of the actuator where it had been squashed against the strut. I confirmed (with the mounting screws removed as noted below) that the actuator does turn the control rod (luckily, the actuator is still usable). During the diagnostic procedure written above (now done on the rear), I didn't bother to install the screws finger tight and found that the actuator turned the control rod without the screws installed; Step 12 may be optional in the diagnostic procedure written above or it may be a feature of my specially squashed actuators. I also thought I could feel a difference in Sport/Touring damping (bouncing my weight on the rear corner of the car) when switching was done without the screws installed, so the incorrect location of the actuator (resulting from incorrect location of the bracket, I assume) could be resulting in inability of the actuator to rotate the control rod; put simply, the actuator may not be able to rotate the control rod when the actuator is being jammed down on the strut in an unintended way. I hypothesize that the bracket that the actuator mates to needs to be lifted with respect to the strut (e.g. by installing a washer or 2 below the bracket). I remember that there was a spacer (TUBE-DISTANCE 55323-58S00) that I didn't end up using during strut assembly; at the time I was convinced that the spacer would not fit in the location shown in the exploded diagram. Reevaluating...
15:22:27 11/13/13
