Creaking strut

[ttomtom]

I had a slight but annoying to me creak from the front left since I bought the car when driven over speed bumps or rough road. I couldn't identify what was wrong as the noise couldn't be replicated on the stationary car no matter how hard I shook and wriggled it. All suspension elements were tight.

I tried to bounce the car up and down the other day again, holding on to the wheel arch starting by moving it up and finally got the noise which helped me find it was coming from around the front left strut mount.

What I did I turned the center strut nut (under the plastic cap) just half a turn (the inner strut rod was turning with it) and the creak was gone.

Happy now but I wonder if its ok that the inner strut rod could freely turn in both directions. I tried the other side and it turned too. Both sides made loud rubber on rubber or rubber on metal creaking noise while turning.

I know there's a bearing in the top strut mount that allows the spring to turn a bit against the top mount but I'm not sure the inner strut rod should freely turn in the upper mount.