'00 300m suspension (questions, observations, my experience)

My 2000 300m has 185k km on it (114k miles) and here's what I've had to
deal with regarding suspension issues:

- About 2 years ago in January, before I put the snow tires on, I was
coming down a slight hill that had a curve and I spun out, with the rear
passenger-side wheel hitting the curb hard. Put a 3-inch long crack in
the 17" Razorstar rim, but not deep enough to leak air. The impact bent
the axle so the tire rolled on an angle - but the wheel still rolled
true and straight. Drove it like that for months. Finally bought a new
axle-knuckle, monroe quick strut, and bearing. Turns out the old
bearing race had been broken in 3 places, but it still held together
(and really didn't make any noise). Got a used rim from a local
junkyard.

- Last December (Dec. 24 to be exact) in the morning I was at the bottom
of a hill with a dip or pothole and felt a hard bang - like the
suspension had bottomed out with metal-to-metal contact. Car was still
drivable but something didn't seem right, but I was only a mile from
home. Turns out the lower plate that supports the suspension spring had
rusted and had separated from the strut, and the spring forced the plate
to drop about 1/2 inch and rest against the steering arm (on one side)
and the tie-rod link arm (on the other side). The plate was now in
slight contact with the tire. This was on the driver side. Went to a
local auto parts store and bought a monroe quick strut, and a few hours
later everything was back to normal. A few months later when I was
taking off my snow tires, I had a close look at the passenger side and
the lower spring support plate on that side was half rusted through, so
I replaced that with another monroe quick strut.

After replacing the first strut, the steering wheel points to 8-2
o'clock (instead of 9-3) when the car is driving straight, but otherwise
on a flat, level highway the wheels drive straight (no pulling to one
side or the other) so I figured no alignment was needed.

More recently I've been messing with the lower control arms, tension
strut bushings, sway bar bushing and sway bar links, trying to eliminate
a knocking sound coming somewhere from the front.

I replaced the sway bar bushings last year, but what I notice is that
even new bushings have a loose fit - I think because of some erosion of
the sway bar. I've re-worked the bushings (wrapped some steel wire
around the sway bar) to make it a tighter fit.

What really surprised me is how badly the tension strut had
rusted/eroded under the bushings. The strut is dealer-only part. The
new strut is 3/4" in diameter where it rides inside the bushings. The
old strut had lost a minimum of 1/16" and in some places 1/4" due to
rusting.

Replacing the tension strut didn't really eliminate the knocking. That
leaves the tie-rod end and wheel bearing as the next candidates. I
really don't want to start messing with the steering rack and it's
various joints and bushings. Would a worn tie-rod be felt through the
steering up to the steering wheel? Because I don't feel anything in the
steering wheel.

According to a 300m web-forum (the one you have to pay $10 - $15 a year
to post to), there is a thread where someone claims that you need to
replace aftermarket strut-bearings and mounts with OEM versions when
buying aftermarket quick struts. I didn't see an explanation as to why
that is, or what happens if you don't. And I don't know what the "strut
bearing" is - I don't see that part in exploded views of the front
suspension.

In other threads on that same web-forum, I've read where there were
issues with these monroe quick-struts - something about them not being
able to fully tighten down against the top strut mounting plate so that
they were a bit loose. Was that the issue? I don't think mine are
loose. Mine are black - not the blue "economatic" version, which I
think are exactly the same as the black except for color and warranty.
Around here, parts stores only stock the black ones - the blue ones are
special order.