I have a 1.5L manual 1995 Mazda protege DX which has been primarily garage-kept. The back tire seemed to be rubbing against the wheel hub so I took it to be evaluated. It seems the rear struts have pushed through into the car body interior and are some how sitting under the panel at the base of the rear window. Has anyone ever dealt with this before? Is there some type of bracket I can get to mount on the car that the struts could be attached to? Or, does anyone think it's possible for some inexpensive welding to take care of this problem? My mechanic thinks this is a hopeless case, but I'm not so sure.

I'd love to hold on to this car a lot longer, but I'm not sure if it's wise to put a lot of money into this repair. My car has around 270,000 miles but has never really given me any major problems before.

All suggestions are welcome and greatly appreciated!!

 

Remove the shock & see what damage, if any is to the body. Might just be a dead shock.

 

If it really has damaged the strut tower you may want to talk to a body shop rather than a mechanic.
I would like to see pictures of this. Can you take some and post them?

 

Thank you for your response! I am going to try to get some pictures. I will post them if I can. Stay tuned...

 

As per my initial post, here are pictures as requested...this is the top view of passenger side rear strut assembly. I had to lift the ledge under the rear window just behind the back passenger seat to expose this view.

 

Thanks for the pictures.

I compared them with some diagrams found on the internet and it appears to me that the strut mount has rusted out. Maybe grim (he is a pro) can confirm or correct.
If it is just that strut mount I would suggest you replace all struts and mounts together. At that mileage you are playing a dangerous game driving around with these old ones.
Alternatively, look for a low mileage replacement car or one with some maintenance records. My son's protege had the rears replaced by the previous owner, I replaced the fronts myself at about 150 K.
If you are going to replace the struts get Monroe or KYB. the cheap stuff from the land of lo mein won't last a year.

 

Looks like its the top hats that have collapsed/rusted out. The body/chassis looks ok too me in the pics.

 

"My mechanic thinks this is a hopeless case, but I'm not so sure."

Now you know from a mechanical point of view it is not a hopeless case.

The financial point of view looks different. What kind of life expectancy do you give the other big ticket parts of the car? Engines can last 300K, manual transmissions can last that long. How old is the clutch? An automatic is probably to conk out soon.
Are the tires and brakes still good? Is there rust on the brake lines?

I would not give this car the benefit of doubt. At almost 20 years of age and 270K miles this car has proven to be tough. But from here on it is likely to be tough on your wallet. This would be a good point in time to switch to something fresher, in particular if you rely on this car to go to work.