WAJO22

Is there any way to find out if your shocks are good or bad? My car shakes over bumps and all. Sometimes, you hear all kind of clinking noise over the slightest bump. Could it be that my shocks are going bad?

 

Blood Riot

If it clunks over bumps it could be either the shocks or the bushings on the shocks. Just take it to Velocity Total Car Care and ask for Tony, have them look at it and they'll tell you whats up.

I-85 South Exit 94, make a right and go straight, you will pass a QT on your right, on the next light they will be on the right side across the light.

Good luck.

antik

Haha... good lookin' out having a shop on hand and everything!

Clunks over bumps could be any of the dozens of parts in a suspension unfortunately. If you would prefer to DIY I'll take a stab at what you should look into... I'm sure some folks who've done more suspension work then I will have plenty of info as well.

Start by moving to each corner of the car, push down on the fender so that the spring is loaded and release... the car should snap back to it's normal position but not bounce beyond it an oscelate. If there's no oscelation whatsoever, odds are your struts are ok. For added certainty, crawl under the car and examine each strut: when they blow, the dampener fluid contained inside of them leaks everywhere and you should be able to see it.

Decide which is making more noise: front or back.

Raise the car so that a wheel on the side chosen above is well off the ground. Position your hands at 12 and 6 o'clock and push/pull - any movement here suggest worn ball joints. On the front, do the same at 3 and 9 o'clock: movement here suggests worn tie rods.

Could also be the end links on the sway bars: the only way I know to test that is to crawl under the car and look at them, make sure the sway bar bushings are intact and look good as well as the arms on either and of the sway bar.

Finally, check the control arm bushings - their appearance should reveal enough about their condition to judge whether or not they need replacement (as far as I know).

If you're going to examine all these things, be sure to do it in an order that doesn't have you lifting the same side of the car up and down multiple times and always use caution when climbing under a car (jackstands ftw!).

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Canterbury Green '95 Auto L Sedan
ADDCO | MLS | KNUKONCEPTZ | ALPINE | ECLIPSE | JL AUDIO | BOSTON ACOUSTICS

might be selling: pm me if you're interested in a well cared for, well running, high mileage sedan

Blood Riot

Very good write up Antik, I couldn't have put it in better words.

antik

Not bad for someone who's only replaced the front struts on a 209k original suspension!

__________________

Canterbury Green '95 Auto L Sedan
ADDCO | MLS | KNUKONCEPTZ | ALPINE | ECLIPSE | JL AUDIO | BOSTON ACOUSTICS

might be selling: pm me if you're interested in a well cared for, well running, high mileage sedan

Blood Riot

Did you replace the struts yourself or a shop? As far as I know its kind of hard to do it manually right?

antik

Unfortunately, I had the shop do it - at that time, I didn't have the confidence to attack such a problem. Now I'dve done it for sure.

The only "hard" part is dealing with the spring: you need a spring compressor in order to a) compress the spring so you can take the other assemblies apart and b) safely unload the spring as not to fire the SOB across the garage, risking your life in the process.

Everything else is nuts and bolts: I'm apt to do the whole suspension in the spring because the M3 will need one too and I'm hoping to get a discount by buying 2 suspensions at once (freakin' rediculous, isn't it?)

__________________

Canterbury Green '95 Auto L Sedan
ADDCO | MLS | KNUKONCEPTZ | ALPINE | ECLIPSE | JL AUDIO | BOSTON ACOUSTICS

might be selling: pm me if you're interested in a well cared for, well running, high mileage sedan