My passenger-side rear suspension makes a knocking noise when I go over a big bump. It sounds almost like two blocks of wood hitting each other. Is there a bushing or something that I can easily replace?
Strut mount. Can 90% Garuntee it.
"Easy".. Well I would say it's easy. But some people would disagree.
1. Jack car up.
2. Disconnect lower bolt on strut. I forget the size, 19mm maybe.
3. Disconnect two 13mm upper bolts, and one upper nut (in trunk unless it's a vertable, then it's in the back where the top goes down).
4. Remove strut (unless it's dropped out already)
5. Use spring compressor
6. Remove top nut holding mount on.
7. Remove old mount, put new one on.
8. Remove spring compressor
9. Put strut back in place.
10. Put top nut/bolts back on. 17ft-lbs of torque.
11. Put bottom bolt back in. Tighten it up good, I don't know the torque.
12. Put car down on ground.
That's it. 19mm and 13mm sockets. Impact wrench makes the top nut a breeze, otherwise it's a bit of a b*tch. Torque wrench is a good idea. Spring compressors are a very good idea, although some will tell you it can be done without them.
aight, exactly what is moving in the strut mount to make that noisy, becuase that is the same exact noise i have.
2004 Cavalier, 2.2L Ecotec
1965 El Camino, 396 BBC, 14:1, 800 BHP
18 mm for the bottom, the one inside the trunk on the mount is a 13mm and the 2 outside by the wheel well it's 10mm...
Just changed the shock on a friend fire's. His mounts are totally busted and it's doing hell of a noise
The rubber has come loose (ripped away) from the steel, allowing movement where there should be none. It happens, everything eventually wears out, our mounts just go faster than anything else on the car (like 6 months has been known to happen).
Da Ghost: Thanks!
so you mean that if the rubber is stripped the mount has to be replaced ? I know my rear mounts looked fine when I changed them for the same reason, but the rubber was gone.
15.574 @ 89 mph stock
I'm not sure what you mean by stripped. If there's any rubber missing, it's definately bad.
Usually the rubber just pulls away from the strut rod retainer (the metal part in the center) or it pulls away from the metal backing plate.
A strut mount (in the rear) is a metal plate, coated in thin rubber for dampening. Then it has thicker rubber between that plate and the rod retainer. The strut rod goes through the rod retainer and has a nut holding it on the top from coming back appart.
Now there's enough metal in there that even without any rubber at all, it will not fall appart. But you can see that if the rubber was to rip away, it will allow for movement, which make a dull thud noise, or sometimes more of a knocking noise when you hit bumps and stuff like that.
I think it sounds just like hitting a large chunk of wood with a metal hammer.
Many times the mount doesn't really look bad. But that's only because there's basically no force on it when you're looking at it.
thanks !! I understand a lot more now what is a "bad" strut mount. Mine were definitely ready to be replaced.
15.574 @ 89 mph stock
Is it damaging anything to drive around with this?
CTS i understand that with no load it will look different, however, while it is off the car, is there any way to tell that the strut mount is bad?
2004 Cavalier, 2.2L Ecotec
1965 El Camino, 396 BBC, 14:1, 800 BHP
i would say that it is the strut bottoming out from having the car too low... thats been my expirience mine does that alot... and that is bad...meaning it does that 3 times strut bad throw out and get new set... and btw kyb can tell how low you put your car...
JH: Not really. More annoying than anything. You'd have a touch less control too, slop does that.
Demonchild: Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sometimes it's separated so badly you can see it by pulling on the rubber a bit. Othe times it will fall right appart. And sometimes it's sepatared in such a way that it doesn't look bad at all off the car, but when riding around you can hear it.
Roy: How do you know he has KYBs, what kind, and what springs?
If you have GR2s with Coilovers or something like that, yeah blown struts are much easier to bottom out, and generally sound the same. It would have to be one big-ass bump though, and your front would bottom out easier than your back.
