Hey guys, I have an issue, and I just noticed it today. Whenever I hit a bump or anything in the road, I hear this knock/pop noise coming from the left rear area of the car. I don't know what it is, but my jerk brother is the last one driving my car(NEVER AGAIN). Has anyone experienced this or possibly know what it could be? I took the wheel off to see if it was the shocks or something but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. I thought it could have been a rock or something stuck. I would have my dad check it out(mechanic) but he unfortunately had spine surgery today and will be out 2-3 months. So me, being a novice 18 year old enthusiast would like to know what I can do to make it go away because it is quite annoying. Thanks in advance guys, and I hope this was the right forum. If not, maybe a mod can move it to the appropriate section.

Might not be anything your brother did....

One of the favorite ways for these cars to break, is for the upper shock mount to get "punched" out of the floor pan over time, due to the flexing of the sheet metal.

Pop your back seat out, peel up the carpet, and take a look.

check your sway bar end links..if they are loose the sway bar bangs around when the suspension travels

ok thanks guys i'll check it out tomorrow after school since i'm not working. and to the first poster-- i'm blaming my brother because he most likely drove it carelessly over the potholes in the chicagoland area because he doesn't care about anyone but himself, truly a selfish a$$wipe who wouldnt say anything about it either even if he knew he's the one who was the source of the problem. anyways, i had to let that out... but that shock tower thing sounds intense, if its "punched" through like you say it quite common, how hard is that to fix, and would i even be able to drive it w/ this problem because i drove to and from school without my car slamming to the ground. and i dont see that that side is lower or anything, seems level

well i talked to my dad and he doesnt think it could be the shock tower going thru the metal problem b/c the car is in such overall good shape but the shocks could simply be shot

you would see fluid leaking from th shocks if they were shot...usually.

It is BEYOND merely common, I would say; it's more like INEVITABLE. It's one of the stupid design features about these cars. The place that the shock mounts to is just a convenient part of the floor pan; nothing but sheet metal. The act of the shock absorbing shocks flexes it back and forth. Over time, the little section that takes the pounding, just cracks and breaks right out. On my car, one side broke completely out, and when I looked at the other, it was about ¾ of the way broken too; so I had both sides fixed at the same time.Not terribly... you just have to weld a couple of BIG washers there, one on either side (top and bottom) of the sheet metal. You'll see. It's REAL obvious what happens, and what needs to be done.Oh yeah. Lots of people drive their cars no telling how many miles like that. The car will just make that noise, and seem like the rear bounces around alot.You wouldn't. The shock doesn't "hold up" the car; the spring does.

Just take out the back seat and lift the carpet. Takes about 30 seconds if you're slow like me. Gives you a good excuse to vacuum clean underneath the seat; which if you haven't lately, ..... well, you'll see.

well i jacked the car up today and took a look. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary until i saw that the sway bar wasnt attached on the left side of the car, which i assume was most likely the problem, so i went to murray's and bought the new bushing and that rod that holds the sway bar up, it was 6 bucks i think for the part. so ill be doing it tomorrow after school so ill keep u guys updated, o and as for the busted shock tower thing, i peeled up the carpet just in case and didnt see any damage thank god

haha ya thanks, it wasnt until the 2nd time i read thru everything that i noticed your post lol