Is there anyone that can make a post like front suspension 101 the one at the top of suspension and chassis title, talking about rear suspension? Also if someone can inform me on what parts I can refurbish and what ones I should buy new?

 

Buy new:

• LCAs
• Shocks
• Springs
• Sway bar bushings & end links
• Panhard bar

Have done by competent welder (if you're not):

• LCARBs

Takes nearly as long to jack the car up and let it back down as it does to change out those parts. Except of course for the welding. And of course, dealing with any rusted-up frozen hardware, and repairing the upper shock mounts if they're punched out of the sheet metal.

Not much of a sticky, but then, it's not much work or danger or $$$ either.

 

Ouch. I've never heard of that one on these cars. What causes that, and is there a way (reinforcement) to prevent it?

 

Happens to all of em sooner or later. Mine lasted until about 250k miles, when it started making a strange banging noise behind the rear seat on one side when going over bumps, and seemed like the shock on that side wasn't doing anything. Popped the seat out and pulled back the carpet to change out the shocks, and found that. The other side wasn't far from doing the same thing.

I had somebody weld acoupla big washers in place of the sheet metal that had broken out. Then finished putting the new shocks in.

What causes it is, poor design. The shock is mounted to a flat place stamped in the sheet metal, and as it does its job damping the car's (and axle's) bouncing motions, it flexes the sheet metal. Sooner or later the metal fatigues.

Take a look. Yours might already be that way and you don't even know it.

 

I will check it out. Thank for the info. I'm hoping that at 58k easy miles, it's still fairly sound. But it might be a place to think about reinforcing when I put in new rear shock.

 

Yep, they're cheap-a$s POS cars, but we love 'em...