Broken rear shock mount

[PorkandBeans]

After some searching I'm fairly certain I have a broken rear shock mount causing a loud clunking in the trunk area. Can I continue to drive like this while I source parts or am I going to cause further damage? I'm a suspension n00b but fairly confident I can do this myself.

[jlevie]

If the cause is a broken shock mount, the car can be driven. Handling over rough surfaces might be a bit iffy, but you probably won't do any more damage if the car is driven gently and only for a very short time.

But, the clunking might not be a broken shock mount. I'd say the car can't be driven until the cause of the noise is positively identified (by inspection) and known to not be a dangerous condition.

[PorkandBeans]

It's the driver side rear making the noise. Upon visual inspection I can't see anything different than the passenger side. Maybe the shock is completely gone and bottoming out? These could very well be original shocks as everything else on the car is original unless it had failed. I'd like to drive it until next weekend but don't want to cause any other damage. Input is appreciated, thanks.

[Mike The Bavarian]

deffinatly sounds like a bad shock mount.

[jlevie]

That isn't a broken shock mount. Something else is the cause of the knocking. Get the car up in the air and check everything underneath.

[PorkandBeans]

With the car on jack stands here is the drivers side. The trailing arm hangs lower and the tire is still on the ground.


The passenger side tire is off the ground.


Nothing underneath looks broken, if the shock holds the trailing arm from dropping too far then I'd say that's the problem. It certainly doesn't look right.

Bonus: axle boots finally tore (kinda knew this was coming though)

[Farbin Kaiber]

Looks more like a broken shock than a broken mount.

[E30_fiend]

if its coming from the passenger side then why is the video showing the driver's side?? If you have a bad mount not only will it make noise, it should be visibly moving up and down inside the trunk. Push the car up and down and check the passenger side mount for movement.

If that side seems to be in good shape then your next inspection should be the shock on the side that the noise is coming from. Pull the shock off and see if you can reproduce the sound with it off of the car. No sound off the car means you need to look elsewhere. The other thing I would check is the rear sway bar link and/or mounting bracket. If either of those are broken then you will get the same clunking sound as you videoed. Inspect the sway bar links and mounts for broken or separated parts then check back here.




Taylor

[PorkandBeans]

Thank You!

Thank you everyone for your help. I removed the driver's side shock and it fell apart. It seems it wasn't holding the trailer arm up at all. The clunking was no doubt the shock piston slamming into the top half of the shock.



I installed some Gabriel shocks from Autozone. These were the only shocks I could find in stock locally. $25 ea. with a buy one get one 1/2 price special. They'll do until I can get new shocks, springs, etc. for all wheels and have a long weekend to install them. This is my DD so I had to fix it today.

During my test drive it was obvious the old shocks were completely blown. Even these cheap shocks feel way better. Now I can't wait to see what it's going to feel like with some Bilsteins and new springs.

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=177471

[Farbin Kaiber]

I knew it. Congrats on fixing it. It's always satisfying.