Re: Noise from Rear Suspension?

[Peter Schulz <schulz@tif623.ed.ray.com>]

C1J1Miller@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 11/20/99 10:52:42 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> PWaterloo@compuserve.com writes:
>
> > My car has recently developed a terrible noise from the rear suspension.
> >  Only when the right rear wheel goes over a bump at low speeds (less than 30
> >  MPH) does it make it. The slower it goes, the worse it gets. It reminds me
> >  of my 87 5KS front suspension noise when the rubber on the strut rubber
> >  mounts (at the top of the strut, do they call it the strut bearing?) was
> >  torn and no longer provided any isolation from the car body. The noise
> >  would shutter right to the body work on the car. Replaced those bearings
> >  and everything was fine.
> >
> >

I had a combination of noises.  One was due to the rear muffler bracket
shearing off the body, which put alot of undue stress on the remaining
hangars and made the exhaust occasionally reasonate against the body.

The second was that one of the bushings on the rear control arm (the one
held to the arm by three bolts) had completely separated - producing a
very teeth rattling heavy metal on metal sound in the passenger compartment.

The quick fix was done by Ray Tomlinson for me - he unbolted the bushing
body, put it into a vise, and pressed it back together.

The longer term solution was to replace all of the rear bushings.

HTH

-Peter Schulz
1991 TQW
1990 CQ
Chelmsford, MA USA

schulz@res.ray.com