Rear Suspension problem??

[MikeGF]

Hi All

How do I check the rear shock absorbers to make sure they are functioning? After reading a related topic (noise from the boot) I am having the symptoms of worn suspension, ie "clonking" from the boot, when going around a corner and hitting a bump, feeling like the car is skipping 6 inches??

Also, under heavy acceleration (not that htere is much of that ) it also makes a sound like there is gravel trapped in the tyres. There is not, and Ferhurst have checked it and remeoved some stones trapped in the exhaust plate, but the problem is still there.

THe car is a 4l P reg Chim which i love.

>>> Edited by MikeGF on Friday 16th May 14:15

[GreenV8S]

One way is to take them off the car, take the springs off and test them. But you can generally get a good indication by bouncing the car up and down by pushing on the boot in phase with the car's natural oscillation. The car should settle immediately you stop pushing it, without any overshoots. There's so much stiction the car will stop pretty quickly even without dampers, but you would notice a slight overshoot which is the thing to look for.

[joospeed]

agree with Peter, the real way to do this is to have them Dyno tested. thing is very few damper manufacturers have dynos and even fewer use them if they have them!! the bounce test is cheap and easy to do, but only tests rebound and low speed bump. You can still have a high speed bump problem which only shows up on the road or on the dyno, trouble with dampers and the like is that they're at their best on day one and go off from then, the process is gradual so you become used to how the car changes since it's generally over a long time interval. Chances are that if you feel something has changed , it's probably changed! and most things on cars change for the worse ...

[raceboy]

Did you get my cheque Joolz? Any news on the 'bits'?