Wobbly rear end

[mgaut]

I'll get it over with now; ... cue Podie !

I'm having trouble when accelerating hard and driving through bends or lane changing on the motorway; the back end goes all light at one side and the entire car seems as if it wants to veery to one side.

Having had the front shocks and springs replaced, there is very little 'bounce' at the front end, but on rocking the boot up and down there is an awful lot of rocking at the rear.

I even had the indignity of having to let bridgdav pass on the motorway at about mph a couple of week ago.

Any suggestions as to whether it's worth replacing the rear shocks and springs, or perhaps something les serious such as a wheel alignment all 'round ?

thanks

Mike

[Rower]

Sounds like the shocks to me, an easy test is to push down on a rear corner , the car should return to level immediateley you release the weight if it bounces once or twice its the shocks.

[GreenV8S]

If you've got spangly new dampers on the front and worn out originals at the rear, the mismatch could well be causing all sorts of problems. If the new front springs are a different rate then this can cause additional handling problems. Other things being equal, you should treat springs and dampers as a matched set; if one end is worn out, the others are likely to be pretty well gone too and they should be replaced as a set. This also helps avoid handling problems if the new units are a slightly different spec to the old ones.

One other common effect of changing springs and dampers is to change the ride height. It only takes a small change to throw the camber and toe settings out far enough to upset the handling, so you really need to check and reset these afterwards. Also remember to check the tyre pressures at the first hint of handling problems as low tyre pressure can throw the handling right out.

Hopefully the problems will go away when you get the rear springs and dampers sorted, but if not then be very cautious about driving it on the road and get it sorted as a matter of urgency. There are no good reasons for this sort of problem, but there are some very very bad ones.

[pantani201]

I had the same with my S when I first got it it used to want to step out at the back when cornering fast. It had had new springs on the front but the nose was still too low,couldnt open the bonnet properly. I upgraded to adjustable shocks all round and new springs. It now has impecable manners and is so good to .

[thegamekeeper]

I would be having a very serious look at the trailing arms, they are at an age!!

[mgaut]

thanks to all; having carried out a 'bounce' test I think there is air coming out of one of the dampers, so as suggested I'd better get the back pair replaced to match the new front adjustables.

I'll also get the training arms checked.

[page3]

mgaut said:

I'm having trouble when accelerating hard and driving through bends or lane changing on the motorway; the back end goes all light at one side and the entire car seems as if it wants to veery to one side.

Snap

I'm getting AVO's fitted from Austec on Monday and then off for a week in France to try them out

[mgaut]

Two weeks with the rear shocks on, some minor tweaking with the AVO adjustables and handling is superb !!

thanks for the advice; hope yours is sorted too page3.

Mike