Trouble with Rear Shocks

i'm lost again! (whats new, right?) my rear is confusing me, my passenger side rear, is riding way low to the point of a rough ride, but the rear drivers side is perfectly fine, now for the doosey, the drivers side air shock has a tear whereas the pass side is only dry rotted. both are deflated but my car sits sideways. help!

Could be the one that looks torn really isn't, and the one that doesn't look torn is leaking. How old are the shocks?

Have you checked the condition of the upper mounts, and the coil springs? Could be something in those areas contributing to the uneven status. Have you unhooked the lines to both shocks to see if any air escapes?

On mine, the air lines are connected. If you pull one, both shocks leak the same.

true... although when I pulled mine there was a fair amount of air still in the 2nd shock.

AA wrote:

On mine, the air lines are connected. If you pull one, both shocks leak the same.

mine too on a 96. at least it makes it harder to track a leak that way

Seems like the first step would be to replace both shocks?

rockauto.com has the Delco shocks *including* the mounts at a pretty good price, I bought a set some weeks ago & installed them. They were in *very* nice shape, appeared to be NOS (had GM not Delco part numbers). Installation guide and replacement top nuts are included. Installation could be easier but I'm not sure how - you may want to get new c-clip nuts and matching graded bolts for the bottoms. Carquest or Home Depot for those. Best to get one off and take to carquest or napa to match up, *or* get a set of 4 at a dealer, they are not real expensive and dealers keep them around as 'shop supplies' anyway.

Look elswhere on this board for comments about the Monroe and Gabriel replacements. They are somewhat less expensive ut you have to buy the mounts separate if yours are no good (and actually if you have lots of miles on the mounts you may want to repace anyway).

Oh by the way if those rubber caps are missing - the ones that basically are trim - you'll find them at the local junkyard (pick & pull) in the obvious locations in the trunks of late '90s grand am/achieva/gee what is the name of the chevy?/skylark.

happy shocking
albertj

if your air ride motor works fine then unhook the air lines at the top of the shocks and have someone pushdown on the trunk. after it is pushed down befor you let it up put the air tubes back on the shocks and leet off the trunk. turn the car on and see if they come up evenly.

problem solved!! it seems as though my rear shocks were STOCK and at 187,000mi i could see the dilima. what happened was the rear passenger shock LOCKED UP TIGHT! and everytime i hit a bump it jammed it lower to till the shock ran out of travel. so much so that when i jacked the car up the tire was still up in the wheelwell! i had to put a jack under the lower control arm and unbolt the shock to let the spring uncompress. wierd huh? well so i look online for shocks and average price was $200. i call napa and they say $75. im in! so i go there and the lady rings them up at 150 somethin,($75 a piece) and i explained to her my phone call and she rechecked and said ok whatever. so i think i got half off due to misunderstanding. so try it if you can. the new ones are on and the car rides like new. (and sits back up too) i kinda enjoyed the slammed on the ground look! :-)

Not that weird. With that many miles, I'm surprised the shocks were still supporting the car at all. Monroe makes drop-in Max-Air replacements sold through Summit Racing for $69.95/pair:

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=MON%2DMA822MM&N=700+4294908256+4294908237+4294924677+115&autoview=sku

If you want a "low-rider", just deflate the shocks to about 20 PSI.

The NAPAs are Monroes, and $75/pair sounds right.

You can adjust the control arm for the ride sensor to adjust rear ride height *BUT* I don't think you should - suspension is kind of soft, you actually need the longer travel, and if you ever pile your buds into the car, you need the air pressure.

albertj