PLEASE HELP!!! Advice on rear bottoming out with cut c-springs

It seems my ghetto rigged suspension has caught up with me...after four years. Perhaps it caught up much earlier, I just didn't notice it on nice smooth American asphalt, but here in Sweden (imported my '96 two months ago), land of dirt roads, pot holes, ridges and craters, the aging suspension has finally reached the end of its life.

What my car had was c-springs and Tokico blues with urethane all around and MM CC plates. After installation in early '02, the rear didn't settle, like many had anticipated, so I cut half a coil. That didn't do the trick, so I cut some more. Bingo!! It looked perfect and rode hard, but controlled.

Now, after a month and a half of road way abuse, my poor '96 is not fairing well. Sweden has some nasty ridges in the roads (from wintery conditions) so when I roll over those, there is a tremendous bang in the rear. I mean REALLY nasty!! Sounds like metal on metal! I'm guessing it's the springs not working anymore? I think they've compressed so much that there is no travel left in them. Sound plausible? I just replaced the shocks hoping that would help, but not entirely. Mechanic told us the bushings were shot, too, but that's crap 'cause they are urethane! My husband looked at them today and said they were shiny and hard. If rubber isn't it easy to see if they are worn? Rubber doesn't look or feel like urethane when it's FOUR years old, does it? LOL! And urethane doesn't wear out either, right?

There's also a weird...ummmmm noise when make a left turn from a stop. What could it be?

I know replacing the springs isn't a bad thing (selling the car soon) , so I can do that, but I can't just go to a parts store in town...there isn't one! I live about 120 away from the nearest auto parts store and shop! Anything I have to order has to be done before I make an appointment for the work.

Does this sound like a spring problem to any of you??? I really wanna sell this car and I don't wanna sell it like this, although I know it's not very noticeable on a decent road.

Thanks in advance!

Cindy

Grits said:

honestly the best advice anyone can give you is replace the springs... probably need the rear shocks too... its really not hard to do..

if your going to be selling the car anyway, you could always pickup some stock springs and just put it back to the stock height.. but i wouldnt sell it in its present state.. fix it first.

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Thanks, Grits! No, I don't feel good about selling the car like it is. Already replaced the shocks, though, so only need the springs. But I'm concerned about the bushings. That grease monkey yesterday told us they were rubber. I know I had urethane put in...but maybe for some reason my mechanic didn't do as I asked him to do. My hubby looked under there, though, he said they looked like urethane to him. Bushings are cheap, and easy to put in if the springs are being done at the same time, right?

Cindy

wesl56 said:

at least jack it up and check everything out... when using chopped springs, they can be loose when the suspension is fully extended, so its possible they may have rotated or moved around when you hit a big bump and arent sitting on thier perches correctly.. might be an easy fix

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Hmm...you know I did think about that, but I would have thought the mechanic would have noticed that the springs weren't sitting quite right yesterday when they replaced the shocks! Today when they jacked up the car, they showed my husband how the differential could be moved about half an inch by hand. Is this normal?

I never would have chopped normal springs, but c-springs actually call for cutting. There is a dead coil that only adds to the ride height and can be snipped off. No heat was used when it was cut either, so... But maybe they were still affected by the cutting...but how? God this is irritating!!!!

Thanks for the reply!

Cindy