Violent ride

[marsmusclecars]

Hello all, I'm a newbie here, 2004 Bonneville SLE with 60K miles. I'm the original owner and the car's all original, however, it has a problem. When driving over any bumps or road surfaces, the car's suspension does not seem to be working properly. The ride's so violent, that when driving over bumps, I almost get forced out of the seat and hit my head on the headliner. I have a 1993 Jeep Wrangler that rides smoother than my Bonneville. I have stopped driving the Bonneville it's so bad. Can anyone advise?

[00Beast]

Sounds like your front struts are in sorry shape, but I've never heard of it being that bad. Definitely give your front struts and rear shocks consideration.

What pressure are you tires at? If they were over-filled, that would cause some of that harsh ride. Stock should be around 35, the sticker on the door says the GM recommendation.

[marsmusclecars]

I have lowered my tire pressure to 30psi all around.....still really bad. Is it normal for the struts/shocks to fail at only 60k?

[Archon]

Check the rear ride height. A relatively common failure is where the ride height sensor causes the rear shocks to be fully inflated with air. That will cause a harsh ride, and the rear of the car will be higher than the front.

[marsmusclecars]

I just searched trying to learn how to check that....can you advise?

[Archon]

If that is the cause, you won't have to measure anything, it will be quite obvious.

[Grimmville]

age can be a factor when struts fail. Temperature as well. The rear struts on my 01 if the temp drops below freezing, they will bounce around like crazy. Once its above freezing its fine. I don't have air ride either. I work at a parts store and the only thing I have found aftermarket so far are air shocks. ::facepalm:: Did you "jounce test" your vehicle? It's not accurate but it can give you an idea.....

[00Beast]

You probably do have air ride Grimmville. Look on the shocks themselves for air lines. You won't have the inflator in the trunk, but it should have ELC.

If you truly didn't have ELC, you could get the Max-Air shocks (Not really an air shock, but a gas shock with an air bladder for load leveling) and use an air-line kit to manual valves and just fill them with an air compressor.

[chuckk_]

This sounds similar to the problems I'm having with my 2002 SE (122k mi), though I don't claim to be hitting my head on the ceiling or anything
When I catch a bump just right at highway speeds (ex: bridge seam), it feels like my car lifts up and the back-end kind of jerks to the left. It doesn't necessarily seem to jerk the steering but the car is definitely making an odd lateral movement. It's kind of scary, actually. During city driving, there seems to be a bit of play in the steering but I also notice that bumps in the road jostle the cab a lot more than they did 6 months ago.

The air inflation seems to work fine. The electric inflater operates when I start the car, shuts off when it should, doesn't appear to leak, nor is the back end lifted up especially high or anything.

So, is this a front or rear-end issue? or both? Where do I start?
And most importantly, how do I save money? I've done nothing but pour money into this car since I bought it last June, and I'm getting kind of sick of high-priced fixes on this thing.

[Archon]

Yours sounds more like your rear shocks need to be replaced, along with possibly an alignment.

[RJolly87]

Hello all, I'm a newbie here, 2004 Bonneville SLE with 60K miles. I'm the original owner and the car's all original, however, it has a problem. When driving over any bumps or road surfaces, the car's suspension does not seem to be working properly. The ride's so violent, that when driving over bumps, I almost get forced out of the seat and hit my head on the headliner. I have a 1993 Jeep Wrangler that rides smoother than my Bonneville. I have stopped driving the Bonneville it's so bad. Can anyone advise?

I just realized, this is how a ride would be described if a shock or other major suspension component was seized. I would be inclined to bounce test on all 4 corners and look for any discrepancies.

[TheMortallyWounded]

I've just run into a problem with this. It all started when...

Monday, I was driving home and ran over a SMALL snow drift in the road. Pretty common here this time of year. I immediately noticed a dragging sound on the ground. It turned out to be a brake line, which the previous owner had fixed (poorly) and the line was grabbed and pulled down in the snowbank. No big deal.

So yesterday (Wednesday) I jacked it up on the driver's side and tucked that line up out of the way so it wouldn't drag. Driving to work last night, I noticed that the car was bouncing all over the road... BADLY. After getting into the city, suddenly I had the ABS light, Traction Control Off light, and Low Tire Pressure all come on at the same time. The tire pressure was fine (actually, above the 30psi stated on the door.)

So my THEORY is: When I jacked up the car, the control arm and wheel dropped down, stretching the shock and sucking air in through the lines. Now it's stuck, and I can't seem to get it out. And with just one shock acting up, one would think this would affect the traction control, and thusly ABS. Why it bothered the tire pressure monitor I'm not sure.

What a pain in the ass. Anybody got any suggestions? How do you dump the air out of the shocks on this thing without breaking the system?

[harofreak00]

Remove the line from the shock. Simple clip system.