Hello all!

[Schlotzky]

Hey, my name is Troy and I have a 1995 Buick Park Ave Ultra (supercharged) and have so far not found much help by the way of forums as there don't seem to be many active Buick forums. Hopefully this place can help me out. I don't have any real burning questions as of right now other than I was wondering if the Bonneville ever had the CCR; computer command ride system. I need to replace my front shocks and just had a couple questions. Anyway, here is a picture of my Buick next to my Camaro:

[J Wikoff]

Welcome!! The Bonneville could have the CCR also. Good luck finding replacement struts, if at all, at a good price.

[crash93ssei]

Welcome!

Any questions you have about the Buick will be answered here for sure

[Schlotzky]

Thanks for the welcomes. I was searching around RockAuto a few months ago and all I could find was a CCR strut, but now they appear to have CCR strut assemblies for 178 a piece.

ACDELCO Part # 503530RS {#19165965}
STRUT,FRT SUSP 4 DOORS; COMPUTER COMMAND RIDE, READY STRUT
STRUT,FRT SUSP 4 DOORS; READY STRUT
* Non-stock item--shipping delayed up to 12 business days
$178.79


This being only $6 more than a gas-charged ready strut made me a bit skeptical as to whether it actually maintains the CCR. I was mostly wondering if anyone had tried this assembly and if the CCR continued to work, or if the CCR was really even worth keeping. I bought the car with blown struts, so it's not like I'll be missing whatever they were originally supposed to do.

[crash93ssei]

If you find a strut that will retain the factory CCR, from what I have seen you would be looking about $400 - $600 each Pretty much all of the struts listed at any parts store or online store are a replacement strut without CCR.

[GXPete]

Welcome Troy!

Not sure that's the right one. I'm not one of the experts here, but I did a quick search for you over at gmpartsdirect.com and found 3 different front struts listed for your make and model - standard, sport, and ride control. The ride control strut is more than twice the cost of the other two, at about $370. You'll want to check with them for the exact part number. When I plugged in the part number you mentioned above (19165965), it did bring back a strut, but that's all it said. Not sure if that is the right one or not. Here's a direct link to the ride control one I found:

http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/ ... atalogid=0

[Schlotzky]

Thanks for the quick reply. I was doing some reading in older threads and read similar things, and also that CCR is not really worth keeping. And it also seems that the CCR is a bit more in-depth on the bonnevilles (manually selectable modes and whatnot; the only way I know my car has it is the wires going to the front struts).

I also read once that a quick strut will not necessarily have the same spring rate as factory and not to buy a quick strut. There are 4 or 5 options on RockAuto though for quick struts and I'd definitely prefer the install of a quick strut over dealing with spring compressors again (not sure how these struts are to replace, but the strut-like shock setup on my Camaro was a huge pain, a ready strut would have saved me many hours). Was there any particular reason I should use a replacement strut rather than a ready strut? And how much work should I be expecting for either? I had to cut the shaft of the shock in half on the Camaro to get the rusted bolts off--should I be expecting this again?

Edit: thanks for the reply GXPete, I'll check into that...I had a feeling the price gap would be larger than RockAuto is making it sound.

One other question, I've read the Park Ave's had an option Gran Touring suspension which in addition to different springs/shocks had larger front sway bars (32mm I believe) I'd assume it's the same for the bonnevilles fitment-wise-- is this something I might be able to find in the wanted section, or were there different bar options on the bonnies?

[Dopey85]

welcome to the club

[WhiteArrow3800]

Welcome to the Community!

Nice pair of rides too!

[gorin002]

welcome

this dumb qwestion
whats a strut ?

[Schlotzky]

Thanks for the welcomes.


It's essentially a shock with a spring mounted on it. Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacPherson_strut

[larryp7639]

Hi, I am a new member of forum. Would a newcomer be warmly welcome here? Good day you guys!!!

[willwren]

No Larry, you're a spammer. An observant Staff member already banned you. Luck to you!

[00Beast]

Welcome Schlotzky!!