Ride quality of my 97 Cutlass Supreme Coupe

[Mark 1997 Cutlass Coupe]

I was wondering if I was alone in having a rough ride on my car. I replaced the rear struts a few years ago, and I was hoping it would make things better. It didn't. I haven't replaced the front struts yet. It seems like any small bump in the road results in a general thunk in the car. Nothing obvious-no loose wheel lugs, tires are good, etc. The insert on the end of the rear leaf spring is gone, but I can't imagine that would make much difference. By contrast, my 96 Roadmaster wagon with the same miles just floats over bumps big and small. I love my Cutlass, but I'd like to do something to make it ride better.

[55trucker]

When the shocks go away the springs don't stop rebounding when the car go over any sort of distortion in the road. Driving over potholes will let the spring compress & extend in a sharp manner & you'll feel that,  If you jounce the corners of the car do you see anything more than one upward motion of that corner & then the car settles? 

 

Those rubber spring pads on the ends of the composite leaf do stop noise from being generated by the spring. The end of the spring should not be riding directly on the steel in that opening of the rear knuckle, the rubber pad is like a sock that goes around the leaf spring to both cushion & protect it. 

[Imp558]

The engineering behind our rear struts in a first gen is a bit odd. I did a rear upper mount a couple years ago and noticed the strut offered a good deal of resistance on rebound but it was very easy to compress with my hand. I assumed it was bad and it was a lifetime warranty so I ran it to the auto parts store where I showed it to the guy there and he agreed that it was a bad strut and gave me a new one. When I cut the strap off of the new strut it felt exactly like the one I had removed. for some reason the struts that come factory in the rear of our cars and The Replacements that are for them as far as I can tell all offer next to no resistance upon compression. if that's what you're feeling it's not just the Cutlass. with that said I would think your Spring is weak.

Edited August 15, 2017 by Imp558

[55trucker]

 as far as I can tell all offer next to no resistance upon compression

This is quite true....

 

the shocks are what is called single acting.......meaning they only offer resistance in one direction ....extension

 

the pressure that you see in the piston when it automatically extends when the strap is removed is caused by the nitrogen gas in the shock.

That gas offers some resistance when you attempt to compress the piston by hand.

 

A shock that has lost the gas charge will not extend the piston, when this happens one can press down on the shock piston relatively easy, but there can still be some resistance in the shock when you try to extend the piston.

 

The gas charge is there to keep the shock cool, losing the gas charge will allow the shock to heat up faster internally & eventually fail when continually responding to poor road conditions.