Chasing noise and hard ride

[Doctor Shifty]

Hi Folks,

My wife drives a 97 Hardtop V6 manual. We've had it for about a year. It has 167,000 kms and is in very good condition, well cared for I'd say for it's whole life.

It has a lot of road noise coming into the car, and lots of bump and feel noise over imperfections in the road. Concrete roads with seams every few metres are a special trouble. The car hits the seam with a hard bump, same front and back. It's as if the shocks are not doing anything.

Road with lots of cracks filled with ribbon style bitumen are the same.

I took it to Pedders for their dynamic shock testing. All shocks showed up even, in the mid range, and with no excess movement for any of them.

My thoughts were that perhaps the rubbers were hardening up or something.

Are there any thoughts on things I should check?

[project.r.racing]

Tyre pressures?

[DavoAust]

has the car been lowered? thats exactly how it feels with lower, stiffer springs and standard shocks

[Cosmo Dude]

I'd say dampers, sixteen years from a set of shocks is a good run especialy since the V6 has harder springs than the I4

[Doctor Shifty]

I took it into a suspension shop today and they spent an hour checking everything out.

First up. Open the bonnet and there is problem #1. Both strut top mounts are cracked right across the rubbers. Press down on the car and the cracks open and close with the movement. They can't really tell the condition of the shockers with the mounts in that condition.

#2. The rear shocks are not good and need replacing. The Pedders test last week only showed movement, but not the initial harshness/stiction/feel of the things.

#3. Tie rods ball joints that link to the rear sway bar are on the way out. That shouldn't be contributing to the noise on a flat road but it's good to know their condition. I should be able to find them at a wrecker or here somewhere.


They quoted me $180 each for the strut top mounts. Seems a bit much, or is that my inner stinge talking?

I asked for a quote for all four shocks. $915 supply/fit/wheel align. Boge shocks.

It always takes a day or two for big spend items to work their way into my head. :)

[Cosmo Dude]

I'm suprised Pedders didn't pickup on the strut tops that's kinda their bag.
That price for strut tops looks like OEM Mazda price, ask. Pedders have tham cheaper than OEM, you could buy them from Pedders and have suspension shop install them.
$915 supply/fit & wheel align, go for it.

[Doctor Shifty]

I'm suprised Pedders didn't pickup on the strut tops that's kinda their bag.
That price for strut tops looks like OEM Mazda price, ask. Pedders have tham cheaper than OEM, you could buy them from Pedders and have suspension shop install them.
$915 supply/fit & wheel align, go for it.

When I saw the cracks I'm surprised Pedders didn't notice them. I'll have them take a second look and ask their price.

That $915 is for shock replacement only. $360 for strut mounts on top of that is pretty quick acceleration. This is what comes from sitting in the back seat of my wife's car and feeling how bad it really is. :(

And add in their price for the sway bar link rods, $235 - and sway bar bushes, $66. This is serious payday erosion.

[Clean_Cookie]

DIY an option?, probably took 6 hours in total to install new struts and swaybar+bushings...

[Doctor Shifty]

There was a time when I did everything for myself, normal maintenance as well as things like this. Trouble is, each birthday adds a little to that voice in my head that says, 'Ahh, just get somebody else to do the stuff.'

All I need is a paypacket that rises at the same rate as that inner voice. :)

The sway bar stuff I'll do myself - I was looking at fitting a Whiteline bar anyway. But fooling around to remove/replace shocks and set up spring compressors etc ... I think I'd rather be out on my motorbike for the day.