thumping/banging noise in rear suspension when going over bumps

[douellette]

the car is a 93 regal custom (4dr). It has about 111k on it. The rear struts don't appear too too old, but the previous owner said his mechanic said it needed rear struts. when you go over bumps there is a kind of thumping noise on the driver side, almost like a bad mount or something. is there anything i should check before i just go change out the struts? thanks!

[rich_e777]

Bad mount would be my 1st guess, and you need to replace both sides at the same time. Also the car probable has the monoleaf spring and the pads at the ends will wear out and need to be replaced as well. That you can check pretty easy, just get under the rear of the car, you dont have to jack it up and see if the ends of the monoleaf can be moved up and down. While you down there grab the trailing arms and see if they are looses aswell, those are simple to replace if needed.

[White93z34]

check the mount, check where the trailing arm bolts to the body.

[LUMINATOR]

If its making a clunking noise then its probably a rear strut. I had the same problem on my 90 Lumina it was making some noises from the rear passenger side. Replaced the strut and it all went away. If you have the strut out of the car and you can easily push it down with no effort at all then it will need to be replaced.