GHWelles

OK, I ran over a curb with my 2001 SS with SLP bolt on sub frame connectors. The right front tire hit hard but glancing and the rear tire went straight on over the curb and the right rear wheel jammed up hard. The right rear tire went flat.

The car was very soft and spongy on the passenger side and rolled heavily to the right in left hand turns and squats on the right rear on acceleration.

So I took it to the dealer, who found bent trailing arm on the right rear and replaced that. The problem remained.

So I went back to the dealer and they said the suspension and springs should be replaced in the back. So I ordered an SLP set of Bilstein's and springs. With new suspension all around. This set http://www.slponline.com/view_product.asp?P=70002.

Now the car is a total pig! The rear end is a trampoline and has no firmness at all. If you hit a bump the front shocks hit kind of mushy, but the back bounces so high your head nearly hits the roof! If I accelerate around a corner, the rear wheels have no traction and spin out like crazy and the car slides arond while squatting badly.

The genius mechanics before the gave the car back to me "fixed" tried to compensate by inflating the front two tires at 40 pounds each and the left rear at 30 pounds and the right rear at 45 pounds!
Spec is 30 pounds.

I see no evidence of any cracks in the frame, and the front anti-sway bar and back anti-sway bar seem securely mounted. The back anti sway bar seems a little bent, but not much. It is like the back suspension just is not working. What could it be?

Help!

Z28barnett

They might have tightened the rear trailing arms with the rear suspension at full droop. This means that the bushings will be twice as wound up when they are pushed upward by a bump or they will bind and the shocks will do very little.

The rear trailing arm bushings will fail if this is what is happening.

It is easily fixed, just take the car to a shop that has a flat lift that supports the car by the wheels, such as a muffler shop.

Loosen all 6 bolts that hold the rear trailing arms and panhard rod. bounce the car some and retighten the bolts with the suspension at ride height.

If this doesn't help, you might have bad shocks or a badly bent rear sway bar or panhard rod.

Rear sway bars are cheap, so if you have any doubt replace it and use new endlinks.

The front is harder to figure out. If they left out the Dog biscuits in the upper mounts that might cause a problem. Or if they didnt tighten the upper shock rod nut down. No way to tell without pulling the front shocks.

You need somebody who is good at suspension to look at the car. Perhaps some of the local autocross guy can suggest a shop. The dealer should not have messed this up, this is basic stuff, but something is wrong.

Z28

GHWelles

Thanks, I agree they should not have messed this up. And they tried to hide it by over inflating the tires at different pressures to "balance" the car out. inflating the front tires to 40 pounds, the right rear to 45 pounds and leaving the left rear at 30 pounds.