2002 rear shocks

I have a 2002 Buick Lesabre Limited. RR shock was leaking oil. I read past threads and was encouraged by what members had to say about the ease of replacement with the Monroe MA822 shocks. I purchased a pair, old shocks came out with no problem. However when installing the shocks into the existing upper shock mount, I did not have enough threads on the stud to allow the nut to go on. I compared the old shock to the Monroe. Orginal shock was threaded all the way to the end of the stud, the monroe threaded only to within 1/2" to the end of the stud.

Anything short of going to Buick and paying their high prices for OEM, is their any other shock out there that could solve this problem or has anyone solved the problem by replacing the stock upper mount with a Monroe or KYB mount, allowing the use of the MA822?

Thanks for any feedback! - Rick

you sure you have shocks or strut's on that? most all buicks have struts all the way around. and on the threads you may have got the wrong ones or they came out like that i cant see monroe doing that unless it was a screw up.

Yes, they are definitely shocks. My 1997 Lesabre Ltd has struts all the way around. Yes, I agree, why didn't they thread the entire stud like the originals? Monroe does offer a replacement upper shock mount. They might be shallower than the original Buick mount. I'm hoping some of the experts on here might shed some light on this problem. And, yes, the catalog has been checked and rechecked to being the correct shock. I would definitely like to stay with the Monroes in lieu of going to the expensive OEM GM shocks.

Thanks for the reply!

Could you by chance snap a pic of the threaded end...

I installed these on my 03 Bonneville( same exact Car other than yours has buick stamped on it ) with 0 issues using the original shock mounts..

Just to note it for anyone else reading... All Buick LeSabres from 86-99 used struts all the way around... The 00-05 LeSabre used struts on the front and shocks on the rear..

Jrs - I have a pic on my desktop, but, when I try to attach it to this response it doesn't seem to do anything. I could email it to you.

Jrs - Maybe this will work?

I have a 2002 Buick Lesabre Limited. RR shock was leaking oil. I read past threads and was encouraged by what members had to say about the ease of replacement with the Monroe MA822 shocks. I purchased a pair, old shocks came out with no problem. However when installing the shocks into the existing upper shock mount, I did not have enough threads on the stud to allow the nut to go on. I compared the old shock to the Monroe. Orginal shock was threaded all the way to the end of the stud, the monroe threaded only to within 1/2" to the end of the stud.

Anything short of going to Buick and paying their high prices for OEM, is their any other shock out there that could solve this problem or has anyone solved the problem by replacing the stock upper mount with a Monroe or KYB mount, allowing the use of the MA822?

Thanks for any feedback! - Rick

The one thing I think of first is did you assemble the parts correctly on the shock that go below the wheel well mount? Did you move over the large rubber insulator correctly?

I can't find the instructions for the rear shocks in my box of pieces.
I wanted the picture of the arrangement of parts if there was one.

Are you saying you don't have enough thread room on the top of the strut inside the trunk to get the nut on?

Here are the parts inside the trunk.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k110/imidazol97/DSC07815.jpg

Here are the parts under the wheel well.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k110/imidazol97/DSC07816.jpg

Are you lowering the car while supporting the lower arm of the suspension to raise the top of the strut into the trunk? The lower arm should not have hung free on the left side especially. I used a block of wood under mine to support it after the tire was off.

imida -I am working everything from a set of ramps. I took the new shock and you ask if everything was installed right from the bottom side of the fender well. Using the existing shock mount that's already there, the only thing to added to the stud side of the shock is the larger cupped washer. I had that tight to the existing bottom side of the rubber shock mount but I had plenty of stud coming thru the trunk side, but no threads available to install the nut. As I stated earlier, the original shock stud was threaded all the way to the end of the stud, but the new shock was threaded to only 1/2" shy of making it to the end. Trust me, either there's been a design change to the upper shock mount or Monroe has made a bad MFG mistake in the end of the stud end. I am still welcome to comments as this job has to be completed one way or the other. :smooch:

imida -I am working everything from a set of ramps. I took the new shock and you ask if everything was installed right from the bottom side of the fender well. Using the existing shock mount that's already there, the only thing to added to the stud side of the shock is the larger cupped washer. I had that tight to the existing bottom side of the rubber shock mount but I had plenty of stud coming thru the trunk side, but no threads available to install the nut. As I stated earlier, the original shock stud was threaded all the way to the end of the stud, but the new shock was threaded to only 1/2" shy of making it to the end. Trust me, either there's been a design change to the upper shock mount or Monroe has made a bad MFG mistake in the end of the stud end. I am still welcome to comments as this job has to be completed one way or the other. :smooch:

Is the cup under the mount positioned with the convex side up so it fits up into the underside of the rubber mount a distance?

Is the cup on the upper top of the mount positioned with the convex side down so it fits into the top of the rubber mount for a distance?

Is the rubber part fully positioned upward against the underside of the metal bracket with the smaller part sticking out above into the trunk?

I ask these questions because I had trouble getting the parts together on the top of the front strut. There weren't enough threads on the end of the rod. Then I found, by comparison with the old unit, that the one spacer in the front was upside down. The example on the bellows dust shield box was generic so it didn't help me.

So I'm hoping that there's a minor quirk in your assembly that will allow a quick fix for you. We spent about 40 minutes trying to get the spring on the front strut back into place!!!!

You are exactly right (you already know that) about the threads on the originals going to the end of the AC Delco shocks. The threads on my MA822s probably are 1/2 to 3/4 inch down on the rod. Only a small part of the threads are needed as you can see in my picture. The threads extra are only 3-4 rounds. So one or both of the cups against the rubber mount turned over would extend the length needed and probably not allow the nut to fit on.

I hope by comparison of parts and positions, you can find something is out of place.
Good luck.

Imida - I put everything back the way it was from the factory,and it didn't work. I called Buick today and the parts manager said he thought there was a design change from my year, his up-to-date change had everything to match, the whole kit to include shocks, shock mounts and miscellaneous hardware pieces at just a fraction above what I was at with the MA822 shocks. My wife wants her car back, and I am heading that direction! Monroe needs to look at their design, if it means replacing the upper shock mount, then tell the people that, not a problem for me! I hate surprises just like the next guy!

Imida - I put everything back the way it was from the factory,and it didn't work. I called Buick today and the parts manager said he thought there was a design change from my year, his up-to-date change had everything to match, the whole kit to include shocks, shock mounts and miscellaneous hardware pieces at just a fraction above what I was at with the MA822 shocks. My wife wants her car back, and I am heading that direction! Monroe needs to look at their design, if it means replacing the upper shock mount, then tell the people that, not a problem for me! I hate surprises just like the next guy!

When you get the parts back for the Monroe, measure the height of the mount rubber at the top. I'd like to compare it to mine in my 2003. That would be the only place variation could be unless the circular metal supports are upside down as I suggested.

The rockauto.com parts catalog gives the same parts numbers for the 2002 and 2003 years as well as the GM part numbers are the _same_.
The shock mounts rubber pieces are the same from 2000-2005.

yah i knew there was a kit to change to shocks but i prefered to stay with o-e's...

I installed the Monroe shocks on my 2000, 2004 and on a friend's 2002. I've never had any problem installing them but you need to use the full weight of the car to seat the shocks in the upper mounts.

Set your rear parking brake, loosen your wheel nuts on one wheel and raise the corner of the car you are going to service first. Leave all three other wheels on the ground with their wheel nuts fully tightened and the parking brake firmly engaged. Make sure you use a good quality floor jack and a sturdy jack stand even when you only have the one corner up in teh air, don't use the factory scissor jack. Use the steel rear sub frame as your lifting point, don't use the lifting points along the unibody rail that you would normally use to change a tire. When you position your floor jack for lifting on the rear sub frame remember that once the wheel is up in the air you will need to place your jack stand ahead of it on the subframe as well. I usually choose a location for my lift point away from the out-board edge of the sub frame which leaves lots of room to the right or left of center on the solid enclosed frame member. Your jack stand should NOT be centered under the rear sub frame for this job, you want to let the opposite wheel take a fair chunk of the rear axle weight and end up with just the one wheel in the air.

Make sure you have the car supported with the jack stand before you remove the wheel. Jack the car up just high enough so that it isn't touching the ground, but don't go any higher than the next highest notch on your jack stand. You should have the suspension on the one rear corner hanging loose with the wheel barely high enough that the tire is not making contact with the ground. You should not be able to spin the wheel freely because you should have the parking brake set for this job.

Remove the wheel and tire assembly and place your floor jack under the rear knuckle/trailing arm tip. Gently pump up the floor jack until it just barely makes contact with the bottom of the rear trailing arm and let it take up some of the slack in the suspension assembly. The goal is to simply support the wheel end while you disconnect the shock hardware. Do not allow the floor jack to take the weight of the corner of the car off of the jack stand, the goal is to just get the floor jack in a position to prevent the shock assembly from falling out of the car for the next step.

Go inside the trunk and carefully loosen the top nut on the OE shock, once the nut is free, make sure the stud is somewhat loose in the mount. Go back down to your wheel end and gently release pressure on your floor jack. Remember, this whole time the jack stand should be supporting the car, you are only using the floor jack to manipulate the suspension assembly. As you release pressure the trailing arm should sag and the shock should slide right out of the mount for easy removal.

Remove the air line adapter retainer and air supply line fitting. Carefully remove the lower shock bolts and remove the OE shock from the car.

Now for the key part, position your new shock in it's place. DO NOT use the hardware supplied by Monroe. Re-use your existing cup washers in the original installation order. I like to apply some greese to the cup washers where the washers make contact with the rubber mount or potentially make contact. This helps to quiet sqeaky mounts over rough road conditions.

Once you have the shock tenatively in place, go ahead and install the lower bolts, you might have to use the floor jack to raise the trailing arm in order to get the stud to center in the upper mount, just don't tighten the lower shock bolts yet, snug tight should be good enough at this point with all the hardware in its proper order.

For the grand finale~Go ahead and reinstall your rear wheel. Make absolutely sure that the upper stude for the new shock is centered in the upper mount's bore. Even though the stud is not extending past the upper mount inside the trunk, when you install your wheel you should notice that the downward suspension travel is now limited by the tire. You'll probably have to use the floor jack under the trailing arm to raise the wheel end enough to get the tire back on, but do not allow the jack to take the weight of the car off of the jack stand at any time. Once the wheel is in place you can remove the floor jack from the bottom of the trailing arm and let the suspension sag so that the tire falls to ground. MAKE SURE that the shock's upper stud is still centered in the bore for the upper mount. Basically the suspension should all look as though its properly assembled now, just without the upper nut in place.

Snug tighten your wheel nuts such as to take the full weight of the car and place your jack under the sub frame, go ahead and remove your jack stand and let your floor jack take the weight of the car from the sub frame lifting point. The goal here is to gently lower the car and let the weight of the car do the work of reassembling your suspension. As you gently lower the car down to the ground you should notice your shock taking its proper position in the upper mount. By the time the tire is settled back down on the ground, your stud should be protruding quite nicely inside the trunk.... plenty of threads available to secure your upper shock absorber nut. Just don't forget your cup washer there and once again, don't use the Monroe washer re-use your old one, I reccomend greese on all of the cup washers.

Now all you need to do is lift the corner back up and perform final torque on all your shock hardware. Torque the lower bolts to spec, torque the upper nut to spec and install your air supply line fitting.

I've actually had success swapping upper shock mounts on these cars without removing the wheel. Just be safe about it and don't let your gaurd down with this procedure. My general rule of thumb is that I don't want any part of my body anywhere beyond the outter limits of the vehicle body unless there is a jack stand supporting the weight. While you are lowering the car down if you see the shock going gally west in the mount, don't be tempted to reach in above the wheel to guide it. Just stop what you are doing, jack the car back up, put the jack stand under it and make your adjustments to the assembly for a second try.

Doing this repair on an asphalt surface is playing fast and loose with life and limb. When you lift the car using a floor jack under the rear subframe you are concentrating more than half the rear axle weight on a couple small points. Potential exists for you to end up punching right through your asphalt driveway. Keep the parking brake on and tight because you don't want the rear wheel on the opposite side of the car to slip while you're working. Definately avoid using the unibody emergency lifting points under the doors for this procedure, you'll risk damage to the sheet metal.

I've never seen this procedure fail to fully seat the shock. A couple times I've had to bounce on the bumper a little bit to get a full thread up above the shock mount. When you do this repair, the full weight of the car is your best friend, just use it carefully. With a little practice I've gotten the whole procedure down to about 20 minutes per side.

pcmos - Wow! Thanks for the response. You've brought up some very important points and I appreciate that. Tomorrow, I am picking up the GM kit which includes the new shock mounts, shocks and hardware so I'll have it for Sat morning. I plan on measuring both the inside and outside depth of both rubber ends of the shock mounts (new vs old) and the distance of the Monroe stud which was not threaded to the end, just to see where I lost out on going to the MA822. I agree with all who have replaced these Buick shocks, that these shocks are a pleasure to replace especially had the Monroes been threaded all the way, I could have gone without issues. I feel very confident in going to the OEM and will be able to tell once I pull everything out of the box. One doesn't have wait for the installation to see if it will work. Put it together right out of the box in the comfort of your home. You will know if you got it right! I WILL share with all of what I find out. Thanks for all of your help!

I love this forum! People willing to share!

pcmos - Wow! Thanks for the response. You've brought up some very important points and I appreciate that. Tomorrow, I am picking up the GM kit which includes the new shock mounts, shocks and hardware so I'll have it for Sat morning. I plan on measuring both the inside and outside depth of both rubber ends of the shock mounts (new vs old) and the distance of the Monroe stud which was not threaded to the end, just to see where I lost out on going to the MA822. I agree with all who have replaced these Buick shocks, that these shocks are a pleasure to replace especially had the Monroes been threaded all the way, I could have gone without issues. I feel very confident in going to the OEM and will be able to tell once I pull everything out of the box. One doesn't have wait for the installation to see if it will work. Put it together right out of the box in the comfort of your home. You will know if you got it right! I WILL share with all of what I find out. Thanks for all of your help!

I love this forum! People willing to share!

Keep us updated. Do you know what GM Part Number the conversion kit is? What was the approximate cost? Let us know if the ride is better or worse, Thanks!

Found the part on Rock Auto. Its currently listed at about $125.00. So the big question is, how does it affect the ride?

pcmos - Wow! Thanks for the response. You've brought up some very important points and I appreciate that. Tomorrow, I am picking up the GM kit which includes the new shock mounts,

I love this forum! People willing to share!

2buicks: what has been the result of your replacement now?

Hi guys. This is my second reply. The first one, I got logged out! Sorry if this shows up twice.

The shock replacement is done! I purchased the AC Delco shocks from our local Buick dealer. $160 with a price break. AC Delco part 504-123, GM part 19207418. These shocks come completely assembled to a new upper shock mount. All I had to do is remove the old shock mount, have my wife in the trunk and I lifted the shock up into the 2 holes of the upper body. I had my wife install the metal plate over the 2 studs and install the nuts and snugged them down. I then could fasten the lower shock mounting. All in all this went very quickly for us. The hardest part of the installation was securing a short piece of wire around the air fitting to secure it to the grooved portion of the fitting. I worked all this off a set of ramps which I did not want to mess with floor jacks. Oh, and for those of you who have never done this job, please do not drive your car down the road without air in the shocks. Take the time for you and your wife or neighbor to stand or sit in the trunk for a few minutes and you will soon hear the air compressor inflating the shocks to the proper pressure. If you don't do this you stand the chance of damaging the internal bladder of the shock.

Well the job is done, the wife is happy :smile: to have her car back. Thanks so much for all the help and input. Happy motoring. Rick