Camry 95 2.2 AT Rattle rear suspension

[burchard]

My camry 95 2.2 AT, has a rattle noise in the rear (specialy left side) suspension. It is very clear at low speed in a bumpy roeds. I have checked the sway bar (ok), sway bar bushings (changed 6 months ago), sway bar links (ok), control arms (ok). Any ideas? Thanks

[rwood13]

maybe something loose in the brake

[AndyM1978]

I had that annoying clunk on one side of the rear too. Sounded like a tool was bumping around in the trunk. I had my rear struts replaced and the noise went away completely. My mechanic said one of the rear struts was 90% shot which caused the noise. It cost me $280 to have them both replaced. Once replaced, my car felt like a totally different car. Almost felt sporty.

One thing I noticed... Before the struts were replaced, I could push (with all my weight) on the trunk of the car and the car would pretty easily go down in the back (It also bottomed out easily with 2 adults or more in the back). After the replacement, I could only make the rear of my car go down about 2 inches by putting my weight on it. Much stiffer. You could try this on your car maybe. If the rear sags pretty easily when you apply weight to it, then it may be your struts.

I also heard that you can push down the rear of your car and let it up abruptly to see if the struts are 100% blown. If they are blown, the rear will bounce up and down more than once. Never got that to happen on my car though.

[jaysheard]

im sure by the struts, he mean shocks. Struts are located on the front of the vehicle, and shocks are mounted on the rear suspension, just to clear up any of the confusion.

[ProLS1]

Originally Posted by jaysheard

im sure by the struts, he mean shocks. Struts are located on the front of the vehicle, and shocks are mounted on the rear suspension, just to clear up any of the confusion.

to clear up jaysheards misunderstanding..... struts are commonly located front & rear. we replaced all 4 struts on a 93 camry this morning. struts are an assembly that hold the spring with the 'shock' contained in the center. shock or strut has nothing to do with front or rear.

[jaysheard]

sorry, thank you for clearing that up, now i have a better understanding about the suspension assembly. Learn something new everyday

[burchard]

Originally Posted by jaysheard

sorry, thank you for clearing that up, now i have a better understanding about the suspension assembly. Learn something new everyday

I noticd that when the car has two passangers on the rear seats, the rattle noise disapears. I also pushed down the rear suspension to test the shocks. They seem to be working fine. Does the facts that the shocks seem to be fine and that the noise disapears with people on the back setas point to defective/loose strut mounts?
Thanks for any input..