Pissed!!!Rear shocks

[C man]

One of my rear shocks just went out. The one on the passenger side. I noticed it had a leak a couple of months ago when I sat on the car and the air compressor kept coming on and I went to that shock and could hear an air leak. Well now I have three sides that are alright and one side leaning. . Is there a way to manual fill the shock? What kinda cost I'm I looking at and is this an easy do-it-yourselfer. I drive everyday so any responses would be very appreciated.

[sarotara]

Originally Posted by C man

One of my rear shocks just went out. The one on the passenger side. I noticed it had a leak a couple of months ago when I sat on the car and the air compressor kept coming on and I went to that shock and could hear an air leak. Well now I have three sides that are alright and one side leaning. . Is there a way to manual fill the shock? What kinda cost I'm I looking at and is this an easy do-it-yourselfer. I drive everyday so any responses would be very appreciated.

Front or rear struts? Also, struts are usually replaced in pairs, both fronts, or both rears since you have to get alignment done after replacing them. If there is a leak from the strut, manually filling the strut won't do you any good since it will just keep on leaking. The largest problem is that if the compressor keeps coming on to fill the strut it might drain your car battery. It's not that hard to replace the struts yourself, but you will need a nice long breaker bar to do it

[C man]

Sorry guys, False alarm. I parked in my regular spot and everything was okay.The carport driveway leans more than I thought. But I do have a leak in my rear passenger side struts. When I got back home and thought about it and realized that the compressors wasn't constantly running so everything must be okay , I just panicked a little.

[Jrs3800]

Quick explanation here...

The rear struts you have are Gas Charged with Air assist... So it possible for the gas portion of the strut to fail and still have the air portion work fine... And in other cases its possible for the air portion to fail and have the gas portion be ok.. In your case the air portion is almost dead..

You can put the rear struts on the car but you will need to give yourself alignment marks so you can get the alignment as close as possible... After that you will have to have the alignment reset..

If you intend to replace the struts I would recommend Monroe Matic Plus struts or Monroe Sensatrack struts.... Either of these would be great... If you are going to do the struts you might just as well do them all the way around and do the alignment once and be done with it..

I am wondering tho, have you ever dealt with front struts?

[C man]

No I've never dealt with front struts, I'm a newbie when it comes to cars I just got my first car 2 years ago.

[sarotara]

Originally Posted by C man

No I've never dealt with front struts, I'm a newbie when it comes to cars I just got my first car 2 years ago.

If you're going to replace the front struts yourself, I would suggest that you replace the whole strut assembly which includes the springs. It's more expensive to do it that way, but it's safer and easier if you haven't done any major work on a car before. A factory manual helps too. If you want to you can PM me with an e-mail address and I can send you scans of the pages that deal with the front and rear strut replacement. I should also have some pictures from the time I replaced the rear struts.

[Jrs3800]

I do agree... If you have never dealt with the front struts on the C or H Bodies it can be very dangerous removing the spring as its under a lot of pressure.. I have done a lot of these and many different cars some are a lot easier than others.. But In one case we had an issues with the strut plate, and lets just saw away it went... I was ok when it popped tho as I never point the unit towards anyone nor have my fingers in the way... In another case we had a strut spring compressor pop and go flying... I have done a lot of these over the years so it is a good track record for as many as I have done... But its still very dangerous due to the spring pressures involved..

I do agree it would be a lot safer to use the assembled unit..

But at the same time you could buy the Monroe Matic Plus strut, the Spring( Like a firm ride and handling spring ) the new seats and still come in way way cheaper...

Cman do you know anyone that is knowledge with cars and has done struts? If you weren't too far away I'd tell you to bring it over here and we'd go all through it and at the same time could stiffen and improve the Park ave's handling..

There is a lot you can do here if you know the right people...

[C man]

I think this is one of those problems that I'll just live with. When the strut does go, I'll worry about it. Its actually kinda of funny to see people driving with the rear struts shot, I especially see it on older cadillacs, not so funny when the front suppension caves in, which is what I seen happen on a crown vic yesterday. I think thats a ford problem anyway.

[Jrs3800]

Yeah My struts are not so happy these days... They have close to 80,000 miles on them now and I went to the F41 Firm Ride & Handling suspension while I was at it... It sure made it a fun car to drive for a large sedan.. I still have people tell me they are surprised at how the car rides and drives... And I know the struts are about done.. Even with that it presents a ride thats a little too stiff through North Carolina... Running throught NC I had started to think maybe it was a little too stiff... The I got into the twisties of West Virginia and I was happy I did the upgrade...LOL

All I can tell you is that For such a large car you can sure do a lot and get a lot out of them..