Rear suspension noise?

[jeffcoslacker]

For some time now, I have had a loud, sharp metallic "shriek" in the rear when stepping over speed bumps or potholes. It seems that a sudden movement is neccessary to produce it, I can't bounce the back and get it to do it. I've heard a couple of others have the noise too. Is it common to the Lumina ('97)? Drove in dusty, gravelly country roads with it for about a year. That's when it began. If it is just trapped crud, or a bad bushing, I'd like to fix it.

[richtazz]

since your car no longer has the transverse leaf spring, I would check the bushings in the rear trailing arm and look for foreign material in between the spindle arms and the frame.

[dannas]

make sure the rubber pads in between the tires and the shocks are still there...mine fell off somewhere and made horrid noises over speed bumps and such as well.

[richtazz]

have you figured this one out yet Jeff?

[dwalmop]

Next weekend I am replacing my rear strut mounts for a similar problem, although mine's not really a metallic 'shriek' sound, more or less just nasty clunking every time I hit a bump. It makes me sick