set me straight on this..

[sunfiregirl_96]

OK....I have searched all the sunfire forums..to no avail....
This is going to a dumb question....and I know all you guys are going to roll your eyes....
in the back of my fire...whenever i go over a bump i get a clunk....I know what the problem is...but my friends disagree...
is it shocks or struts????
some say shocks..some say struts.....being a girl....i know i'm goin to get laughed at ...so go ahead..yuk it up....
but which is it?

it's a '96...and all the parts I have replaced or upgraded so far have been original...so I'm thinkin everything in the back is original too....

[Robbie1]

I believe it is your shocks.
My 98 does the same, I'm gonna sell it soon, so it gets no new shocks.
BTW some times does it have a sort of rattle noise?

[sunfiregirl_96]

Thought it was my shocks...
Ya it does rattle a bit now and then but not all the time, I keep thinking that it is something in my trunk loose but not likely...
If I am sitting in the car it is on the drivers side in the back that clunks, only on bumps tho...you know our good old canadian roads
Shocks arent all that expensive anyways...
besides I just got back not all that long ago from driving from ontario to BC and back....so they should be just about done

[hotbug1776]

it's the rear suspension (coilover shocks) GM made them weak for some reason, my did it the day I brought it home, replace the mounts and all with Gabrials and it doesn't make a sound. I'd like to get adjustable coilovers soon, but I have other things more pressing to get for the car right now.

[sunfiregirl_96]

Thanks Hotbug, I'll look into that.
This seems to be the only problem left with the fire so hopefully (knock on wood) that nothing else goes wrong...I've fixed all the other glitches that they seem to have.

[hotbug1776]

get the mounts as well, the originals are most likely cracked, and try to save the cover boots, as they are only dealer replacement items. Autozone and the like carry the boots, but they are generic and don't really cover the shock rod. You may be able to get a "drop in" assembly from autozone from Gabrial, with those you unbolt yours and bolt in the new, no tearing apart the assembly and breaking parts.

[buzzer96]

They are called struts but it is the same thing. My 96 Sunfire had bad struts and it caused the back tires to make this whining noise. The tire guy said I needed new struts. I did not belive him. So we made a deal. I said put the new struts on but! if this doesn't work you must put the old ones back on at no charge. He saud it was a deal. Guess what he was right the problem went away.
But I had no clunking sound at all. the old ones looked and felt fine. But something was wrong with them. Just my 2c

[hotbug1776]

struts, shocks, it's like tomato and tomaato, potato and potaato. the same thing, just a different way of saying it. 2nd gen J's used a shock/spring setup (two seperate pieces) and when they were combined into a single coil over shock unit, it became a "strut"