What can cause a clunking noise at speeds under 10 mph in the right rear suspension of a '96 Lumi Base sedan, not an APV? It has 72k on it. Fairly new Michelin tires. Original struts. How can I test for a bad bearing on the rear? Will jacking it up and spinning the wheel tell me anything? This noise is only at say 3 to 10 mph. Above that , the noise completely goes away. I am thinking either a bad tire, bad bearing hub, or a bad suspension such as strut or bushing in the right rear. For those of you with W-body GM FWD cars '88-'96, you may know about the transverse monospring isolator pad going bad on the rear of your cars. The fix is cheap-about 20.00 for new , upgraded pads and easy to replace. I found out the 95-96 Lumina was a different suspension design. If you know about these Lumina's, please let me know.
1996 Lumina 4dr-clunking noise in rear suspension?
- Thread starter Jim Spahr
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Did you look underneath it yet ?The exhaust is held up with rubber grommets and are stretched on angles,,,Maybe one or two fell of,,I noticed this on a 97 Lumina LS i just bought OR it can be a spring that holds the brakes shoes ,If one is not connected the shoes are hitting the brake drum
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More info from Wiki on the 96 Chevy Lumina. It had a revised rear suspension with coil springs instead of monoleaf springs. My car also had shocks instead of struts. If I am reading that correctly, that is good news. shocks vs. struts and coil springs instead of monoleaf springs are easier to work on and cheaper , too.
I looked at the rear suspension today. It doesn't have the usual W-body monoleaf transverse spring in the rear. Wiki was wrong. My 1996 has a McPherson set up with strut and coil over spring. That means to replace the struts, you have to deal with the dreaded spring compressor. Some McPherson struts and spring can be easily but more expensively deal with by buying a Monroe Quick Strut assembly. That way you don't have to deal with the spring compressor to install new struts. However, it doesn't appear that this Quick Strut assembly is offered for this particular car for some reason.
Mystery solved. The 'bounce test' said nothing. We put the Lumi up on my neighbor's lift. There was no play in the wheel hub's on either side. He could see that the right rear McPherson strut lower spring seat was split and coming out of the 'pocket'. That was causing the noise in the right rear. The front struts are gone,ie worn out, and the rear's are almost gone. So rather than just replace the lower spring seat, we might as well go ahead and replace all four of the struts.
Ahh...
Nice when you find a hard problem.
Mystery noises can go on for a long time.
Nice when you find a hard problem.
Mystery noises can go on for a long time.
Yes, it is nice to solve a hard-to-find problem. As a shadetree mechanic, it is very nice to have a lift to able to easily see the source of the problem. Then when it is time to actually repair it, to be able to get to the problem area. For some reason, the 96 Lumina is a different rear suspension design from the other GM W- Body cars. For example, there is no Monroe Quick Strut type fix available. I am not sure if the only replacement isn't an 'cartridge insert' like the very early days of McPherson struts. I don't own a spring compressor and don't know if I want to use one if I did. They are dangerous. Eric the Car Guy has a good 2 part video on how to replace the front struts on a GM front wheel drive car.
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Originally Posted By: Jim Spahr
Yes, it is nice to solve a hard-to-find problem. As a shadetree mechanic, it is very nice to have a lift to able to easily see the source of the problem. Then when it is time to actually repair it, to be able to get to the problem area. For some reason, the 96 Lumina is a different rear suspension design from the other GM W- Body cars. For example, there is no Monroe Quick Strut type fix available. I am not sure if the only replacement isn't an 'cartridge insert' like the very early days of McPherson struts. I don't own a spring compressor and don't know if I want to use one if I did. They are dangerous. Eric the Car Guy has a good 2 part video on how to replace the front struts on a GM front wheel drive car.
I don't blame you on not wanting to use a spring compressor. The cheapo ones available to the public are very difficult to use and not very safe. One thing you might want to explore is PepBoys - when I worked there in the 90's, if you brought in the assembly they would compress the spring and replace the strut for a nominal fee. They had a shop quality spring compressor mounted on the wall that took seconds to operate and was very safe to use.
Yes, it is nice to solve a hard-to-find problem. As a shadetree mechanic, it is very nice to have a lift to able to easily see the source of the problem. Then when it is time to actually repair it, to be able to get to the problem area. For some reason, the 96 Lumina is a different rear suspension design from the other GM W- Body cars. For example, there is no Monroe Quick Strut type fix available. I am not sure if the only replacement isn't an 'cartridge insert' like the very early days of McPherson struts. I don't own a spring compressor and don't know if I want to use one if I did. They are dangerous. Eric the Car Guy has a good 2 part video on how to replace the front struts on a GM front wheel drive car.
I don't blame you on not wanting to use a spring compressor. The cheapo ones available to the public are very difficult to use and not very safe. One thing you might want to explore is PepBoys - when I worked there in the 90's, if you brought in the assembly they would compress the spring and replace the strut for a nominal fee. They had a shop quality spring compressor mounted on the wall that took seconds to operate and was very safe to use.
Just for fun and education, I went to my local Midas Muffler shop and asked how much for two front $truts. For two Monroe Sensa-Trac it would be 495.00. And that's not replacing anything except the struts. No isolators, bearings, mounts, bellows, bumpers. Almost 250.00 per side?! I would do what dishdude above recommends. Take the old ones off and take them ,with the new struts and additional replacement parts you feel are necessary to a shop--not PepBoys-- and get a price on them compressing the strut springs and installing the new struts with related parts. On the front: does anyone have a list of front strut items that 1./ always need to be replaced and then a list of parts 2./ that need to be replaced only if broken or worn beyond recognition.
To give you an idea of what you save by DIY, the two KYB GR-2 strut cart's for the front are just under 100.00 with shipping. Then you rent a special tool to install , but you get all that back when you return the tool. So if you DIY ,you get a better performing strut, the KYB GR-2 than the softer Monroe Sensa-Trac and for 395.00 less in cost.
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