Hey everyone,
My new-to-me Firebird is giving me issues when going over large bumps (especially around corners). I hit a fairly large pothole and the entire rear end of the car swung out a few feet and I nearly clipped the curb. It also does this when going around corners and hitting a bump while in the process of turning.
I got new tires on it (BFGoodrich Traction T/As, 235/55/R16s) and also had an alignment done. However, the rear end is still acting up. It did this before and after the alignment/tires. It has 77,000 miles on it right now, but I believe the shocks may have been replaced at one point in time. These came with de Carbon shocks (which I've heard are pretty bad), but the shocks on it now are Bilsteins. I've heard great things about Bilstein shocks, but could it still be the shocks causing this swaying and bouncing? Granted, I don't know when they were replaced. I have all of the maintenance records from the previous owner who had the car for 10 years/25,000 miles and I didn't see any records of him having them replaced, so I'm guessing they're at least 10 years old with over 25,000 miles on them. I tried pushing down on the wheels and didn't really notice excessive bouncing, but it's hard to press down enough to really get it bouncing since the car is so heavy. Any thoughts/ideas would be greatly appreciated, as it seems very dangerous to me at this point in time. I took it to a Chevy dealership and they sloughed it off, simply saying that "shocks would be a good start", but they acted too busy to really look at the suspension in-depth. I also wonder if maybe they didn't do the alignment correctly? I've usually been told that cars usually just get a front-end alignment, and perhaps they never touched the rear wheels? I apologize for my newbie-ness, but I know next-to-nothing about suspensions.
Thanks!
My new-to-me Firebird is giving me issues when going over large bumps (especially around corners). I hit a fairly large pothole and the entire rear end of the car swung out a few feet and I nearly clipped the curb. It also does this when going around corners and hitting a bump while in the process of turning.
I got new tires on it (BFGoodrich Traction T/As, 235/55/R16s) and also had an alignment done. However, the rear end is still acting up. It did this before and after the alignment/tires. It has 77,000 miles on it right now, but I believe the shocks may have been replaced at one point in time. These came with de Carbon shocks (which I've heard are pretty bad), but the shocks on it now are Bilsteins. I've heard great things about Bilstein shocks, but could it still be the shocks causing this swaying and bouncing? Granted, I don't know when they were replaced. I have all of the maintenance records from the previous owner who had the car for 10 years/25,000 miles and I didn't see any records of him having them replaced, so I'm guessing they're at least 10 years old with over 25,000 miles on them. I tried pushing down on the wheels and didn't really notice excessive bouncing, but it's hard to press down enough to really get it bouncing since the car is so heavy. Any thoughts/ideas would be greatly appreciated, as it seems very dangerous to me at this point in time. I took it to a Chevy dealership and they sloughed it off, simply saying that "shocks would be a good start", but they acted too busy to really look at the suspension in-depth. I also wonder if maybe they didn't do the alignment correctly? I've usually been told that cars usually just get a front-end alignment, and perhaps they never touched the rear wheels? I apologize for my newbie-ness, but I know next-to-nothing about suspensions.
Thanks!