Thread: rattling rear end of 97 GT

Lately, some horrible sounds have been coming from my car when I drive down an uneven road surface such as a bumpy or gravel road. The sound comes from the back end. It feels as if the car is absorbing all of the impact and that the suspension is doing very little. It doesn't happen on every bump. The lip of my driveway is about an inch above the road surface. when i drive over that, I don't hear anything abnormal. I do hear the noises as I drive down my driveway when going over the borders of the sections of concrete (there is some type of wood between them). Doesn't have any impact on handling, but I was wondering what could be causing it.

the strut tower mounts may be bad, along with the struts themselves

the top mount is bad or loose most likely.

sounds like everyone is in agreement. So, at most how much should the repair cost?

Get some quick struts.

Put all new quick struts on all 4 and no difference. Any other ideas?

sux that the struts didn't fix the noise.

broken sway bar? end links? theres only so much that moves back there.

well, the struts were 14 years old and needed to be replaced anyways.
The mechanic who tested my last service said his guess was tie rods going in the front. That make any sense on how the noise happens when the front end is on smooth surface?(back is on rough)
or do I need to add tie rods to the list in addition to this noise?

testing tie rods is simple, jack up the wheel and just grab the tire at the 9 and 3 o'clock positions and push to the left and to the right, if theres any play its shot.

and come to think of it mine were so shot the mechanic i took my car to before i bought it said id fix this first, i never saw tie rods so loose, the wheel moved like 2 inches each way, and they do and will come apart.

Going to test them right now

Car is on spare tire jacks. I couldn't get either tire to budge right or left. As soon as the camera is done charging I am going to take some pictures for the diagnosis.

while its in the air push and pull the bottom of the tire to check for play as well, if so the ball joints are shot. and look closely at the lower control arms bushings,(where they bolt to the car) if they are all torn up then you need new lca's they clunk around pretty too when shot.

Here are some:
Suspension pictures by ejouie - Photobucket
I can easily take more/better ones just let me know what to focus on

And I can't get the tires to budge in any direction

And then I can move to the rear tires

i cant see any of the lca bushings in you pics, but every thing else looks ok.

album updated

Maybe it's my power steering pump really going out and causing the front vibrations while turning. Things been on its death bed for years, so maybe its finally moving on. As for the rear, I will jack it up tomorrow and take more pictures.

thanks for the help.