Replacing shock absorbers and bushings.

[seeforyourself]

Ok guys so I decided not to buy the 2004 mercury grand marquis LS and instead I gave it to my cousin. I kept my 01


My car has recently been riding harshly occasionally. I feel every bump in the road and theres a lot of noise in my suspension (like a squeak). I brought it into my dealership to be inspected and they said my rear shock absorbers are leaking (not my fronts but I will replace them anyways). They also said my sway bar links had lots of play in it (I never noticed excessive leaning with my car though which i find odd). I did check my shocks and sure enough my rear shocks had oil running down it.

So normally rough roads feel like bouncing vibrations throughout the cabin but sometimes I notice the same road sometimes feels very jolting and rougher same exact road and bumps) and my interior rattles with each jolt. Then this morning my car rode totally fine, no harshness. I don't understand why my car isn't riding floaty all the time anymore (I love the floaty cushy feel). It is really odd for the car to drive very stiff over bumps occasionally rather than all the time, its as if the shocks have a mind of its own. Could this be the shock absorbers going bad or the bushings or something else?

Also in the winter the car rode more harsh than soft, kind of like this. Also I notice over dips while going 75 mph will cause the steering wheel to shake side to side then re-settle once the car settles.


Will replacing the shock absorbers fix the occasional stiff ride? Once again this doesn't happen all the time, some days it will ride nicer than others. I looked online and i heard bushings have a play in ride quality too, does this sound like I should just replace them with my shocks?


My car has 81k miles and is a 2001 GS

[gadget73]

The sway bar endlinks get sloppy and they will rattle or squeak, depending. You may not so much notice a change in handling if they are still attached though.

If the shocks are seizing up, it will ride very harsh. Possibly they broke free and now you're essentially un-damped.


Change all 4 shocks and the end links and see if that doesn't sort if out.



The bushings tend to make things feel mushy. If its due for ball joints, or if its had ball joints done already, its due for bushings too. Usually this is somewhere around the 120k mark. I wouldn't be so concerned at 80k unless they look to be cracking or distorted.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

Take baby steps with this one. You know the shocks are obviously bad, so replace them, see what changes. Same with the swaybar links, the rear will not be as noticeable while driving as the front ones, but nevertheless if you know they're worn out there's no point in pondering why the car behaves how it behaves, just get them done. When these two currently known to be an issue items are taken out of the equation there will be some improvement, the question is how much? If the car still acts up then you got other things to look for, but it really would be pretty hard for you to figure out everything at once when you got a few separate issues going on. It's even harder for us to diagnose stuff online, lol

[Makaveli]

At about 81k swapping out the sway bar end links and shocks is definitely called for, especially if the vehicle is prone to rusting due to the environment it's been in. So my opinion is swapping them all out is definitely a good choice and investment, especially because it's best to replace both sway bar end links and shocks/struts in pairs.

My mechanic ended up breaking one of my rear sway bar end links installing a shock once.