Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Suspension Worn out struts - Is ride harsh or just bouncy?

My 96 GL has about 136K miles now and the ride is starting to feel more and more harsh. To my knowledge, it's riding on the original struts. They still have the Motorcraft stickers on them and also look old, but I don't see any leaks. The ride quality is getting really bad. Most noticeable is the pounding feeling transmitting through the suspension into the cabin (plastic bits inside rattle more now as well). The car also has a tendency to dive hard under breaking and lift/dive during acceleration/shifting.

Both lower control arms have been replaced not longer than 10,000 miles ago. Only "mod" to the original setup is the addition of 15" SE 7 spoke alloy wheels, in place of the stock 14" steelies with hubcaps. Ride quality declined slightly with this change, Im sure due to the lower profile sidewall, but this is still not an aggressively low profile tire, so I don't think this is causing the harshness.

The car has also developed some steering play as well, not a great deal, but definitely noticeable.

My question is, when struts have gone on your cars, did the ride quality suffer... did bumps and stuff in the road equal lots of harshness in the ride quality? Or, did the ride just become very bouncy, but still cushy and not harsh?

I am extremely cash strapped right now and cannot afford to replace struts and find out the new ones offer no improvement. I've read plenty about people having struts go bad and the ride is bouncy as hell, but not really anything about people saying that the ride becomes harsh.

Not only has the ride quality changed, but I've also noticed that the handling is degrading as well. I don't have the confidence in the turns now, that I once had in this car even with it's previous 14" economy tires!

I'd greatly appreciate any knowledge/experience that you have with this. Thanks!

P.S. one more thing, I don't know if this is just my imagination, but when driving slow over bumps, I can hear what sounds like a front strut is empty, like it sounds like it would be easy to compress, like there's no resistance to it being compressed. Maybe Im just

When mine were bad, the ride was very harsh. Speedbumps sent a bone-jarring thump into the cabin. At the mileage you have, I feel save saying you prob. need new struts. Bad or worn struts will also adversely affect the handling. Check the BAT catalog for a new set of struts, and you may also want to think about springs also, if you can.
Scott

The bounce test (bounce each corner of the car 3 times fast then let go and watch how it reacts) can help you tell oif the struts are bad. Take a quick look for leaks on the struts as well.

When my contour's rear were blown, they made some noise (like a clunk or thump sometimes) and one day the back end tried to come around.

When all of them on my escorts were blown, you could hear and feel them bottoming out on speed bumps.

When damping is lost, due to worn out struts, the ride will suffer. I too am feeling the harshness, aggrevated by putting H&R springs with SVT struts 2 summers ago. The H&R need higher damping by Koni or equivalent to keep the ride quality.

Any shocks/struts can provide good damping during large wheel motions. It's the quality ones that provide damping during small wheel motions that improves the ride quality.

I have had similar ride deterioration with my 2000 SE, which has 15X7 Borbet Type E rims with H rated tires (Kelly Chargers). The harshness is rattling the dash almost constantly. It's almost as if the car is riding on round rocks. I'm so glad to have softer Dunlop Graspics on for the winter. It's only got 60M on the odometer, and has been treated well except for the rough concrete around Seattle.

I don't know if the BAT suspension will help, put it's on my Spring '06 potential buy list, as on the other end of the scale a set of Monroe SensaTracs with stock springs if my need for comfort surfaces.

It sounds like in any event, you have got your use out of the stock shocks. Good luck with what you do. Would be interested in knowing how the BAT suspension works in daily riding if you go that way.

Happy trails.

Why would you have to replace spax 30k after you get them?