How can I tell if rear Tokicos are bad??

[Nook]

I have some 5 year old rear Tokicos, and it seems liek they clunk now when they hit a bump. Is this the common sign of failure in these, I've never had a set go bad. I know the older ones of this vintage had some known problem, but I had never run into it myself. everyone else seems to think there's a fail safe way to tell, that there's a common sign of failure. The shocks that have this problem, i am told can be diagnosed almost immediately, is the clunk the sign? or is that too obvious?

N

 

[Shoman594]

Nook, Have you checked your mount at the top ? On my standard struts my mounts whent bad and i had clunks every time i hit a bump.

 

[projectSHO89]

Bad strut mounts will cause the clunking directly below the shoulder harness mounts.

You can check the performance of the struts by giving the car the "bounce" test.

Steve

 

[luigisho]

The bounce test is the way to do it at home. To check the if the valving is performing within spec there are dyno's for struts and shocks. Where to find one? Beats the **** out of me. Unless you get lucky locally, you probably have to send them away for testing. Worth it? Probably not but it is an option.

 

[Nook]

The weird thing is, it only does it when hitting a small negative bump, 1-2", at 30+ MPH. bigger bumps, slower bumps, positive bumps, nothing. odd one. I had them dissassembled and everythign looks OK.

N

 

[PAracer]

That sounds more like bad mounts than the strut itself to me. it could also be play in suspension components. It may sound stupid, but how is your spare tire secured?

 

[sdpatt]

Unless there is oil leaking from the strut's shaft seal, the strut is still doing its job. I had a set of Tokicos on teh car for 150,000 miles before one developed a seal leak. After installing a new set of warranty-supplied Tokicos, I could not tell a difference in the performance of the struts.

The only other way the Tokico could fail is if the upper retaining nut came loose. I have found one Tokico strut that apparently was not assembled properly. This is the nut at the top of the housing that securs the hydraulic cartridge inside the tube. The owner complained of a significant clunking during any suspension transients. It was very obvious when the suspension was disassembled.

More likely an upper strut mount, sway bar linkage or sway bar frame mount bushing.

 

[Nook]

No spare,

I went and took the tires up and got it on the rack, took off the shock boots, nothing unusual on the shafts, no oil or anything coming out of the piston seal.

Rear control arms all tights, bushings in place on teh end links, and sway bar, I couldn't get anythign to wobble or clukc when I tried to move them by hand.

Guess it's time to take em down and check the mounts. I replaced the mounts with brand new dealer ones when I did the shocks 4 years ago, but I can't think of anything else,

N

 

[sdpatt]

Try crawling under the rear end of the car when it is not on a jack. That changes the loading of the suspension parts. Check those sway bar bushings at the frame mounting locations. Also push and pull on the sway bar end links. If there are no loose parts in those areas, you may have to remove the strut and spring from the car. I have a spare upper mount for the rear struts of my 1991 if you need on and can't locate a replacement. Shouldn't be hard to find though.

 

[Nook]

I got em with a phone call and a 22 minute wait. I just want to do wahtever I can not to take the rear down.

N