hey everyone i'm a visitor from audiforums.com, my father drives a 98 camry le with 185K on the clock last rear suspension work was done at roughly 90K dad doesnt remember exactly. he is usually the only person that drives this car and isn't the kind of person that will realize little abnormalities in sound or notice parts needing attention until it is too late. i was driving with him today and noticed when he went over bumps he rear end would kinda clunk, brought this to my fathers attention and he didn't even realize it was happening until i pointed it out. i did a shock test (pushing down and up on the car a bit and seeing if it would stop oscilating within one full expansion and contraction time) and it passed that test so i have rulled out the shocks being bad. i do think that his springs are weak as hell though (coming from an audi with aftermarket suspension these springs make you feel like your riding on air). would it be possible that the springs have lost their performing abilities and that they compress too far and are in turn bottoming out the shocks or other components in the rear? i also read something about it possibly being sway bar link related, i havent gotten under the car yet so i was wondering when toyota started including sway bars in their camrys? thanks for readin the post, sorry its so long.

p.s. incase i have anything mis-stated i apologize i am not very informed when it comes to camrys, i used to drive a 984runner so i know a little bit about toyotas in general but i don't know much about the camry. thanks again

 

the springs could be a possibility . alot of people replace shocks around 75-100k miles but most dont replace the springs at same time (springs obviously last a lot longer) .could be the shock mounts or the sway bar link bushings . Its easy to not notice suspension problems because most the time it is very gradual , i guarantee every every rubber bushing and mount needs replaced , but hey 185k miles .

 

Yepp! strut mounts go bad for my 99' every 80K- so its about time to replace 'em soon.

 

sway bar links are pretty common on those cars but whats even more comon on the rear suspension is the sway bar body bushings. theyre just rubber insulators that allow the sway bar to twist within the bracket that secures it to the body of the car. the rubber wears out allowing the sway bar to "dance" inside and it can be real noisey. Also jack up the rear tires off the ground and wiggle them like you would if you were checking the fornt end for looseness. there are bushings at the end of the adjustable and non adjustable control rods that will wear out. I've replaced them on both sides of my rear suspension at 180k and they were making a racket. Strut mounts are a pretty good possibility too but not as easy to check as the ideas I've given. If all of the parts I've suggested check out okay then start with sturt mounts. good luck.

 

how do you guys tell when the strut mounts are already bad?

 

well one easy way is to pull out the bottom part of the rear seat (it just pulls up at the front and slides out) then theres 1 10mm or 12mm bolt that holds in the side of the backrest which you would need to take off to access the strut mount nuts. drive around with those parts of the rear seat out and see if the noise gets like 200% louder. you could even have someone sit back there (wont be too comfy without a cushion to sit on) and feel the mounts as you ride over bumps.

 

Hi, The Bushings on my rear adjustable control arm need replacing (clunking) so I thought , well thats good as it won't be too expensive, so I called the auto parts stores and they were all suprised to find that the entire arm (arms actually, there are two of them, and both need the bushings) has to be replaced for over $500 ! This could easily be fixed with new bushings but they don't supply them. When I asked the Service Rep at the Toyota dealership he couldn't explain to me why in the world it would cost me a mortgage payment for essentially a couple of pieces of rubber ! I'm wondering if there is some other way to approach this problem. By the way the vehicle is a 98 Camry LE. Thanks