questions about suspension - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

davidmarie · 10-18-2009, 07:01 PM

love the site. having a little problem with the rear suspension on my '92 camry. loud banging in the rear of the car. i replaced the sway bar bushings and the struts. took it for a test drive and the noises that i didn't want to hear was still there. no noise when going on smooth road,but it's pretty loud when the pavement gets bumpy. any thoughts? any help would be greatly appreciated!!

***BMR*** · 10-18-2009, 07:52 PM

Could be several things. Check the sway bar links for looseness at the ends. Also could be the rear lateral control arms; the rearward ones with the turn buckle in them. They have a ball joint on the outer end that can develop play. To check those, jack it up, grab the tire at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions and push/pull side-to-side to try to rock it. If it clunks at all, there's your problem. That's what mine had that was the source of some loud clunking.

How many miles on 'er?

davidmarie · 10-18-2009, 10:36 PM

144000 miles on her. when i had her jacked up , i did what you suggested by shaking the wheel back and forth. there was some play and some noise. is that a difficult fix for a diy'er. the strut job went fairly smoothly. good saturday job?

Mike Gerber · 10-19-2009, 12:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidmarie

144000 miles on her. when i had her jacked up , i did what you suggested by shaking the wheel back and forth. there was some play and some noise. is that a difficult fix for a diy'er. the strut job went fairly smoothly. good saturday job?

It's not hard at all. Just spray the bolts with a good penetrating oil like OP Blaster for several days before trying to remove them. I believe these rods are a dealer only item at around $150 each. If it's the one with the alignment adjustment (the one BMR referred to as the one with the turnbuckle) that's called rear lateral control rod number 2. If that's the one that has to be replaced, you will have to have the alignment redone after replacing the rod. (The one closest to the front of the car and without the alignment sleeve is referred to as rear lateral control rod number 1 in Toyota factory service manuals.) If it's the front one, the alignment shouldn't have to be redone. Unfortunately, in my experience it's usually control rod number 2 that goes bad.

Mike

***BMR*** · 10-19-2009, 04:25 PM

If you've done struts, then yeah, this is a piece of cake. Like Mike said, hose those nuts down good with PB Blaster well ahead of time. And use a 1/2" breaker bar and a cheater pipe to get enough leverage to crack those nuts loose. Or a good air wrench.

Take a look at this thread; there are some good pix and tips in it: Link to thread