Ourobos Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 I have a 1999 Contour SVT. Just got it up and running like a top, alot thanks to you guys. I have a few more things to do before I put it back on the road. The main thing now is the noise it makes from somewhere in the rear of the car. Any small bump, even just driving it around my hard, makes a bunch of noice, clunking sort of. Almost sounds like the struts bottoming out? I did notice this has rear coil overs, is that factory? I check all the bushings I could find, all seemed OK by looking at them, even greased everything up that I could, to no avail.. What is a common item to fail on these, or what specifically can I check to resolve this. I am going to post some pics, point out to me what you're talking about, as I'm used to looking at Mustang 4 link suspension, and all this 'trailing arm' etc is new stuff to me. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contour Man Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 i know the sound you speak of. its the strut tops. i replaced the rear struts on my contour along with the strut tops and the sound went away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spridget Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 The coil overs are aftermarket. Common failures in the rear suspension are the sway bar links (rubber dry rots) and sway bar mounts (rust and snap). From your pictures, the rust looks minor, but inspect the mounts anyway. The sway bar link is cracked up and probably needs replacement on both sides. I would pull the coil overs and inspect them very closely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SVTDEMON Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 If the noise is occurring while hitting bumps, I would suspect those after market coilovers. Check for any leaks, any small amount of fluid leaking it has lost hydraulic pressure and are bad. Check the sway bars first, mainly the little metal clips holding it on :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contour Man Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 You guys are right. I was pretty tired when i made that post lol. I had blown struts and the mounts were bad as well. When I replaced them, I felt the car's handling around corners change along with that noise going away. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ourobos Posted November 7, 2012 Author Share Posted November 7, 2012 Thanks guys,will check the coilovers and rear struts ASAP, along with swaybar mounts more closely. Will update. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ourobos Posted November 20, 2012 Author Share Posted November 20, 2012 (edited) OK.. Took it to a suspension shop to diagnose it.. Said a rear "parallel arm" on passenger side is bent.. Runs from center over to the wheel. What are they talking about? Is that the rear A-arm? Also had a siezed rear driver side strut in the rear, and loose passenger side strut in the front.. I'll be fixing all those, once I know what a 'parallel arm' is. I assume in my 4th picture, is the bent/arced piece towards the top. Ideas? Once I fix it, they can do a 4 wheel alignment. Edited November 20, 2012 by Ourobos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ourobos Posted November 20, 2012 Author Share Posted November 20, 2012 Well these clowns don't know what they are talking about. The front strut was as tight as can be. No bounce when you try to bounce the car. The rear moves in and out fine too, not siezed. Some shops / business today don't deserve to be in business. Back to the search. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spridget Posted November 25, 2012 Share Posted November 25, 2012 Yes, the rear control arm appears bent. I dismissed it at first glance as image warp from the camera lens. Inspect the front strut mounts. This is a very common failure. The mounts collapse with age. Raise the hood with the car on level ground. Check for excessive gap between the black rubberized "puck" (center of the strut tower) and the strut tower. Ideally there should be no gap. If there is some gap, you can confirm the failure by raising that wheel off the ground, remove the wheel, then check for play in the strut, (in/out, fore/aft, up/down). Suspended, there may be too much weight to assess play. Use a jack to lightly push up on the lower control arm without actually raising the vehicle off the jack stand. Once you see the gap reappear, check for play again. Basically though, if there is any gap over 1/8 inch, it's too much and the mount has failed. I'd guess the rear subframe or at least the left rear control arm was replaced with a salvaged part in the past based on the grease pen scribble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ourobos Posted November 25, 2012 Author Share Posted November 25, 2012 Thing is, with the rear coil overs, you can get out of the car and push the left rear side up and down, and it moves as it should, nice and smoothly, but there is an audible 'clunk' every time it comes back up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spridget Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 From underneath the rear subframe, inspect the sway bar links. The lower rubber bushing may have cracked and fallen out. The top bushing is easy to see, but the lower bushing is recessed. This happened in my friend's '98 CSVT. Same symptoms as you describe. Looking at your photos again... the bushings are obviously cracked up... can't quite see the bottom, but they look very compressed and worn out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eliteman76 Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 If you need the rear arms, let me know. I'm selling/parting my 99 that was wrecked on 11-21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ourobos Posted November 30, 2012 Author Share Posted November 30, 2012 (edited) Correct. They said the bushings are shot, nice call. Wonder if the CSTV / Contour bushings will work on mine, and if anyone sells just those? Otherwise : Eliteman - possibly complete rear shocks springs etc. Apparently my back ARE bad.. Can anyone tell from pic #5 what I have? They say SVT on the stickers, but are coil overs.. Edited November 30, 2012 by Ourobos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spridget Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 You have modified stock struts. I believe that is the Ground Control coil over kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ourobos Posted December 3, 2012 Author Share Posted December 3, 2012 So a stock strut will replace it? What does it look like, they cut off the spring perches? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spridget Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 Yes and yes. You'll need a complete new strut/spring/mount assembly to replace it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ourobos Posted December 3, 2012 Author Share Posted December 3, 2012 One more.. Do you know if the SVT strut/spring setup is different than the standard contour? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ourobos Posted December 4, 2012 Author Share Posted December 4, 2012 Well paid, $702 today for a battery, alignment, front spindles and bearings installed.. Still have the clunking in the back. They say my left rear strut needs to be replaced, although it seems to move fine. Also the spring isolators are bad causing the noise, dunno if the stock isolators would work with these, even if I can find them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ourobos Posted December 7, 2012 Author Share Posted December 7, 2012 Can anyone tell by my pics (4th one probably), what isolators I need? Will a stock isolator fit the top of these stock struts that have coil overs on them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spridget Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 One more.. Do you know if the SVT strut/spring setup is different than the standard contour? The struts/springs are SVT specific. Can anyone tell by my pics (4th one probably), what isolators I need? Will a stock isolator fit the top of these stock struts that have coil overs on them? I have not serviced modified struts, but from the pics it appears they use stock mounts. If 95-00 Contour parts are not available, 99-02 Cougar parts work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ourobos Posted December 11, 2012 Author Share Posted December 11, 2012 OK thanks. Any idea where a set of isolators could be found new? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ourobos Posted December 21, 2012 Author Share Posted December 21, 2012 Ready to drop this rear suspension, anyone know where to get isolators? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ourobos Posted January 10, 2013 Author Share Posted January 10, 2013 Wanted to update this.. It was a bad rear strut. I bought a stock replacement, modified it for the coil overs, all is golden. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spridget Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Glad to hear your problems are solved. Thanks for the update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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