I knew I needed to do some suspension work, but when I hit a bump today, and the cover flew off the map light, I realized how much abuse the rest of the car was taking...

Are there any simple diagnostics that I can do to know whether I need to replace Coils/Springs vs. Shocks/Struts vs. both?

Also, can anyone point to a good site or thread for a "how to"? I'm new enough to doing my own work that I'm not sure how specific this sort of work is to the Rex...

 

Ok, for shocks/struts, you can bounce the car. Put your knee on the front or rear bumper and bounce the car up and down. Once you stop, the car should come to a rest about 1-2 bounces after you stop. Any more than this and your struts/shocks are no good. As for springs, you can test ride height. Find the curb height of your vehicle, and measure from where the curb height is measured from. Its normally from the ground to the top of the front fender or the roof. If its lower than its supposed to be, then your springs are weak and probably should be replaced, but will not affect too much if they aren't. The ride will just be a little floaty with weak springs.

BTW, besides the watts link, the suspension is fairly normal on a 7. Macpherson (sp?) struts up front with live rear axle and watts link in the rear.

 

I found that when I replaced my old springs/struts with the new Koni inserts and RB springs that my ride quality was much improved over slight and moderate bumps and somewhat lessened over serious bumps. Anyhow you probably need all new shocks/struts/springs because your car is over twenty years old. I also noticed that you have a 2 + 2 and if you carry passengers fairly regularly you're putting way more strain on the suspension than most of us.

I had a really crashy suspension before I put the new springs in and they really helped. These cars will never float like other cars over bumps, even with all new components you will still feel most cracks in the road, let alone real bumps and potholes.

 

Thanks for the help. I assume I'll be able to find the curb height spec (& how it's measured) in the shop manual; if not, I'll be back...<grin>

 

Yep, should all be in the manual. It might even be in the owners manual, but I'm not sure. They sometimes have stuff like that in those things. Really don't know why, but they just do.