I've noticed that whenever I hit a dip, or go over a speed bump at anything other than a crawl, the rear end of the car does something very strange. Whenever the weight transfers back to the rear, I hear this large "bump" sort of sound. It sort of sounds like the hatch pounding back onto its frame, but its latched fine. I think the shocks are in need of replacing, so could it be bottoming out on the spring perches or something? Makes me cringe every time I hear it, this large nasty shunt like sound.

I'm thinking about just getting some regular, non-adjustable tokiko's to replace them with.

 

You could be hitting the stops, yeah. Try bouncing the rear by hand, see if it feels controlled or not.

Could also be a suspension bushing that's split and has let go.

 

i would say bump stops too

 

Check the control arms too. You may have a mount that's rusted out.

 

Looked underneath. Control arms and mounts look fine, nothing but a small amount of surface rust. Bushings look reasonable all around. Didn't see any that were crumbling. If I push the car up and down with my hands, it kind of wobbles for a bit. Guess I just need new shocks.

Do our cars have upper control arms too? Or is it just the watts and two lowers.

 

We just have the watts link, the two arms on each side, shocks, and springs in the rear.

 

here's a bad pic of mine.

 

If you wanna verify it's your bump stops hitting, masking-tape a couple small pieces of chalk to the top of the spring perch. If it hits, the chalk will shatter and leave a mark, but not hurt anything.

 

Thanks for the tip, I'll try that.

 

Definitely sounds like your dampers are toast. Now's the time to put in some Illuminas.

 

I'm not sure if I want adjustable shocks though, seems like too much of a headache. I was thinking some regular tokikos.

 

... why is it too much of a headache? install is the same, and switching it is extremely easy! fork out the extra money and get them for the rear at least. the fronts you could use the blues, i leave mine at 5 on the front always... and change the rears around.