So over bumps or rough roads I've noticed a little bit of a clunk/clank from my right rear. I'm thinking shocks need to be replaced soon anyway cuz the roads around here are pure crap. But say your compression rod bushings are bad. What will happen in the long run? I searched but didn't find much. Could it possibly lead to come catostropic failure and crash? Or since when things go wrong, will you get the squeak/clunk sound and nothing more?

 

anyone?

 

i think probaly bad wear and tear on tires ? or bad gas mileage. but our cars are bad enough on gas ..

wear and tear on other supension parts

and annoying noise . as in clunking and such

 

Pretty sure you'll have a bad alignment, odd tire wear, and the MPG thing.

They're not a safety issue in the short term - they are sandwich between the unibody and the underbace, but after time it could leak to rubbing which could leak to cracks.

 

IMO, nothing if your CRs are only making the typical squeaky/crunch sound. Mine have been making intermittent noise since 2006. I've never bothered replacing them because the bushings look entirely fine plus most people that replace them, have the noise come back in 1 to 2 years. Mine might make some noises 3 or 4 times a month, tops.

 

OP, compression rods are only in the front, so if the noise is coming from the rear it is not compression rods. They also usually make noises when going over speed bumps or angling out of a incline/decline driveway.

As for your hypothetical, I drove with mine bad for around 70k and never had a problem other than the annoying squeaking. I recently replaced them with Energy Suspension urethane units and the originals were torn, but not totally torn from the metal sleeve. I would think handling would suffer slightly and I felt I had less control in crosswinds. Since I have replaced mine the handling feels more taught, much like new. The drawback is I have gained a rattle in my dash (not 100% it is from the stiffer bushings though).

 

so no compression rods in the back?

my car creacks everytime i come up my driveway. Its wide so i pull in at an angle. It is definetly coming from the back. what could it be?

 

It's probably your endlinks and not your compression rods

 

There's a good chance you need to tighten the X bracket that's behind the rear seats. Pull your rear seats and you'll see a grey cross bar behind the seat backs. The bolts come loose and just need to be re-tightened. Easy job that should take 30-45 minutes tops.

Or it could be your endlinks as previously mentioned.

 

how do you pull the rear seat? I have the reclining seats.

Sorry for the noobiness.

 

I tried to find a DIY for you but came up empty. So here's what I remember from when I did this a year ago. Under the bottom of the rear seats in front there are 2 straps, one under each seat. Pull those straps forward to release the seat bottom, it will come out in one piece. Once the seat bottom's out, lift up the leather flap behind the armrest and you will see a couple of bolts that need to be removed to get the armrest piece out. Once that's out you'll see the bolts holding the seat backs in so remove those and take out the seat backs. They are separate pieces I believe. You will then see the brace, it's hard to miss. I would recommend putting a little bit of Loctite on the bolts when you re-install them. I didn't do that last year and ironically 2 days ago a squeak re-appeared in the rear so I'll do this again to see if that's what it is. Here are a couple pics of the brace and what your rear will look like with the seats removed. HTH.

There's also a chance the noise is being created by your window regulator bolts in the rear doors. They are either too long or too short (sorry can't remember) and create a squeak/creak coming from the back seat area. I believe there was an actual TSB on this issue.