rear end is VERY unstable???

[texasseville]

Hello everyone, I bought my '97 seville sls about 2 months ago and I really like the car alot. One thing though ive noticed is that the rear end of the car sometimes jumps about 3 inches or so to the side


it happens when I hit a bump, the front of the car stays straight but the rear wants to almost fishtail a little bit

it happens sometimes when I go 30mph and it happens ALL the time REALLY bad around 60mph...it looks as though im going to side swipe someone with the back of my car

the other day I was on a on ramp to the highway and it was raining pretty hard and I was going around a slight curve, NOT sharp at all, I was going maybe 20-25mph and I hit a bump, as soon as the back of my car went over the bump I almost spun out of control, luckily I caught control and the other car managed to stay behind me!!

does anyone know whats wrong w/ my car or suspension

do I need new shocks or what...if so should I stick with stock or go w/ those eibach springs??

I really need some help asap for my safety and others LOL

thanks everyone!!

:C

 

[Jamler3]

Definitely NEW SHOCKS... If that don't do it... You'll need springs too...
Sounds like you ought to have the entire suspension checked.

 

[HappyMofo]

its an independant suspension so fix the shocks first...it also could be your stabilizers ---since it seems that your tail is swaying side to side. if the car was in a wreck before you bought it, it could be a bent axle--

 

[tremor12]

It's the hub knuckles in your rear suuspension. Mine were totally shot. There are two bushings in each knuckle and they all go bad after time...

To test, push side-to-side at teh C pillar and you'll see the tops of your rear wheel move up to an inch each way (!)...

The bad news is that the knuckles are hard to find and the bushings aren't replaceable...

 

[Mustang Ricky]

I have the same problem in my 96 sts. I'm looking for a shock conversion kit as they are very expensive to replace. Do you know where to get them?

 

[pepperman]

:W to :V

 

[lhheston]

I hope it's not that bad, but any alignment shop should be able to verify the slack in the parts, even if they don't replace the part. It might be worth it to get a Caddy dealer to give an estimate, just to find out what's wrong - they have to have seen it before... Don't loan the car to any newbie or elderly types!!

 

[concours]

You can press the bushings out of the rear end knuckles and buy new ones, the problem is the new ones I bought lasted about two weeks... I believe its a terrible design by gm. Alignment wont help and used knuckles r a bad idea...