Sorry not talking about a little hottie's backside... Well maybe

Anyways...

Car is a 2005 w/ 27,500miles
Car was on stock shocks, springs, AND shipping spacers for 20,000 miles (bought it that way), stock shocks and springs for another 4,000miles, then this spring swapped over to stock shocks and Tein S-Tech springs

Car has been trouble free suspension wise until this week... I noticed this week that when going over sharp bumps or repaired pavement the rear of the car makes a awful banging/clunking sound. Top up or down regardless of speeds once above 20mph, straight line or turning doesn't matter... No sound heard when going over gradual bumps or swells... No banging noticed when cornering.

Come to think of it I Auto-X the weekend of the 27th of June, and I did hear a loud bang while out on course shrugged it off as hitting a crack in the tarmac the wrong way, but I never was able to better my times the rest of the afternoon and the handling seemed funny, car was upset pretty easily and was a handful... Didn't really drive the car until this week after that...

Going to be putting the car up on stands this week and wondering what I should be checking along with the shocks and diff mounts to find the source of the banging...
Part of me hopes it is just shocks so I can get a set of coil-overs like I planned once the shocks crapped out, but I didn't expect it this soon... Any suggestions for a reasonably priced set of coil-overs is also welcome...

Thanks in advance!

 

Leaking strut? Loose bolts? Sway bar is hitting something?

 

bushings?

 

Checked the car out last night didn't really find anything... Tapped all around with a 2lb dead blow....

Exhaust swings side to side with some effort quite a bit but hits the body before reaching anything metal, vertically can't make it hit metal, checked the whole length and didn't find any signs of metal to metal contact.

Sway and sway endlinks OK

Diff bushings look OK

A-arms and bushings look and feel ok

Shocks where tight, but the upper portion looked wet for about an inch then dry... I am thinking that the shocks are still the problem just not blown yet...

Drove the car this morning and did some fast slaloms (45mph to 50mph) and the car seemed to have a little bounce when slaloming left....

 

Could be a leaking strut like mentioned before...

 

When you put lowering springs on the stock shocks, the stock shocks will die quickly.

1) The stock shocks weren't designed to have lowering springs put on them. If you hit a large bump hard enough, the shock will bottom out, ruining it.

2) The stock shocks cannot handle high spring rates. High spring rates on the stock dampers will cause the valves and seals to wear out more quickly.

 

^ very true that, unless one gets a spring that offers a very mild drop and very similar rate. A good example of such springs are the Tanabe NF-210's. I've had them forever and have no issues with the shocks.