[Alan Walker]

Hi,
Thought I'd pass on some info based on my recent expererience of corrosion in the rear shock absorber mountings of my 2004 GT.
Driving along and then a soft bang followed by a rubbing noise and it's clear something is up. Very luckily only a few hundred yards from home so able to limp back slowly.
Once the car was recovered on a flat bed to my local specialist, it turned out that the nearside rear damper mounting had failed due to corrosion. Mechanic replaced both with new Spax units and showed me the old ones. Both were badly rusted and either could have gone at any time with no warning. At high speed on a bend this could have been very nasty.
Mechanic said that he'd recently seen several 156's,147's and GT's with this problem. It's 3 hours labour plus £220 per pair to replace.
So my advice is get your car up on a ramp and inspect the area where the shock absorber is attached to the upper metal cup. Use a mirror so you see it from above.There is a drainage hole that gets blocked so check it's clear and check for corrosion.

Hope that helps someone avoid a nasty shock.

 

[David C]

Do you mean the spring seat on the damper?

Quite a few cases of those failing on here.

 

[dgmayhead]

Mine broke too.

 

[Alan Walker]

Do you mean the spring seat on the damper?

Quite a few cases of those failing on here.

Yes.

 

[garethw]

Hi,
Thought I'd pass on some info based on my recent expererience of corrosion in the rear shock absorber mountings of my 2004 GT.
Driving along and then a soft bang followed by a rubbing noise and it's clear something is up. Very luckily only a few hundred yards from home so able to limp back slowly.
Once the car was recovered on a flat bed to my local specialist, it turned out that the nearside rear damper mounting had failed due to corrosion. Mechanic replaced both with new Spax units and showed me the old ones. Both were badly rusted and either could have gone at any time with no warning. At high speed on a bend this could have been very nasty.
Mechanic said that he'd recently seen several 156's,147's and GT's with this problem. It's 3 hours labour plus £220 per pair to replace.
So my advice is get your car up on a ramp and inspect the area where the shock absorber is attached to the upper metal cup. Use a mirror so you see it from above.There is a drainage hole that gets blocked so check it's clear and check for corrosion.

Hope that helps someone avoid a nasty shock.

EXACTLY the same thing happened to my 04 GT, on the top of the woodhead pass! Not good, the whole thing collapsed, ripped the tyre to shreds too. seems like a problem that occurs on some older GT's

Sent from my D6653 using Tapatalk

 

[rgwm]

Agree that its certainly not unheard of, although not a particularly common failure.....if you are unlucky the spring perforates the tyre.......