Struts and shocks are a very important component of your car’s stability. That said, what do you do if you notice your car sagging in the rear close to covering the top of the rear wheels? Maybe you don’t have immediate funds to fix the car but you’ve got to drive. Here are some tips to help you until you can fix the car.
The most important thing is to lessen the weight bearing on the rear wheels. The best way to do this is to clear out the trunk completely. If the sagging is very bad, you may need to put the donut tire on the floor of the back seat. Try to keep rear seat passengers to a minimum or don’t have any at all. When you buy a lot of groceries or other items, put them on the front seat if available ot the rear seat and floor. Everything you put in the car should go in the car and not in the trunk unless it’s extremely light.
If possible, you should avoid roads that you know from experience are full of potholes. Especially after the winter when salt on the roads has created lots of cracks and potholes you need to be careful to avoid them as much as possible. Don’t drive too fast either or a bump will be more damaging than if you were driving slower.
Another important point is to keep your tires properly inflated. This is either free or costs 50-75 cents so it’s not worth letting them get low on air. When the car is bouncing around you’ll need properly inflated tires even more than usual.
As soon as possible get your car fixed because too much driving on bad shocks or struts will almost definitely effect your cart’s alignment and general functioning.
Most cars from the 90’s and up have struts and as such may need both the struts and the coils replaced. Today you can buy an all in one or “quick strut” with coil already on the strut. This product will help you avoid the hassle of fixing the strut only to find that the next year you need to change the coil. Often these all in one products are cheaper than changing both struts and coils together. It also takes less time since your mechanic will not need to compress the coil to get it on the strut. Compressing the coil is the hardest part of the job and needs special equipment so not having to do that is a bonus. The brand that makes “Quick Strut” is Monroe, a well known and excellent automobile parts company.
If your handy and have the tools, you may be able to change the struts yourself. There are a lot of videos on You Tube which show you exactly how to do it, one of which is made by Expert Village. But if you have any doubts that you can do this, bring the car to the mechanic or you mat get stuck with a car you can’t drive there and will need to be towed. That will of course cost more.
