Took the Prado for a run up Teewah & Rainbow Beach yesterday. All going really well and having a blast. Lunch & a swim on Rainbow Beach, then back over through to the Freshwater Track to head up to Rainbow Beach township for a coffee.
Going over a mound on the Freshwater track, the left rear wheel drooped down into a hole, and I heard a clunk. Then after that I could hear a rattle and thudding noise when going over bumps. I pulled over and had a look, but couldn't realy see much or get under the car easily. So I took it slow as we weren't too far from the road.
Got to a servo at Rainbow without any problems, pumped the tyres up, then jumped under for a look. The left rear shock had worn out all the top rubbers, and had popped out of the mount. It was now rattling around on the bottom of the truck. There wasn't much we could do, so we brought it home carefully on the road, and will be pulling the shock off today. A call to ARB will start the suspension upgrades, but as we haven't sold our Fiat 500 yet, we can't afford the full lift kit, so just replacing the rear shocks at this second. Will replace springs & front coils/struts once we sell the car and have some money free.
Pics below. You can see the nut is still on the top of the shock, but as the rubber has worn away, it came straight through the hole. It's small enough to fit through. You can also see the hole where the shock should go, and where the shock is in relation to that hole now. If you look closely, you can also see the marks where the shock has rubbed.
Going over a mound on the Freshwater track, the left rear wheel drooped down into a hole, and I heard a clunk. Then after that I could hear a rattle and thudding noise when going over bumps. I pulled over and had a look, but couldn't realy see much or get under the car easily. So I took it slow as we weren't too far from the road.
Got to a servo at Rainbow without any problems, pumped the tyres up, then jumped under for a look. The left rear shock had worn out all the top rubbers, and had popped out of the mount. It was now rattling around on the bottom of the truck. There wasn't much we could do, so we brought it home carefully on the road, and will be pulling the shock off today. A call to ARB will start the suspension upgrades, but as we haven't sold our Fiat 500 yet, we can't afford the full lift kit, so just replacing the rear shocks at this second. Will replace springs & front coils/struts once we sell the car and have some money free.
Pics below. You can see the nut is still on the top of the shock, but as the rubber has worn away, it came straight through the hole. It's small enough to fit through. You can also see the hole where the shock should go, and where the shock is in relation to that hole now. If you look closely, you can also see the marks where the shock has rubbed.
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