Can Anyone School Me On How Shock Absorber Firmness Is Measured/Advertised?

[Msmith68w]

Have you had a 3rd party drive your car and see if they "feel" the same thing?

Problems like this can be "perceived" but they can also be real and extremely difficult to detect too.

I've decided to pay the dealer the diagnostic fee to have their suspension guy drive it and see what he thinks.

 

[ABN_CBT_ENGR]

I've decided to pay the dealer the diagnostic fee to have their suspension guy drive it and see what he thinks.

give us the update, will help if can

 

[berniedd]

Have you considered installing adjustable shocks? They allow changing the hardness or softness properties of the shock.

 

[Msmith68w]

give us the update, will help if can

When I bought the car I took it to the dealer for an airbag recall, and they did an inspection on it (they do this on every car that comes in). They recommended replacement of the torsion struts, and the front sway bar bushings and end links. I did the torsion struts a few months ago(which were in fact bad), and the bushings (oblonged) and end links(kinda worn out) a week ago. The other day I installed new upper control arms, torqued the strut tower brace bolts (many came loose from the factory), torqued the upper strut mount bolts, and re-inspected everything. Still has a lot of cabin noise/harshness over rough pavement. It doesn't clunk quite as bad as it used to, but I still just can't stand the interior noise.

I am now convinced that it is due to the unibody construction. Unibody does a poor job of isolating the passenger compartment from suspension noise because of the lack of isolators present on a BOF vehicle. Also, the cage style construction and good modern sound deadening cause for the perfect acoustic environment to amplify the suspension noise. It's sort of like if you've ever taken a Prius taxi from the airport somewhere, and you get that constant "KA KUNK KA KUNK KA KUNK" over every expansion joint or rough spot. It's exactly like that. It quakes all the interior plastics and makes the car feel like a cheap piece of garbage. I'm far from the only person with this problem, hundreds of threads have been posted on the forums of guys with front suspension issues on these cars. Lots of the guys have changed literally every part in the front suspension and not solved the issue.

I'm still having a hard time explaining why the '18 I drove with the same suspension didn't bother me so bad. Perhaps there is more wrong with my suspension, but I can't find anything else wrong. Everything else is tight as hell and looks nearly new. I've taken a pry bar to everything under the car and there's no movement anywhere. All I can think is that unibody is less tolerant (NVH wise) to even the slightest suspension issues, while a BOF vehicle will still be tolerable with minor suspension wear.

I am heavily leaning on getting rid of this car. I just can't stand it, and knowing how much money I paid for it and have sunk into suspension/tires just makes me ill every time I see the **** thing.

 

[Msmith68w]

Alright so just to make sure I wasn't totally nuts. I found yet another low mileage charger in my local area with the same suspension package and drove it yesterday. Yet again, I found the ride to be acceptable. So it's an issue with my car specifically, not the Chargers in general, or unibody vehicles in general.

I had performed the bounce test on my car before to see if the shock absorbers were failing. It passed the bounce test just fine, so I concluded the shocks were fine. Then I found this nugget of wisdom in the following video where the guy talks about how modern shock absorbers have multi-stage valves and therefore can't be tested properly with the bounce test:

I've concluded that the most likely issue is that the stage 1 (or small bump) valves in my shocks is worn. I think this because he said they are the ones that get worked the most and are usually the first to fail, and also because the car seems to handle medium and large bumps more or less fine. It's the washboard stuff and expansion joints that set my teeth on edge. Also, he states that the bounce test doesn't test the stage 1 valves, but rather only tests the stage 2 and 3...which are probably mostly fine in my car.

So last night I ordered brand new OEM Sachs shocks/struts for all 4 corners, as well as new strut mounts for the front (rear shocks come with mount). Typically the OEM shocks for these cars are very expensive, but luckily I found a deal on a pair of new old stock Nivomat rears for $100 (which are usually $300 each), and rock auto had the oem fronts for $70 each (only about $20 more than basic monroes) which is fair.

Keep me in your prayers that this fix the issue so I don't go insane haha!

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

When we lived on the Navajo Reservation, I installed Sears heavy duty shocks on our vehicles and they did help with the rough roads with lots of potholes. I think what you are asking is a comparison of the compression/ rebound force like 60/40(example only).

 

[Msmith68w]

Didn't fix it...ugh.