I replaced the lower bushings on a customer’s Charger the other day; the KW V2’s rear lower bushings/inserts had not only loosened but also displaced the shock’s lower mounting position itself.
What precipitated the change was the complaint of a rear clunking when travelling over abrupt bumps/undulations. When the rear of the car was jounced while I felt around both the upper and lower mounts, it quickly became apparent the left lower shock support was moving up and down a good 1/8”. The right side showed no slop, but the lower housing had been displaced relative the bushing.
By the time the replacement bushings arrived, both shock’s lower outer housing had now slid forward (towards front of vehicle), with the housing actually rubbing on the inside of the lower suspension arm. As can be seen in this pic shortly after removal the rubber vulcanization process had failed between the outer bushing and the rubber itself. The rubber portion has slid out the amount you see on “both” rear units:
I phoned KW and spoke to the technical staff who stated that this type of failure was the first they had heard of this type of failure, I guess I’m asking folks here whether indeed they have observed this before. They explained that the failures on the 30-40 vehicles equipped with V2’s that had come to their attention, the entire bushing assembly had been displaced as a complete unit ( the inner metal insert that the bolt goes through, the outer ring, and of course the supporting vulcanized rubber that supports both pieces).
As can be seen in this pic the units that are demonstrating failure (by whatever means) had metal inserts/reducers that capped each end of the main inner bushing. These reduced the I.D. to match the M12 bolt that secures the bottom end of the strut to the lower suspension arm;
On the replacement units, the inner bushing is now one piece, with a thicker wall to get to the required I.D. for that same bolt.
The challenge became getting one of the outer bushing housings out of the lower shock mount. I used a 20 ton press successfully on one unit and destroyed the remaining one trying to remove it. As KW previously stated...the failures they are aware of had the entire lower bushing fall out as a unit. Pressing the new bushings in was uneventful.
This solved the clunking noise in the rear area of the vehicle, but now there is a “peeping” noise(!) coming from one of the front shocks (most likely – I have yet to diagnose). Seems as the shock absorbers internals warm up from first drive-away, the peeping noise becomes more prevalent. Anyone had this experience?
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