Rear Shock Bracket

V

Vilmars

New member
Hi everyone,

Found this on the Jeep today. The bolt and nut are not coming apart, but can be freely rotated when you grab the shock and lift it. Seems that the holes for the bolt are now oval and causing a clunking noise. There seems to be about a 1/4" of play when placing a small load on the rear of the jeep.

Rear Shock Bracket 1.jpgRear Shock Bracket 2.jpg

I'll be taking it in to the dealer tomorrow and can't wait to hear what they have to say in regard to a fix. Hopefully it is still covered under warranty as I have not yet passed the three year mark.

Has anyone else had this issue or have possible fixes?

Thanks,

Vilmars
 
Maybe I'm missing something but, can't you just tighten up the bolt/nut? Or, are you saying that the bushing is blown out and no matter how hard you try, you cannot tighten them up any more?
 
Tightening may work for the short term. But since the original holes are now elongated / oversize, I think the noise will persist, and the shock will continue to move up and down where it isn't supposed to.
 
Vilmars said:
Tightening may work for the short term. But since the original holes are now elongated / oversize, I think the noise will persist, and the shock will continue to move up and down where it isn't supposed to.
Click to expand...

If you tighten your bolts to the proper torque spec, they will not move as you are imagining. I believe the bolts need to be tightened to 75-85 ft. lbs. Give that a try.
 
Vilmars said:
I'll give it a shot tomorrow night, and take a picture of what lies beneath the hardware.
Click to expand...

If you think about it, every hole on your Jeep has a bit of tolerance to them. Without it, you would have a hell of a time getting bolts through them. Likewise, there is a reason why every bolt on your Jeep has a specific torque setting. Compression is powerful thing and it IS what holds things in place more than a tight fitting hole. This is the reason why it is critical to check the torque settings on your bolts on a regular basis and as a part of routine maintenance.
 
Update

So the jeep went to the dealer yesterday. They found that the rear shock needs to be replaced (lower bushing was destroyed), the bold was damaged (needed to be replaced) and they found "minimal damage" to the bracket. Looks like I'll be getting a new shock on the 28th.
 
Picture of bolt damage

Hi again,

I got this picture from the dealer. It shows the damaged bolt.

RearDriverShockBolt2.jpg

Now the jeep is happy, vibration & noise are gone.
 
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