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Recently, I’ve started to notice some knocking noise coming from my right rear somewhere that when going about 40mph down a heavily cracked road, sounds like what one member described as “shaking pebbles in a plastic water bottle.” I have yet to find a match and possible solution so far. Today I jacked up the rear to look around. The first thing I checked was the sway bar end rods. The bolts are tight, but they feel loose to me. Of course I have no reference as to how they should feel. Should I be able to twist them side to side?
The next thing I discovered was a fairly loose dust boot on the right/rear shock. I could actually rock it back and forth to contact the shock and make a noise similar to what I’m hearing. (The left seems a bit tighter.) I went ahead and put some large zip ties along the top baffle area near the top of the shock and took it for a test run. I noise seems to be gone but I need to find that harsh road again.
Here's my question: Should these dust boots be secured some way? The factory service manual doesn’t mention them anywhere.
Thanks in advance.
Update: This picture I found later clearly shows the dust boot is attached out of the box.
Last edited by stevettec7; Nov 18, 2020 at 06:16 AM.
Well if it sounded like pebbles in a can and I would suggest to you that it is your belt tensioner but that is up front. I can grab the bottom part of my shock covers and move them back and forth by hand, they are that loose but have never made any noise.
Well I drove down the nasty cracked road near my work today and it’s much improved. Although it’s cooler today so I’ll have to see if it’s heat related when it warms up again.
Loose Shock Dust Boot
