My wife’s 1994 Saab 900S keeps bottoming out on bumpy roads and causing damage to the exhaust. What would be the best way to improve the suspension or jack it up for better clearance? We check tire pressure and that’s fine.
If you alter the suspension to increase ride height you will compromise the safety of the vehicle. Besides, trying to raise the car will be extremely expensive, if not impossible.
You either need a vehicle with more ground clearance or the misses needs to slow down and steer around objects that will strike the exhaust.
I’m from New Hampshire where jacking up cars is, well, a way of life. But that said, I’d have to agree it probably poses safety risk. You’d probably be better off getting something with more ground clearance.
You might check and see if the springs have sagged over the years, an alignment shop can check that. Also, new shocks/struts might help a little.
I agree with texases. If the car is bottoming out, that suggests springs that are no longer in good condition.
And, when were the shocks/struts last replaced on this car? On a 15 year old car, you should be about ready to replace them for the second time, depending upon how many miles are on the odometer.
Now that I think about it, worn shocks/struts can be a big cause of bottoming, if it’s happening on the second or third bump, where the car starts bobbing up and down.
You must live in Northern NH…because here in Southern NH…if someone alters it’s suspension…it’s usually down.
Worn springs, struts and other suspension parts can cause a lot of problems. Not knowing your specific situation, I would start by making sure the suspension is not at fault. If it is original suspension parts (like struts/shocks) they are likely very worn and a correction there should make you car more comfortable, safer and maybe eliminate your problem.
I’ll take it to the shop to have the springs, shocks, and struts checked. We bought the car used in 2004 and now it has 145K miles on it. I’m pretty sure we haven’t ever replaced shocks or struts.
A lot of good cars in the Augusta Me. area are in awful need of better roads. I will never buy a sporty handling car here. I hate to tear up good machinery. There are a half mile of bumps and holes on Slum Street on the way to the mall.
They dig up a road in Augusta and it stays dug up for three months. They don’t fix roads there unless they wash away. They are fixing 800 feet of road now but it’s 100 feet from the state house. There is a plan to build about three more fender bender traffic circles.
The two we have now are keeping thirty body shops running. When it rains, parts of them are under water. At least dream about moving elsewhere. I do.