front noise when going over bumps or potholes
Asked by bobby7479 Mar 26, 2015 at 06:36 PM about the 2009 Chevrolet Malibu 1LT FWD
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I have a chevy malibu 2009 lt. when on smooth roads the ride is fine but when I go
over bumps and pot holes in the road. There is a thump, rattle sound from the front.
The front end of the car is lower than the back. the vehicle has not been lowered and
have same tire and rims all around. when I try to push down the front to see if it
bounce it does not move.......can you help. is the shock or strut bad and what is
causing the noise. mileage is 81000 from Bob
11 Answers
You will most likely find that your front struts are shot. If you look in the fender wells you may see oil running down the struts. They may be leaking.
no oil runing down the struts.
That doesn't mean that they aren't bad. Push down really hard with your knee on the front bumper. Does the car go down really easy and kind of bounce back really mushy? If they are good you should hardly be able to collapse the struts by hand. It will immediately push back into place.
when I push down on the side finder it does not really moved. so do not know what to do..if to change the strut or shock observer
If you feel that the struts are good, look at your coil springs. You may have a broken one. Pop the hood and look where the struts bolt up through the inner fenders. Have any nuts fallen off? Also check your motor mounts and transmission mounts. You may have a broken mount. Jack up the front and get wheels off the ground. If you grab the tire and wiggle it left to right, do you notice any play? Put a crow bar under the base of the tire and lift it up and down. Do you find any play in the up and down motion?
Your springs may be broken , this would make the car sit lower. (without mods) and not moving when you press down the front.
On my 2009 the ball joint was bad causing it to rattle over bumps. But that would not cause the front to be lower, like you describe.
Strut mounts will cause this problem. You do not have to replace the entire strut to have them fixed. I had the problem a number of years ago with the rear struts on my '03 Malibu.
Sway bar links....for front rattle more likely. Rear bushings. I've done both on my 09....twice. 153k miles now.
What causes Rear noise when applying my brakes on a 2007 Chevy Malibu
I also have 2009, left side was changed under warranty, made no difference.. just replace both myself and still terrible noisy. That's it for Chev.
