I suspect one or both of my rear shocks are blown. I'm going to go outside and confirm now. Basically on the way to work all of a sudden if felt like I had a flat tire -bump-bump-bump - I stopped and found that all the tires were fine yet the bumps continued. The bump "feel" clearly seems to come from the rear. Any time I try and make a sharp slow turn it feels almost as if I'm losing the rear end.

If my rear shocks are blown how dangerous is it?
Will I make it to the weekend (when I can put on my KGXs)?

 

Yup, sounds like a shock is totally gone. Take it nice and easy when you drive it until you get it fixed. Your car's handling will be very poor with no stability control in the rear end.

 

Could the strut get damaged if the shock is gone?

 

You only have one of the two. You have a strut and a spring. The spring won't be damaged with a blown strut, it will just be free to bounce all it would like. Just annoying and unsafe if high speed corners. The back end will lose traction very easily.

 

Pappa, If both rears are shot, your car will bounce...uncontrollably at highway speeds. It can be dangerous...

To test it out, push down on the rear of the car as hard as you can and then quickly let go. At the worst the car should rise to a high point and then settle back down to where it started. Any additional movement or bouncing indicates a worn shock.

Finality, I'll assume that you know that a strut and a shock are both essentially the same thing and I'll also assume that you meant 'spring' and not 'strut'. The answer is yes. If you drive on worn or shot struts/shocks, it could shorten the usuable life of your springs but most likely you will lose control of the car while travelling at speed and smack into something!

Jim

 

I had a blown strut once for about one month on my front passengers side. That thing bounced around like crazy on the highway, besides that no problems.

 

after my car was stolen i had a rear blown shock.sounds really nasty when you go over any bumps. i was driving on it for a while not knowing thats what the problem was until i took it to nissan. i didnt care cause i was changing my suspension anyway. i did the job myself nissan is way to expensive... good luck.

lenny.

 

Wow, I can't belive how bad the handling is. I think it's the right rear shock that's blown. It sucks. If I go over 55 and hit a bump it basically feel like I'm going to fish tail and lose the rear. I might just rent a car until the weekend. This sucks and it happened all of a sudden.

Thanks for all of the responses guys.