Tale of the Woeful Car, Part I

Last Thursday, Kent and I were heading off to pick up Carol and go to a birthday party. Driving down Madison we stopped at the bottom to turn left and we heard a loud clunk come from the rear of the car. Like maybe we had just run over a street sign, or maybe the muffler fell off. So we pull over and look behind the car and on the street and didn't see anything unusual so we travelled on. We were running late (of course) and I wanted to get to Carol's and on to the party. So off we go for this short drive and we continue to hear the clunking. It is really loud. It sounds like there is a person in the trunk beating on the inside. Of course, it's erratic so it's hard to tell if it happens when we go over bumps or around curves, turning left or turning right. It doesn't seem to follow a pattern. Luckily nothing is very far in Athens, so we pick up Carol and go the party. We'll deal with it later.

After the party we drive Carol home, still clunking, and go home ourselves. This is where it gets fun. Kent jacks up the driver side rear tire. It is definitely making noise. That funny, creaky, clunking noise. We look at the shocks and it does perhaps look broken, but being the un-connoiseur of cars, I really have no idea. Kent being curious decides to jack up the other side and compare. Well that worked. We jacked it up and it looked different. Then we hear a loud Crack! The other side breaks completely and we have a low rider... On the rear driver side at least.

Diagnosis: broken shock absorber.

Kent has most graciously jumped into the fixit process once again. He ordered the shocks online (he's replacing both, so we have equal springiness on each side) as well as new brake pads. I expect he'll get some help from our neighbor, Jim, who has a "coil compressor" or "spring compressor"? Anyhow, all I know is that both rear tires are off and the car is up on jacks. I'll leave the rest to him.