Super Cold Suspension Shake Somewhere

[turbocruiser]

Fine folks,

I'm trying to track down a damn irritating suspension shake that seems to show up on me only when the temperature's super cold. It almost feels like a shock absorber bolt is loose or perhaps like a sway bar bolt is loose. I have checked those and also all the bearings right after pulling the rig in from outside and everything seems tight. Any suggestions on where to look, do the body mount bolts show some slack as the rubber there shrinks from the cold, how about all the various bushings - do they somehow shrink enough to shake rattle and roll only when it is cold? Thanks.

Add On: The shake only occurs on bumps, this is not a steering shimmy shake. It is one or two after bumps after the original bump and it feels like something's slopping around within its regular range of motion. Hope that helps.

 

[MTNRAT]

I get that sometimes as well. Only at -20C or colder. And usually only for a short period of time. I do not worry about it, as at those temps strange things start to happen to vehicles. If you have driven at colder than -40 then really weird sounds and feelings show up.
Cheers,
Sean

 

[MTJohn]

Goes Bump in the Cold

Mine does the same thing. This is my first winter with the Cruiser. I drove it at -15 F and thought I was going to get seasick. I attribute it to cold tires and/or shocks that were too cold to effectively dampen the springs. It's only a few miles to my office and it seemed to improve as I got closer.

It was worst on concrete roadways - probably because of the regular spacing of the expansion joints.

Lots of strange vehicle noises come with below 0 temps and that has been consistent with every vehicle I have ever owned.

 

[turbocruiser]

Hmm, okay, not something I've seen on any other vehicle but if this is common with the 80's, I wont worry. I was just about to get the 10K fan clutch fluid and squirt it into the shocks!

 

[RavenTai]

The shake only occurs on bumps, this is not a steering shimmy shake. It is one or two after bumps after the original bump and it feels like something's slopping around within its regular range of motion. Hope that helps.

That is exactly what my stock LX shocks felt like when I bought my 80 original soft shocks with over 100K on them, all the time cold or not,

as the temp of the shock drops the gas charge pressure will decrease, i wonder if that allows cavitation on the low pressure side of the shock piston? if the charge pressure is low to start out with and the shock is on its way out it would show up first in cold temperatures.