Ok, here's the story.

When I go over a large speed bump, I hear a loud clunk and metallic scraping from the rear of my car. I've replaced ALL Of the rear suspension components with OEM-replacement parts (lower control arms, torque arm, coil springs, coil spring insulators, rear bump stops, shocks, sway bar bushings and endlinks, upper and lower panhard bar) and the problem still exists.

I noticed the other day that the upper panhard bar actually is touching the fuel tank. I assume this is not normal and im wondering if the fuel tank is improperly mounted. I can't move it by hand just by pushing on it and the straps are tight. I know the tank has been dropped by the previous owner and he's messed up everything else he's touched on the car, so naturally I suspect he improperly installed the fuel tank as well.

Is there a reasonable way to check if the fuel tank is properly installed, other than cutting off my exhaust and dropping the tank? The exhaust is all welded. Or does anyone have any tips of what else it might be?

It's the 1996 RS w/ 3800, 142k miles.

Thanks!

 

Go take a look at another car or post a picture.

 

make sure the jack and stuff are fastened down as they should be. i had a noise like that and the jack was not put back right and not tightened so it would bang the body at the big bumps.

 

^ I'll check that.

Can anyone confirm that the upper panhard should NOT be touching the fuel tank? I went to the salvage yard yesterday but none of the cars had both the fuel tank and upper panhard installed.

 

nothing in the suspension should be touching the gas tank. just checked and my top panhard is welded to the gas tank shield. dont know if its factory but suspect not.

 

^ Or the tank shield is welded to the panhard bar! It's posed to be screwed to the frame, yours probably came loose. And no, the bar shouldn't be touching the tank. Metal on metal wearing on a gas tank can be a bad thing. Could be the p.o. couldn't get it tucked up all the way, but the tank needs to be pretty much up in place to catch the strap bolts. I have a feeling the front of the tank is rotated down.

 

I tried removing my spare tire, jack, and lug wrench and it didn't help. I also noticed my antenna was loose but that didn't help either when I tightened it down.

How is the tank attached in the car? If the front was "rotated down" could it repositioned just by loosening the tank straps and shifting it? Is there some kind of locating pin on the top of the tank?

Sometimes the sound is kind of "springy" - do the coil springs normally make any noise? Again the springs and insulators are both new.

 

the gas tank is plastic first of all and second it is mounted above your exhaust, rear end and panhard bars... so you gas tank falling out is not really gonna happen unless all that goes first

 

^ Right, but I still don't want a loose fuel tank resting on top of my panhard bars.

I'm in the process of removing my exhaust so I can drop the tank and see what's really going on up there.

 

Did you check to see if your exaust is hitting on the metal skid plate under the drivers seat. They get bent sometimes when the car gets bottomed out.