Like many politicians during their recreational moments, cars can make some unique and funny noises once they experience the stresses of the open road.
Some of them are quite normal such as the ‘vroom’ of the engine. The ‘roar’ of the tire, and the ‘squeaky squeaky’ of a worn suspension over a series of bumps.
But what about the ‘clunk’ of loose steering components? Or the metallic ‘clanging’ of a brake system well past it’s maintenance time?
The majority of drivers simply like to delay the inevitable.
At the auto auctions we usually see two versions of this. Either you get the all too expensive repairs that are already due such as timing belts and brake systems. Or you have the rolling time bomb of sinister vehicular neglect where it seems like nearly every fluid and metallic component has undergone excessive stress. The first you fix. The other you recycle at another auction or, if you like it enough, you make it your daily driver. With the understanding that the money you’re spending is not going back in your pocket anytime soon.
I’m sure none of you have ever delayed maintenance to the nth degree. Well, let me rephrase that. I’m sure every single one of you, including this author, have delayed maintenance of some sort. I have this nasty habit of extending oil intervals to every 10,000 miles on my 1st gen Insight. I figure the synthetic oil and top quality filters I use can take it to that level. They advertise them for that purpose after all.
But heck. I’ve also had a cracked windshield. A couple of blown fuses. Worn tires. Brakes that were squeaking like a hummingbird on a caffeine high. In my world maintenance is usually tied to the ease of maintaining the vehicle, and my free time. That’s one of the reasons why my old 1994 Camry was always in tip-top shape. While the minivans and full-sized vans I’ve had rarely get any TLC from me.
How about you? Have you ever tried to procrastinate on the here and now? Or even worse… pass the buck to the next car buying Joe? I’m sure you haven’t. But write about it anyway.
when I was in college, I had a chevy blazer with an exhaust system you could use to strain pasta, and a ghost of a catalytic converter that had long since dropped its coco pebbles on the ground and been patched shut with aluminum tape. In short, there was no way this thing was EVER going to pass a smog test, so I just skipped the test. For my entire college career. I got pulled over once by a cop who saw my 4 year old inspection sticker (back in the day, you had to go every year) and flipped out on me, screaming that the ticket alone was $105. I told him that almst half a decade, he was the first to notice, and that fixing the truck was gonna run me a heck of a lot more than $105, so give me the ticket and let me get on about my day. He let me go without a ticket.
I let the rear brakes on one of my cars wear down to the backing plate. Made an awesome clanging noise as the metal backing plate rattled against the rear disk. Dealer service said their was about 15% of brake life left so I thought I had a little time. Well 3 out of 4 pads might have had 15% but one of them must have been almost gone.
The ONLY time I ever had brake pads worn that bad was for the same reason, the dealer told me I still had 25% left. This is why I do all my own (non warranty) work. When I do an oil change and tire rotation, im not on the clock to get it done quickly, so the whole car gets a thorough inspection.
This reminds me of something that happened just last week. When I went in for the oil change the dealer service department did their courtesy inspection and said that the tires front/rear were 6/32nds/7/32nds respectively. When I rotated them two days later – I refuse to pay $20 for a rotation when the tires are already off the car for a brake inspection – I noticed that the tread on the tires, which were on the front were, was flush with the wear bars.
I replaced them because I hated them anyway. Needless to say I was slightly irritated and sent an email to the service department to express it. I don’t believe in cursing in an email to a CS rep, but I made it known that I wasn’t happy about not getting the fair warning.
Needless to say I didn’t replace with OEM tires. With 16,XXX miles they should not have been warn down that much. I’d rotated them twice before so it wasn’t a matter of leaving the tires on the front too long – I know that front tires generally get more abuse on an FWD car than do the rears.
1989 Suburban: I’ve owned this truck for 5 years now. Used for towing and Home Depot runs. I recently put my second starter on this truck, but I didn’t shim it so after startup you get that “ziinnnnggg”. In theory it’s a simple fix – drop the starter and re-shim, in reality it’s a PITA since the starter ways about 30 lbs and you have to one hand press it while bolting with the other hand. The brakes – they need a bleed, new pads and rotors. However when I realized that a brake job also entails a bearing repack I decided to just kick that can on down the road…. There’s also the leaking heater core that was taken care of by a DIY heater bypass courtesy of the Home Depot plumbing section.
1997 Jetta – my daily driver. 240,000+ miles. Second heater core went out. Leaking A/C – good for one recharge a year. HVAC vent seals all blown out so there is no difference between “floor, defrost and normal” blower routing selections. Speedo occasionally works – I’ve become good at pacing traffic. Trim missing here and there. I took the beater test a week ago, but unfortunately my car doesn’t qualify. I do try to keep the mechanicals in good shape – timing belt changes have been done, suspension has been completely replaced, brakes are regularly done.. It’s the little crap you slowly learn to live with. :) I do get nervous when my wife drives the car though since I feel she’s not aware of all the subtle nuances I’ve learned to deal with…
Our 14 year old Subaru with 224k miles frequently turns on its check engine light. The code is usually for low catalyst efficiency. I just clear the code and keep on driving. Recently, I have gotten a code for a misfire on one cylinder. Very likely, it is due to a weak ignition coil. That I will fix at the next oil change which is due in another thousand miles.
Back in my younger and broke-r days, I once ran the Michelins on my front tires clear down to the steel belts. Sounded great and worked surprisingly well. Been a Michelin fan ever since.
I have learned the hard way to keep up with regular maintenance. It’s not always cheap, but doing all the proper service on our vehicles has been the difference between spending money on repairs AND a tow.
That said, I use to own a 1998 Ford Escort and bought that sucker when it was brand new. We were young, didn’t know much about cars at the time, and it fit our limited budget. Like most American cars at the time, it started having problems well before 100k even though we did regular oil changes and kept up with minimal maintenance.
The worst part though was apparently it was just “young” enough to have the damn “check engine” light go off. Everytime it was something minor, usually something I could have ignored but always got it fixed because we were already at the shop. Yet everytime that thing left me by the side of the road that light never went off. Those check engine lights have got to be the most worthless thing I’ve ever seen.
The good news is I was travelling heavily at the time and simply started flying instead of driving even though I hate flying. When I decided to get a new job so I wasn’t travelling every week we finally traded in the car.
I expect Educator Dan will be along soon to show you the error of your Escort-dissin’ ways, but I’ll throw in my 2 cents. Our 93 Escort went over 200k with just oil changes and normal wear items. the one exception was the module that controls the dashboard lights, they would flicker and sometimes go out when the car hit a bump, I’d have to bang on it to get them working again. Five bucks at a junkyard solved that. And the heater core went south at 150K, that was a lot of fun to replace.
@Russycle, LOL
I had a 1997 Escort wagon with that auto trans, the trans went belly up at 68,000 miles due to a fragile design and 0 maintenance performed on it, oh and the fact that I drove it like it was one of Jack Baruth’s racing Neons. A year after a tune up I had to have the spark plug wires replaced again because of a PepBoys “technician” who didn’t know how to properly shield plug wires from engine heat or how to properly route them away from the hottest parts of the engine.
Other than that the car flawless. My ex-wife has had it since 2009 and even though she HATES that car with a passion almost equal to the level with which she hates me, she still has been unable to kill it. (I know cause I still see her angry visage in it around town.)
In my case vehicle maintenance is based primarily on how much is left in my checking account after the bills are paid. I tend to keep up on my million dollar oil change ( comparatively cheap since I need 5W50 synthetic and Ford really does have one of the best synthetic media filters but an oil changes is a 100 dollar affair if I do it myself). Tires are 1100 bucks so they get changed piecemeal and typically right at or just past the wear bar. Brakes are another 1000 dollar affair so they get done in sets front or rear. The clutch is a 3000 dollar deal so I ride that rascal as long as I can (which is to say as soon as it slows down going over a hill that’s when it gets replaced.
The rest isn’t so bad for regular wear items, supercharger belt is 80 bucks but I don’t change it at 25k when it starts to slip, just when its really noticeable.
Sigh… somewhat proud of the fact that I was never upside down on a car loan as I upgraded my way to a GT500, was proud of the fact that I bought it well outside the median age for the average buyer, its just a bummer that maintenance costs are high (caveat; at least they are not Porsche carbon ceramic brakes high) but frankly I’d rather skip a few meals at McDonalds in trade for the pleasure of driving it.
Me? Delay maintanance? No… never…. would not… could not. nope.
…
…oh, and brakes. Brakes are good. Never run with grindy brakes… No reason… Just good solid, hard learned advise. Yep… nice weather we’re have’in…
Heh, in the fall of ’07 I bought a 98K mile ’01 Alero with fresh tires to use as my commuter scooter. Other than oil changes that car needed absolutely nothing for over two years, at which point the necessary tune-up could no longer be ignored because it was misfiring. So that got done, and I drove it for another year.
So by that time the car had 150K miles on it, the tires were bald, the brakes were shot, the windshield was cracked, a wheel bearing was bad, the driver’s power window switch was flaky and the intake manifold gasket was leaking. This stuff had been happening throughout the three years, I never bothered to get any of it worked on because the car still ran fine.
I traded it off for a Ford Five Hundred in January of ’11, when the used car market was still ice cold. The dealer only offered me $800, for a car that was rust free and running fine. Of course, I’d already calculated that the cost of repairs was more than the car would have been worth at the time if all the repairs had been done, so I took it…..today that car probably would have been worth $1000 more. But then on the other hand I got an absurdly good deal on the Ford, so I didn’t mind taking the hit.
I try to keep up with my maintenance… On the Subaru with 177k it’s oil changes the old-fashioned 3k miles, and boy, is it dirty when it comes out. I don’t know what the check engine light is that comes on periodically, because I don’t own a code reader and it doesn’t ever stay on for more than two days in a row. I suppose I’m delaying that maintenance until I buy a $20 reader.
Longest I’ve ever put off a repair is when a vandal broke a fixed side window in the hatch area. It didn’t completely collapse, and I was able to borrow a roll of duct tape from a friendly resident close to where I parked. That duct tape stayed on for close to 9 months. Every time the edges started to peel and crack from sun degradation I’d take a box cutter and trim the brittle stuff, and apply another layer of duct tape. When I finally did replace the window it was with a similar-but-not-exact replacement… the GT is the only wagon with integrated radio receiver. I did get a cheapie plastic radio antenna afterward and propped it inside the window.
10K oil changes (of plain old 5W-20 dino oil)are exactly what my Fit’s maintenance minder calls for. The car still runs like new at over 80K. Almost all miles are highway so the brake pads are still in fine shape and I’ll bet the clutch will last the life of the car (which I expect to be well north of 200K). Apart from the recommended 3 year brake fluid change which I had done recently, the car hasn’t needed anything else but tires and air filters so far. (Spark plugs / valve clearance inspection will be due at 110K, replacement of coolant and manual transmission fluid at 120K.)
That’s encouraging, I have a ’10 Fit Sport.. The longest I’ve ever gotten out of a set of brakes is on this car.. usually my brakes are good for a year, I’m at 2.5 years on the Fit.
Mine also does the 10k oil change, though I’m running Synth on it now.
I just rolled through 25k a couple weeks ago.
’10 Fit (base, manual) also. Because almost no highway driving, the minder goes off every 6-7,000 miles, not bad. The only thing I do differently is change the filter every time, not every other. Chevron dino, no need for anything more exotic. Timing chain, not belt, not a whole lot to do on the car.
I also have the oil filter changed every time. (I think that’s actually Honda’s recommendation, too.)
I used to have a daily-driver Roadmaster wagon. $1000 car, ran great, 150k on the stock 350.
My long term plan was to blow the 350 up and then replace it with an LSX or similar high-output smallblock derivative. To this end, I performed *zero* powertrain maintenance and drove it like a video game car – frequent full throttle, manual redline shifts, maximum acceleration on a stone-cold engine, flagrant burnouts, etc.
I kept the brakes and accessories up, but literally never did anything to the engine or trans. No oil changes, not even level checks or topping off. I figured the sooner it exploded the sooner I’d get my junkyard mill.
For more than a year, it never missed a beat. Of course. Then I gave it to my dad, and he drove it another year without incident. It’s still running, as far as I know on the same oil that was in the engine when I bought it. I think it’s possessed.
It’s hard to believe that the GM that made that car is the same one that fielded reliability disasters such as the Vue CVT.
V8, BOF, RWD… that the General knows how to do correctly. Everything else in automotive-dom?
After the tornado that hit my college last spring, my 2005 Cadillac SRX was driven around with missing, trash-bagged rear windows for a good month, until the insurance company could catch up on the claims from local hail damage and severe storms.
I recently had an oil change done at the dealer and, since I’m at 16,XXX miles, they recommended the 15k service which included replacing the air filters (cabin and engine) to the tune of $120: to which I replied, “I just want an oil change, I can do the filters myself when they’re needed.” I’d checked the engine air filter a month ago and it still looked new.
Don’t even get me started on stealership “service packages”. Know the manufacturer’s recommendations and follow them- somewhere else.
In H.S. and college I had a 3.4 DOHC equipped W body that had the notorious oil pump seal leak that requires removal of the rear head to fix. It was dumping a quart of oil a week at one point. My fix was just to keep a case of cheap oil in the trunk at all times, and be diligent about checking the oil level.
I had a GM U-Body weather beater minivan that I picked up as a winter driver. Driving it down to San Francisco for Thanksgiving it blew its head gasket somewhere along the way. It didn’t become a problem until I pulled off the interstate and the temperature surged and coolant exploded everywhere. I took it to a shop the next day. The mechanic drilled a hole through the thermostat so the exhaust gas bubbles that would normally form there could circulate, and put alumaseal in the coolant. Made no promises I could make the 800 mile drive home.
I nursed that sucker all the way back – and then drove it for another 10 months, bad head gasket and all. I would simply add more water and coolant from time to time when it evacuated out of the low pressure tank, check the oil for coolant (never did get in there) and learned how to “burp” the cooling system to get the excess gas out. Even got “burping” it hot down to a dangerous science.
Yes, I still have a box of brake parts sitting under my desk that need to be installed on my DD, not a safety issue yet.
A true gearhead will spend all his spare time working on the project vehicle, and neglect the daily driver because its no fun to work on. Or at least thats what I do
I had a 1993 Plymouth Colt with the 1.8L sincle OHC. The maintenence schedule called for a timing belt change at 60K miles. I was curious as to how much of a margin of safety was included in the timing belt change. Since this was a non interference engine, I deceided to see if I could double the mileage to 120K before changing the timing belt. The worst case scenario was to loose the belt while driving and drift to a stop, but the enfine would not be ruined.
Alas, after 13 years and 117K miless , my 17 year old son hydroplaned in the rain and rear ended the car in front of him stopped at a light. The Colt was totaled, but it was close enough to my goal to declare the timing belt experiment a success.
Up to this point in my life,I have been meticulous in my maintenance/repairs. If it rattles, I fix it. Brakes, tires,steering components, anything that wears,I replace before it breaks. I oil sparay my Impala and Cobalt every year. The Mustang stays in the garage for winter. I keep a log for each car,and jot down anything they may need attention in the future. I always maintained a bank account for car repairs.
At trade in time,I always got top dollar.
However at this stage of life,my plan is to keep all three cars on the road untill its financialy, not feasable. This is uncharted territory for me.
At some point I,m going to have to back off on maintenance/repairs. I’ll just let the cars die.
The scary part for me is, at what point do you back off?
“The scary part for me is, at what point do you back off?”
At the first sign of rust, Mikey!
@Zackman….Yeah, thats probably good advice. It will be hard, because,”letting stuff go” is so contrary to my nature.
I usually stick to the mantra of “is this absolutely necessary to keep me alive behind the wheel and/or road legal?” If the answer is no, then let it go!
What do you mean by “oil spray” your vehicle?
@ Dynasty….You take an oil based product,of some sort,and spray it everywhere you can. Without a doubt, its a messy job.
Here in Southern Ontario, “Krown” or Rustcheck” are one of the best.
Some folks,who don’t care what thier car/truck and driveway look like,spray used motor oil over everything.
It won’t stop rust, but it will slow it down.
99 Accord, 4-cylinder automatic. Once we drove it for quite a few miles with the gas cap not on tight enough, and it gave a check engine light. For months after that it would give CEL’s for no apparent reason. Finally the catalyst plugged up so badly the engine couldn’t move the car. Sure there’d been a CEL but we’d been well taught to ignore that.
My old ’92 Legend (which I had bought used) needed a catalytic converter that would have cost me an arm and two legs. I kept putting it off for as long as I could, and eventually decided to just sell the thing. One of the potential buyers was a young kid looking for his first car, and though he practically begged me to sell him the thing, I refused because, even though I told him up-front all the problems that needed to be fixed (and there were a few others up-coming as well), I knew he didn’t truly understand what he was getting himself into. I finally sold the car to someone who already owned an Acura and could appreciate the kinds of costs that were coming his way.
Oil leak that was so slow you never saw it on the floor and added a single quart between changes on a 130k mile truck? Delayed two years and going.
Squeaking brakes when the rotors were due for replacement but breaking distance was fine? Delayed until next needed freeway use (I live near practically everything desirable in town and we used my wife’s car most trips as it was quiter and higher mileage).
Cracked windshield? At least three years until trade in.
I could go on.
Boy, having been a dealer tech I’ve seen some of the very worst. I had a customer who drove their SLX until one of the front brake pads went INTO THE ROTOR FINS! Not just metal-to-metal. The whole inside surface was gone and the owner finally brought it in because of the blatantly unignorable pulsation caused by pushing the sliver of backing pad into the rotor fins. I wouldn’t have believed this was possible if I hadn’t seen it.
Another scary moment involved a customer with an ’02 MDX. They brought the car in for its first oil change at 25k miles. The factory filter was still on the car and the paint mark on the drain plug was still lined up with the one on the pan, plus the owner confirmed it was the first spill-and-fill. My service writer said, “I want you to come back in in 1000 miles so we can get this new oil out of there to help clean things up. You need to take a little better care of this thing!”. The owner’s reply was, “Yeah, right. It’s a lease!”. So…watch out for off-lease vehicles.
This is why I will NEVER buy an off-lease car. New or one-owner used (with service records), thanks.
My current car was a (high mile) corporate lease, and the CarFax showed an extensive list of regular service and maintenance. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another corporate lease vehicle. But now I can see why you’d avoid a personal-lease vehicle…
Ex-wife, but wife at the time, the power window cable broke on her car. So the window will just fall into the door. I was about to schedule to have it repaired, then she had an affair. I see the car from time to time, the tape holding up the window looks pretty classy.
So she got the crappy car, you get to laugh at her in the car…I think you made out OK.
I’m quite pleased.
The last couple of years, the tires were making noise on my Impala. I felt there must be something wrong with a tire or two. Finally after I took it to where I bought the tires three years ago, they showed me that the tires were kinda cupped – a sawtooth-like edge to them. Struts were shot and the tires had lots of tread left and rode just fine. Had struts replaced last month at 98K miles.
I’m watching things closely on the car to identify problems in case it makes sense to replace the Impala, as I’m afraid I’ll be stuck with my long commute until I retire in four years – I hope…
@Zackman….I think your in Ohio? Keep your eye on those brake/fuel lines,they don’t get along with salt.
@Mikey:
Cincinnati area. Yes, we have salt. I have my car gone over very well every 30K miles. Things are still wearing on the Impala, though, and it hurts, as I’m a lot like you! Too bad things aren’t going to last forever…
@Zackman
I don’t see a problem with getting four more years out of your Impala.
With your high mile commute, “resale” will be a problem,no matter what you drive. Keep your maintenance up,and maybe the Impala can retire with you.
Delay maintenance? Pah. How’s about having very little brake pad left to the point where braking makes a distinct ‘metal on metal’ sound – then driving down a very steep, very narrow, very windy mountain road? Fortunately the car was a manual, so using the gears to keep the speed down was absolutely necessary, however I still had to steer off the road and into a field when a large truck came the other way. The sheep ran out the way, I steered back onto the road again and we carried on rolling. The next day I decided that new rotors and pads were cheaper than a funeral…
My Dodge Stealth had made an odd scraping noise when in neutral since I bought it. It shifted fine and I had no problems with it. After 10 thousand miles or so it started making more noise. Eventually, it was a whine, like a bearing. Figured I should change the gear oil and see if there was a lot of debris in it. Pulled the plug…and nothing came out. Poured in some Redline Shockproof Heavy and the next day, most of it was on the ground. Since I had no place to really pull it all apart, I just periodically dumped whatever oil I had laying around in (used motor oil, whatever). Another 8 thousand miles later, it seized up. The car was pretty rusty and the engine was definitely tired by that point, so that was the end of it.
Hmm…my Birfield joints click pretty badly on the Cruiser…I just ignore that one. I ignored the timing belt on my Miata…no problems out of the timing belt but the water pump blew up just before I deployed.
This post brings up a question that has always been in the back of my head. I wonder if this penchant to delay maintenance has anything to do with perceived reliability, or lack thereof, for many vehicles.
There are certain cars that are seen as junk; old KIAs, VWs in general, older Fords, Dodges, and any number of GM products. Consequently these vehicles don’t receive the maintenance they require in order to stay on the road because the owners don’t feel that it’s worth it to spend the money on fixing junk. Then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. A car is seen as junk, doesn’t get maintained, turns into junk, is remembered as junk.
Likewise, I wonder if the owners of Hondas (and Acuras), Toyotas (and Lexes) don’t bother with maintenance because “these are the best cars on the road.” Then, if one fails, the owner immediately turns on the brand for selling them a crap car.
Interesting question.
My thought would be the people, in general, who buy Lexus, Toyota, Acuras, ect.. might be of the mindset that they actually do the maintenance.
However, I’m sure there are plenty of people who buy GM vehicles who do their maintenance, and plenty of people who buy (lease) lexuses that don’t bother.
I’ve had three GM vehicles (pre bad GM) that I took pretty good care of. Whoever ended up with those vehicles got a great deal…
And since I can’t imagine being delusional enough to buy a crap GM car, say something like a Pontiac Sunfire, or a Grand Am, I have no idea if I would bother with much more than oil changes. Then again, if I were delusional enough to buy one, I might be delusional enough to not even bother with the oil changes on those POS.
“I wonder if this penchant to delay maintenance has anything to do with perceived reliability, or lack thereof, for many vehicles.”
Occam’s Razor provides an easy explanation:
-If you maintain the car, you’ve spent money on it, with no perceived benefit in return
-If you don’t maintain the car, it’s still running for now. Because I didn’t spend money today, I’m ahead of the game.
Many people are not good at associating actions with consequences unless the consequences are both immediate and unmistakable.
The ability to keep driving a car that is poorly maintained sends the message to many that the maintenance doesn’t really matter. The linkage between premature death and a lack of maintenance may very well be missed. If the car is traded or sold before the problems arise, then the outcomes won’t be experienced by the person who did the damage, which further reinforces the belief that the maintenance wasn’t necessary.
My older brother owns a rural junk yard. He prefers to call it “auto recycling”
He buys cars/trucks by the pound. The car comes in,its weighed,and parked for the pickers. After a week, or so, it goes on the pile and ready for the crusher.
A good 50 percent of the cars wouldn’t be there if somebody had kept up on repairs.
Import or domestic its always the same outcome.
To quote “Columbo” “look after your car, and it will look after you”
I’m in the car parts business mostly for Porsches. I see a lot of 914s and 944s that people neglect because parts are so expensive. These cars depreciate like falling rocks so people think they can get a “real Porsche” cheap. Then they find out the maintenance can cost as much as a new 997. The 914 is moving into collectable status so maybe they’ll fare better. 944s are toast. I’m sure there are other exotics that fall into the same category.
You are so right. Had a 1984 944 which I purchased used w/ 120K miles. Did some maintenance myself except for timing belt which needed to be changed every 30k miles or so. Clutch replacement is also very costly. At 200K miles sold 944 and purchased Boxster. Boxster is far less expensive to own. 944 was a blast to drive however.
I treat my cars as if I’m going to keep them forever.
I’m usually OK about maintenance, but sometimes I get surprised. A few years back I jacked up my 84 Jetta to replace the boot over the shift linkage and discovered the left front tire’s inner shoulder had been cut to the cords by something stuck in the wheel well. Fortunately I had a good full size spare and whatever had done the damage had fallen out.
1998 Nissan Maxima, Driven 50K kms in roughly 1.5 years. I’ve changed oil religiously.
The shocks and some bushings are tired, and there is always a metallic grungy clunk when I turn the wheel all the way to the left and try to accelerate. Haven’t been able to figure that out. Anyone have any idea?
Being on a student budget, the shocks would have to wait.
Might be worth checking the steering stop on the knuckle. Nissan used to put a bolt on the knuckle that looks like it has a thick, plastic head. The head contacts a flat part on the control arm when the wheel is turned to full lock and without a nice hefty coat of white lithium grease (or something similar) they tend to make a metalic grinding noise when the wheels are turned and the suspension travels (as in an acceleration event). This is easy and almost free to fix so start there.