I have a 1997 Cadillac Seville SLS --- When traveling at highway speeds and a bump or ridge is encountered, the rear of the car will skip or lurch to the right. The shocks appear to be fine --Should I add some additional weight in the rear? Any ideas or suggestions?

 

sludgejudge,

it would be cool that you could add weight to the different sides of the corners of a regular car to make it handle better, but let's face it we don't have the equipment to balance them out that way.
for us regular road guy's..., have all of the wheel bearings checked and have those shocks checked out too. my best guess is that the bearings are worn . let us know what is going on... others may learn from this problem,

barry

 

Is this when even a ridge is squarely across the road and both rear wheels encounter it at the same moment?..or when only when one rear wheel hits a ridge?

I once saw a guy horsing around, by goosing it around a corner, downtown, and he unexpectedly hit bumps/potholes in the street... and I saw his wheels "wheel hop" dangerously and his car torqued completely sideways, heading him towards a building, befire he regained control. I witnessed this thing...with my mouth agasp.

I too have had vehicles that have bounced up in the air from hitting perfectly square ridges going across a highway...traveling at highway speed, and had my vehicle suddenly veer because of this. This can give one a case of paranoia when you see ridges in the road, with this effect going on.

I always thought that my shockes were not in perfect harmony, as being the cause. That one wheel came back down engaging the road quicker than the other one.

 

I had a problem like that with a 1969 Dodge Charger. The cause was the rear shocks. They were not right for that car. They checked out good(said the dealer) but I had them replaced by a local mechanic who had some moxie when it came to suspensions. The car rode fine after that. However, the fenders rusted through and I swore off Dodge and Chrysler ever since.