Some general rear suspension questions?

[FoxCruiser]

Hey there. Pretty new to the forums, but I'm bringing home my new '02 SSEi this weekend.

On the test drive I noticed the car was squirming around at the rear and there was a noticeable 'clunk' on hard acceleration. Needless to say one of the first things I'm doing is the rear suspension.

I understand that going for another set of air shocks are the way to go, but I'm unsure if the air compressor and the rest of the system are working correctly. The car does not have the accessory bag with the air line so I can't test at the compressor nozzle in the trunk. How would I go about testing the system before I do the shocks, so I know everything's in order?

If in fact something's not really working correctly, what are my options? Other than the shocks, what commonly fails on these systems?

[nos4blood70]

The pumps fail but it is certainly not common. You can get a used one from our resident parts dude, Harofreak00.

Park the car on level ground and start her up, after a couple of seconds the pump should turn on for a brief moment.

The rear shocks are very easy to replace. Just gotta pull back the trunk carpet and remove each rear wheel. There a couple bolts in the trunk, and a couple down low. Then there's some wiggling and put it back together in reverse. Gotta remember to hook the air lines back up too!

[FoxCruiser]

And again, thanks! I'm pretty pleasantly surprised with how inexpensive these shocks are. I'll know more about the state of the system once I get the car home and start to tinker with things. Mainly, I'll be asking a bunch of questions to get my ducks in a row before starting with the purchasing and wrenching.

[crash93ssei]

A little writeup I did for rear shocks - http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... 39750.html

That squirming in the rear is exactly what I had (really really bad!) Before I replaced the shocks on that car.