Front End Suspension Question

cghbuilder86 · May 25, 2010

Today I was out changing the oil and doing some maintenance on my truck. I noticed something that caught my attention but it may not be a big deal. There are these things that look like suspension stoppers to me, like they are designed to stop the body from going any lower. It's like a flat metal surface on the chassis or front axel or something and a rubber stopper type thing on the body. On the passenger side the rubber piece is touching the flat metal part. On the driver side there is just a tiny bit of clearance but not much. Is this a problem? How much clearance is there suppose to be? They look just like the suspension stoppers on the back but the back of course has tons of clearance. I would appreciate any info about it.

Truck is an '04 Silverado ext. cab 1500 Z71 incase it matters.

amtz.zero · May 25, 2010

Sounds normal to me. When I have to jack up my truck to work under it, it's always a little uneven.

cghbuilder86 · May 26, 2010

I decided to add a picture to show what I am talking about. I think my wording confused people maybe, because I haven't got much feedback. Anyways, maybe it is normal but I usually obsess over stuff like this until I feel comfortable that it is the way it should be.

Where the yellow arrow points is where I am thinking there should be some airspace. It just looks to me like it is designed for the wheel to move up and down easily and it's kind of bottomed out against that pad.

It would also be really helpful if you have a truck around this time frame or design model to peek behind the front wheel and see how yours looks.

Thanks,

Colby

Sly · June 3, 2010

I decided to add a picture to show what I am talking about. I think my wording confused people maybe, because I haven't got much feedback. Anyways, maybe it is normal but I usually obsess over stuff like this until I feel comfortable that it is the way it should be.
Where the yellow arrow points is where I am thinking there should be some airspace. It just looks to me like it is designed for the wheel to move up and down easily and it's kind of bottomed out against that pad.

It would also be really helpful if you have a truck around this time frame or design model to peek behind the front wheel and see how yours looks.

Thanks,

Colby

I believe that is a bump stop???

Matt_ · June 3, 2010

For these trucks they are called "compression stops". They are designed to compress with suspension movement... as opposed to "bump stops" which are designed to stop suspension movement.

To the OP: having a tiny bit of clearance on one side is no big deal. The terrain you were on may not be perfectly level and im sure you had gas in your tank that would also throw off the side-to-side compression.

They should just barely be touching, or have a small amount of clearance.

glueguy · June 23, 2010

On my 2001 Suburban LS1500, these have deteriorated badly. One essentially gone, the other about half still there but torn. Do I need to replace these? Difficult?