Nivomat suspension? Holy cow!

I just learned something totally new, when it comes to auto mechanics.

Crawled under my 1998 Dodge Grand Caravan AWD. Been making knocking noises in back on rough roads. Found out the knocking if from the rubber mounts on the top of the "shock absorbers." No big deal, right? I figured I'd buy good new shocks for $15 or $20 each. Saw a warning decal on them about danger of removal. Thought that was a bit odd.

Well, looked them and they cost anywere from $375 to $500 each! I almost had a stroke. Got reading into it and found out these all-wheel-drive vans have what's called a Nivomat rear suspension. Each unit that looks like a shock is actually weight carrying and load-sensing. Self adjusts to road conditions and weight loads. Each has a built in pump, sensors, piston, etc.

So, here I am wondering how to approach. For the price of two, I could buy almost buy another vehicle. I see conversion kits for sale to change it over to some sort of spring supported shock, which I might to. Can't just put regular shocks in, since the leaf springs can't be left to bear all the weight. They are intentionally built weak to let the "Nivomat" do the work.

Shame of the whole things is - the ones in there are fine. It's just the rubber bushings that wore out. With a $15 shock, I wouldn't care and just replace.

So, I learned two things. #1 what a Nivomat Suspension is. #2 Odd-ball limited production vehicles can be real expensive to fix.

In the late 70"s - early 80"s BMW put Nivomats on their motorcycles to help them to adjust to varying loads. I don"t know if this was the first application, but Nivomat is not new.

What about one of those overload kits where you add a small leaf on top of the spring? I've seen some that were somewhat adjustable, so you could tweak your ride height and suspension stiffness. Maybe then you could go with regular shocks?

Just a thought. Hope you either find a good deal on parts or figure something else out. Good luck!

Anthony

Might try rockauto.com
quicklook without the details looks like 200 bucks each. Could you just replace them with heavy duty shocks and tape off the wires?

Good luck.

MONROE Part # 40200 {Specialty Shock Absorber}
For Nivomat Rear Suspension; Rear; ALL Wheel Drive; Front Wheel Drive

$228.79 $0.00 $228.79

Yep just another one of those throw away type cars/truck that are so sad to bad and should not have been built in the first place. I still say engineers should do things on paper for 2 years then have to work on what they figured out how to build for 4 years and they would learn to engineer things a lot different.

I know this is way out but I made some shock bushings out of rubber corks I bought at ace hardware Drilled the holes on my drill pres, cut them and slipped them on and sealed them with
Seal All and the have been working ok. Maybe you could get some bushings that fit and apply them the same way. Not easy but cab be done. Henry

My '92 Seville came from the factory with electronic adjustable struts, around $500 each. Needless to say I put off replacing them until this year. The factory struts are no longer available, but Monroe and Gabriel both sell passive replacements for around $100 each. Maybe an aftermarket replacement will become available for your car in the future.

Replace the bushings. Measure the OD, ID and width of the bushing. Find some roughly the same dimensions and your good to go.

We had something similiar in our 98 Pontiac Trans Sport. Some air-ride, condition-sensing rear shocks with a pump attached. When they started to malfunction I just cut them out, cut out all the wiring, pump, and control box associated with them, and put on a good ol set of regular $20 shocks. They work just the same, if not better, and you don't hear the stupid air pump kicking in every 5 minutes.

I was told the same thing about a shock on my HHR. Going to get into that soon.

Yes, I was looking at those. I buy just about all my parts from Rock Auto. Depends if that is a price for one, or for a pair. For a pair, I might go for it. No way would I pay that much for one. And, as far as I can right now, it is the price of a single unit.

Turn up the radio and drive it.

One thing comes to my mind.This vehicle is 11yrs old.I'd suspect,that using published "average" figures,that you're in or near,and quite possibly past the 100K miles mark.Though the "old hoss" may have served you well and true until recently,it may be time to fully evaluate the vehicle before spending more on it.Ie: Is it gonna need new tires,brakes,front end work,body rot repair etc in near future,Are the underside items,exhaust,brakelines,fuel and vent pipes about due for replacemnent?Every vehicle deteriorates over time,some faster than others and there comes a time,when it's more feasible to move up,than let it nickle&dime you to death.Technology has done away with seasonal tuneup,quarterly oil changes,biannual tire replacement,cold weather starting issues etc,etc,etc,and taken us in many cases well past the old "100,000 mi-wore out" axiom,with only minimal care required,but still,time ticks away and 10-12 yrs of bumps,vibration,body flex,rust etc is pretty good.
As for me,a very low mileage accumulated driver,I traded off my 14yr old Silverado in 06,with only 49K on the clock,simply because within it's near future at the time,she woulda needed,tires,shocks,alignment,belts,fluids,exhaust,converter,minor body rot repair..and I'd just replaced all rusted out leaky brakes,fuel and evap lines.She was a great ole gal,but IMHO was soon to become a money pit.

Thats not always true, I wouldent get rid of my 89 3500 1 ton dually 4x4 dump rack body. Its got 173,000 miles on it. Other then needing a timing chain cover, passenger side exhaust manifold and relpace a few broken leaf springs, that looks better than spending 30 to 40 thousand for a new 3500 dump rack.

Used to by my cars for a couple hundred bucks off ebay and drive/maintain them until repairs would cost more than a replacement. The German version of cash for clunkers took some real good cars off the road..

None of my vehicles are ever at the point where things are falling apart. Makes no difference if they have 100K or 500K miles on them. I'm pretty good with maintenance. I often replace parts when they're still working but near the end of their life. All my diesels get the injectors and pumps gone over every 150K miles. I do it myself it costs me hardly anything but time. Sometimes if an auto-trans has high miles but works fine, I tear it down anyway and rebuild it. Doing it as a planned event is cheap. Much cheaper that letting die somewhere 1000 miles from home.

Brakes, brake lines, suspension parts get checked all over every winter.

I'd never get rid of any vehicle unless it rusted to death, or became extremely inefficient to drive or fix. No other reason that I can think of to get rid of a car or truck.

This van has no rust and runs perfect. Finding these bad bushings was part of my "winter check over". This van however, has many parts that are of very limited production and not so easy to find or fix. But, we load this thing to the max, drive 2000 miles at 65-75 MPH and it's gotten 25 MPG which I think is exceptional for a 3.8 V6 and AWD. It has 120K miles and I'm sure I'll be driving it when it has 320K miles. My 87 diesel Suburban just turned 530,000 miles (on it's second engine though).