Rockauto and Amazon used to have GMDelco replacements, but I haven't checked lately.

My right front clunks softly on low speed bumps and has for 4+ years. It seems louder in cold weather, and it's less noticeable since I put Continental tires in the front instead of Michelins. I've forgotten what $300 part my mechanic said it needed, but it wasn't the strut itself and wasn't a safety issue, so I didn't spend the money (I'm retired). Last month, he told me the other 3 have a little seepage and may need to be replaced soon. I'm debating whether I want to put $2k into a 15 y.o. car when it could use several thousand in body work, too (windshield and rear bumper). It would likely be cheaper to convert all 4 to FE1 springs/struts, and I wouldn't mind a softer ride.

 

I would go to your local dealer and get the part number first then google it. You could also have the dealer put out a search for the part. If you do happen to find it than purchase and additional one and for the opposite side. The left and right front are different parts. Get the part number and report back.

 

Upper strut mount or bearing, sway bar end links or frame mount bushings.

 

New to the Forum. Just bought a 2008 DTS fully loaded with 37,000 miles. Loud clunking coming from right front suspension at low speeds over small bumps, large bumps, speed bumps... you get it. Suspension components look fine, bushings not warn, pushing on fender to move car does not induce any clunking. Clunking goes away at around 20 mph and no clunking from there on up to freeway speeds.

I have read through this Forum and have seen numerous threads that kind of describe similar noises and at this point, everything is pointing to the magnetic ride shock/strut.

This car has the F55 and 1SE options. I've spent a lot of time on the internet looking for magnetic ride replacement struts. I cannot find anything. Arnott Industries out of Florida has a strut that plugs into the cars mag system, but this is just to extinguish the error light. The shock/strut is a standard unit, not a magnetorheological shock. They do produce magnetic rear shocks though.

Sorry this is probably a repeat of a much discussed problem, but any suggestions on where to get magnetorheological front struts for this car.

At least you can still find struts or shocks for F55. If you had FE1, no rear "air" shocks to be found anywhere. Replace
struts and strut mounts.

 

Rockauto has them now. GM genuine rear air shocks

 

Thanks for the responses, information, and suggestions. Really appreciate it.

I stopped by the local Cadillac dealership and he looked up the parts via the VIN of the car. The front struts and rear shocks are still available and he said he could get them. The front struts were over $1,000.00 each. The rear shocks were around $980.00 each. So over $4,000.00 for parts alone. I just can't justify spending that much on the car.

I'll take another look at sway bar and strut bearings. I would think that they way this suspension clunks at the slightest movement when the car just begins to move, that this noise would be so easy to find. Just not the case.

 

Those prices are twice what you can find elsewhere.

 

Maybe something in the correct sections of www.gmpartsgiant.com or www.gmpartsdirect.com

 

Small Update:
First, thanks again for all of your suggestions. I looked up front struts on some of the sites that you all have recommended. I did indeed find struts by typing in my VIN and they were half the price of the Dealership quote. I just need to validate that they are magnetorheological struts. The picture of the strut on the sites do not show electrical connectors, so we'll see.

I finally did get under the car to put my eyes on all of the suspension components, bushings, etc. Again, this car is new to me, having just owned it for about 2 weeks now. It has 36,800 miles showing on the odometer and when I looked at all of the bushings and components, they look brand new. I cannot get any clunks out of the car by pushing as hard as I can on the fender. This car rides like a Cadillac, just magnificent. Too bad at low speeds the clunking lets it down.

Question for the Forum Members: Are there any GM/Delphi Engineers out there that weigh-in on these discussions? Seems like they should understand these Magnetorheological struts. If they sit for 15 years (2008 to 2023), what happens to the particles suspended in this fluid??? Just a guess, but is this the problem with these shocks/struts? Is it a controller issue? My car has no lights or messages on the dash.

 

My F55 STS is now a garage queen and sits for long periods, fed from a BatteryTender. The layups have no effect on the MRC fluid or suspension action - when the car goes, it usually gets a severe workout on the back country farm roads and a 6,000 foot road/runway that I have access to.

I too had a slight clunk in the strut bearings at slow speeds - a few "aggressive driving" maneuvers out in the boonies cured that - these cars need to be driven - and driven hard once in a while.

Click the v icon at the bottom right of this post, then click the attachment.

 

Submariner409:
Interesting perspective, and experience. I had a similar experience, but I thought it was just me. I decided to take the car out on some back roads and see if the F55 and 1SE would live up to expectations. After a couple of jaunts, I thought I noticed the clunking was almost gone, much to my surprise. After more "normal" driving, the clunking did return though. I like the idea of the noise being the strut bearing though. That seems to make the most sense at this point.

 

My front end clunks were the strut bearings also. It would come and go with driving her but one day we got a good snow and there was no going anymore.

 

Well, here is the latest, and probably final update for this issue. The clunking in the right front suspension has been discovered and corrected. As some of you thought and suggested, it was the strut bearing, and/or the strut top hat. I replaced both and the car is perfect. No more clunking at all, which by-the-way, became so bad that I almost didn't want to drive it.

Some take aways from this: the issue was hard to diagnose because I could not get the car to clunk by pushing on the fender at rest. All I could do was drive the car and guess at the problem. No one who drove the car, would not and did not come to the conclusion that it was the strut bearing. The correct parts for the car were really difficult to get, even with the VIN. This car has F55, 1SE, and FE3 so getting that all understood and getting the parts were difficult.

Finally, I ran out of time to get this done myself. Planning on a driving trip from Seattle to So Cal. I enlisted the help of a local Foreign Car repair shop. The front desk guy was awesome and told me that all of the mechanics were "refusing" to work on a Cadillac. I wanted to do the work at this shop because: 1.) they are quite used to working on high end cars, and 2.) they do really good work. I told the front desk guy that after its fixed the mechanics should drive this car as it will hold it's own with any standard BMW. When I picked the car up, they were all smiles!

I have to tell you, one of my too many cars is a 2008 BMW M5 with the V10. This BMW, though expensive beyond belief, is my all-time favorite car period. (after 10 Corvettes, 8 BMWs, and 1 Lamborghini) The Cadillac, though 200hp shy of the BMW, is so much fun to drive, I just can hardly believe it. The Magna-ride is just incredible, the ride is exceptional, the handling, though not in the same class as an M Series car, is so much more than acceptable. I really enjoy driving this car and pushing it. These DTS cars are definitely underrated in my opinion.
Thanks all!

 

Your DTS probably has PAS - Performance Algorithm Shift - that kicks in when aggressive driving conditions trigger it. It holds shift rpm points higher and longer to keep the engine up in the bet power band as well as provide more solid shifts. Coupled with the MRC going into a sport suspension mode it makes the car a very different animal during "spirited driving" events.

Maybe some info buried in the owner's manal.

Google Search

My 2002 STS turns into a VERY different car ................. (still get the strut clunk once in a while)

 

Excellent information Submariner409! I'll have to look that up. Thank you! Happy 4th!! (Thank you for your service, I'm thinking!!)

 

30 year Navy career, 26 of it on sub sea and staff duty. All fun - never worked a day of it

 

You represent the best in this country. Such class can't say enough but Thank you.

 

Though the beginnings were modest and perhaps even naïve, the end result was, by our standards, impressive!
I feel we may have a kindred spirit Sub, though you chose to go down, while I chose to go up; separated by about 18 years.
My hat's off to you. Would love to hear some of your sub stories.
Cheers!

 

======================
though you chose to go down, while I chose to go up
you flew? what?

Would love to hear some of your sub stories.
just ask him who/what he slept with!

 

Wow Sub, you lived the transition from the old diesels to the new nukes. You're one of few who can speak to life on both.

I never told you about my time on a sub during WWII. I was at the wheel with a splebo in one hand and a 40 oz Bull between my legs, when the wipers started making that screeching noise on the windshield. I turned down the tunes and went up on the defrost to see we were directly under a Japanese destroyer that started dropping depth charges. I dropped gear and popped the clutch but stalled the motor which made the captains pucker factor crush my beer can.

Lucky for us, one of the depth charges went right down the tailpipe and the catalytic converter converted it to nitro. Man, I floored that baby then hit the boost and we were on the shores of Singapore before my wife woke me up. I switched to fighters after that, those subs really blew a brother’s high.

Thank you for your service…

 

As I said, it was all fun and no work When I went active in '58 that was only 15 years after WW-II so many of the 1st Class and Chiefs that I learned from had actual Atlantic and Pacific war patrol experience - sinking enemy shipping and being depth charged. Interesting stories. Different worlds, yes.

 

Thanks, Sub, for the short story and great pictures. Just amazing!! Again, my hat's off to you and thanks for your service. So very proud of and thankful for all of our veterans.

I spent my career flight testing commercial aircraft, though not as a pilot. 40 years of testing them to their (and our) limits. Much the same as you; mostly all fun, but to be honest... a lot of work.

Got a Cadillac DTS question and maybe I should start a new thread, but here goes:

Can the DRLs (Daytime Running Lights) be coded off? I know I can turn them off with the headlight switch, but I don't want to do that for the next 100,000 miles as the switch feels fragile when I do that. I would prefer to code them off.

 

The very old thread below looked at doing that but doesn't come to any conclusion. There may or may not be a DRL fuse under the rear seat.

Disabling DRL's on the 06 DTS?

Has anyone figured out how to disable the 06/07 DTS Turn-signal based Daytime Running Lights? I really don't like that GM has been using turn signal bulbs for DRLs on a number of their cars & trucks. I don't like how it looks going down the street, and I've also seen a number of cars with one...

www.cadillacforums.com

 

Look in the underhood fuse box - maybe a DRL fuse. Mine is #24. Pull it and it kills DRL, nothing else - it's the fuse that supplies power to the DRL relay - which sets the high beams to reduced intensity series operation when the gear shift stick is in a forward gear.

 

Look in the underhood fuse box - maybe a DRL fuse.

I looked at the fuse box in the engine compartment... no DRL or DRL related fuse there. I did not pull the backseat yet as ralph1960's suggested thread states. I'll give that a try at some point. I'm just not a fan of those garish bright orange DRLs. I've seen some videos where guys replace them with bright white LEDs. This would bring the car up to current standards, but, getting access to the headlight assemblies in general, is not an easy proposition.

 

I have a 07 dts and the front magnaride struts locked up stiff and no longer moved in n out at all. I replaced em with the Arnott brand ones and now they bottom out at any bump passed 20mph or so. Id like to try rebuilding the original struts to correct whatever is keeping them locked up. Unless i didnt install the Arnott ones correctly? Any suggestions or input on this matter?

 

=====================
I replaced em with the Arnott brand ones . . . . .
arnott is WAY overpriced JUNK!

the front magnaride struts locked up stiff and no longer moved in n out at all
sounds like the shaft itself is jammed within the strut -

IF you want to keep the F55 MagnaRide system -
the only REAL choice is to stick with the original ACDELCO 505-555 - $432 EACH -

Amazon.com