absorbed too many shocks?

87 dodge aries. pretty good shape, considering; only 80K miles.
belongs to little old lady who only uses it to drive to the crack
house. anyway, i'm driving it on a city street and suddenly smell
burning rubber. i know what comes next; pow. right rear tire has
blown; the cause is.... the shock absorber has come apart, and the
bigger diameter dust shield cylinder on the top half has canted
sideways and the edge has gouged out the inner sidewall.

on further inspection, nothing has actually broken; the rod coming
down from the top shock absorber mount through that upper dust shield
piece isn't broken off, it ends with the chamfer at the end of the
threads, all intact. apparently the inside movable part of the actual
shock absorber body, the bottom half, has just unscrewed itself from
the rod, which has now popped out of the shock absorber body.

not sure if this is the original factory shock or not, or who the
manufacturer might be; all i can make out is that it says "premium gas
shock absorber" on it. i assume that means it was a replacement as I
assume the factory shock doesn't announce itself. whatever it is, i'm
pretty sure it's more likely to be sears brand or equivalent than Koni
or equivalent.

so how often does this sort of thing happen?

On Jul 6, 2:06*am, z > wrote:
> 87 dodge aries. pretty good shape, considering; only 80K miles.
> belongs to little old lady who only uses it to drive to the crack
> house. anyway, i'm driving it on a city street and suddenly smell
> burning rubber. i know what comes next; pow. right rear tire has
> blown; the cause is.... the shock absorber has come apart, and the
> bigger diameter dust shield cylinder on the top half has canted
> sideways and the edge has gouged out the inner sidewall.
>
> on further inspection, nothing has actually broken; the rod coming
> down from the top shock absorber mount through that upper dust shield
> piece isn't broken off, it ends with the chamfer at the end of the
> threads, all intact. apparently the inside movable part of the actual
> shock absorber body, the bottom half, has just unscrewed itself from
> the rod, which has now popped out of the shock absorber body.
>
> not sure if this is the original factory shock or not, or who the
> manufacturer might be; all i can make out is that it says "premium gas
> shock absorber" on it. i assume that means it was a replacement as I
> assume the factory shock doesn't announce itself. whatever it is, i'm
> pretty sure it's more likely to be sears brand or equivalent than Koni
> or equivalent.
>
> so how often does this sort of thing happen?

As long as your shock mounts are ok I wouldn't worry about it. Just
get a new shock. The shock has probably been on there a while. With
the words "premium gas shock" on it-it's probably a cheaper brand.

On Sun, 5 Jul 2009 23:06:50 -0700 (PDT), z >
wrote:

>87 dodge aries. pretty good shape, considering; only 80K miles.
>belongs to little old lady who only uses it to drive to the crack
>house. anyway, i'm driving it on a city street and suddenly smell
>burning rubber. i know what comes next; pow. right rear tire has
>blown; the cause is.... the shock absorber has come apart, and the
>bigger diameter dust shield cylinder on the top half has canted
>sideways and the edge has gouged out the inner sidewall.
>
>on further inspection, nothing has actually broken; the rod coming
>down from the top shock absorber mount through that upper dust shield
>piece isn't broken off, it ends with the chamfer at the end of the
>threads, all intact. apparently the inside movable part of the actual
>shock absorber body, the bottom half, has just unscrewed itself from
>the rod, which has now popped out of the shock absorber body.
>
>not sure if this is the original factory shock or not, or who the
>manufacturer might be; all i can make out is that it says "premium gas
>shock absorber" on it. i assume that means it was a replacement as I
>assume the factory shock doesn't announce itself. whatever it is, i'm
>pretty sure it's more likely to be sears brand or equivalent than Koni
>or equivalent.
>
>so how often does this sort of thing happen?

I've never had a shock do that. I had one get all screwed up inside
so the parts inside were rubbing but it never came apart.