Just took my 2002 XKR coupe into a shop for State Safety Inspection. I was advised that my rear struts won’t pass because the are “shot”. His exact words. I asked if they were leaking. He replied “they won’t compress” causing rear tire cupping. In other words, pushing down on the rear of the car was difficult.

Does this sound legit? I always thought that when struts went bad, they compressed easily and caused the car to “bounce” when driving and were easy to push down on the rear.

Any thoughts?

Maybe I should find a new shop!

 

Being the suspicious cat l am l would be checking for myself. Try a jack under lower spring or damper mounting point and lift. Lifting just one side in that way should compress spring and damper before moving the body.
Not sure what they were using to compress things but my body weight has very little success in compressing my own suspension.

 

I’ll give it a try with the jack.

On a side note, the car has adaptive dampening. The stationary mode for the shocks is hard. They only have 2 modes, soft and hard. Nothing in between. The accelerometer sensors should dictate shock mode when accelerating or slowing down/stopping. I wonder if this would cause them to appear to be failed. In the past if a shock went bad, it was very easy to compress.

thanks

 

Before doing anything to the shocks, I would take the car to a different inspection station. It may pass with flying colors....