Alright. the SSEi is riding really bad again. (bad may be an understatment. Maybe horrendous is a better one.) It has absolutely no give on bumps from the rear of the car. I've pinpointed it down somewhat myself already. When we took it to the dealer they replaced the air pump for the ELC and said that was the problem to the tune of $700. Well, the problem goes away when it'* warm out. WHen it gets cold, it gets BAD! (when we had it at the dealer it was around 40.) anyway, I disconnected the air hoses going to the shocks and pulled the ELC fuse and the ride is still horrible. I also did a little test. Went about 15 MPH in reverse and slammed on the brakes. The rear of the car did not dip at all. I also set the parking brake and pushed the gas slightly in Drive. The rear end still did not go down at all. With the Riviera doing these same tests the rear dips slightly on the reverse test, and with the parking brake set and trying to go forward the rear dips a few inches. The rear on the bonnie only dips a tiny bit from the rear end and the car feels like it kind of twists to the right, and wants to sort of 'pull' to the right. It'* really wierd. I think that the right rear shock is shot though? Is it safe to assume this? I don't know why else the rear would have no give at all. When you drive it feels like the left might give a little bit to the bumps but it'* hard to tell with how hard the jolts are.

Sounds like you have some binding there. Is the ride height normal ?
So if you try and manually bounce the rear up and down, you can't??

You should remove the rear shocks and see if one is noticeably stiffer than the other. It would be rare to have them both fail at the same time......and so soon. How much mileage on that SSEi ?

it has 51,000 on it. You can bounce the rear end just a little bit but it'* really stiff.

My guess is that your rear air shocks are bad and need to be replaced.

Need a second opinion.

today it is 48* outside and the car is riding beautiful. I think it'* safe to say that the rough ride is only occuring when it is below 30* or so (definately below freezing temperaturs.) Any ideas on why the rear end becomes extremely stiff when it'* cold outside? Today the rear end is easy to bounce like it should be, but once it gets below freezing you can barely even bounce the rear of the car. Just seems wierd the shocks are great when it'* warm out but as soon as it'* cold the ride is unbearable. :?

Sounds like you have possibly gotten some water into the air portion of the shock. Seeing as how the rear struts aren't all that difficult to remove, I would take them out and see if you can drain them or suck the air portion out. It would be worth a try. I am not sure if there is any kind of moisture trap for the ELC. If there is not, then moisture could accumulate in the air assist shocks and cause this problem.

Now that really makes a lot of sense.

Bad struts. Mine are harsher when cold (they creak when it'* below 0 for a min or two, nail the brakes and hear a Kathunk) and better when they warm up. Modern OE struts loose 50% of their valving in 40k miles statistically.

I've got the same problem. When its cold its the worst. I'm taking the car in next week to have the bugs out. The shocks are one of them so i'll tell you what it was. I want to get full use of my warrenty.

anymore info in this area mine is bouncing all over the place esp. now since its always cold