I run over a lot of speed bumps at my parking garage and I notice that whenever I drive a little too fast over one of them my rear suspension makes a thumping sound as it goes over the top of the bump. It's like the rebound spring in the shock absorber isn't working or something is loose in the rear suspension. My wife's Civic doesn't make that sound when I drive it over at the same speed. Anyone experienced this?

I have the same noise. Have yet to figure it out.

Several people have found that happens when the spare tire and/or jack are loose in the wheel well. Worth a check!

I had the same thing in my V8 chevy once. No one ever figured it out. Wasn't the jack or anything in the trunk. Shocks and springs were fine.

Well the issue really is distinguishing between normal suspension noise and abnormal. The suspension will make a thump when going over bumps, but only to a certain degree, if it becomes a very loud thump or is accompanies by a vibration that can be felt, like a clunk in the front end, then it could be a problem.

I have the same issue with my Rogue, I find it very difficult to determine what noise is normal or if it is a problem. When I go over bumps of course I hear a thump, all vehicle suspension makes a noise when it's activated, but it's very hard to distinguish this from an abnormal noise.

I get the thump is I go a bit quicker over the speed bump... it is a bit louder thump then I was used to on other cars I owned.

yes, normal.

Cash_22 wrote:I run over a lot of speed bumps at my parking garage and I notice that whenever I drive a little too fast over one of them my rear suspension makes a thumping sound as it goes over the top of the bump. It's like the rebound spring in the shock absorber isn't working or something is loose in the rear suspension. My wife's Civic doesn't make that sound when I drive it over at the same speed. Anyone experienced this?

The Versa has a torsion beam in the rear - the new Civic has a more sophisticated multilink rear suspension. The thump is likely normal.

Thanks everyone. I was just curious because the Versa is advertised as having a rebound spring/shock that prevents the shocks from extending to quickly after a quick compression. I thought that keeping the rear suspension from thumping after going over pointy speed bumps was what that rebound shock was for.

Andrews Chalmers wrote:
The Versa has a torsion beam in the rear - the new Civic has a more sophisticated multilink rear suspension. The thump is likely normal.

My thoughts exactly. The thump happens on my versa but not on my '06 Outlander which also has a multilink rear suspension like the civic.

My advice would be to go a bit slower on the speed bumps.

I've just started to get that "whump!" noise, every once in a while, when I go over just the right kind of bump at the right angle, or something. It is a loud noise. Only happens once a week or so. Nothing loose back there, so must be the suspension. Only 5,000 miles on my car.

First it was thump noises in the front and now the rear....ish

My versa does this too if I go even just a little fast over a bump. It's the suspension being a combination of relatively stiff and just your basic econo car designed suspension so it moreso hops over bumps instead of absorbing them. Same reason why it's noisy on rough roads and kinda jumps everywhere. Not sure how much dampening the factory struts have but my old Neon had the same problem after I put Koni struts on it but when I put the normal Monroe struts back after getting rid of it, it didn't "hop" over speed bumps and such anymore. Oh well. I'd rather have that than a soft boat car suspension that leans way over when you take a turn even slightly fast.