Hey...I am a car newbie but I happened to run into this site and need your help. I own an 87 323 and it runs OK, but it's becoming noisier by the day. There seems to be something loose around the engine, like a piece of sheet metal or something. Has anyone experienced this on old 323's, and what's a possible solution? Welding the underside of the engine has been tried but it didn't seem to work very well.

Also, my mother (*swears it wasn't him*) ran the car into an open manhole (no cover, yeah...in a six-lane avenue, too - this is the third world) and it seems she busted her suspension, now you hear a creaking sound every time the car turns a corner at a moderate speed (say 15 km/hr!). It seems that every year the car busts one of its shock absorbers, probably because of the impact loading from the poor roads we get here. Does anyone know a brand of shocks that will take more impacts than the MONROE ones we currently own...or what kind of rating exists for these? Is it normal when hydraulic fluid oozes out of the shocks?

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Thanks!