2006 chevy colorado hits even small bumps really hard...front end feels like it slams into bumps, and a real bumpy road feels like its ripping the front end apart? shock? struts? bearing? i looked at the sway bar links because someone told me to..and to me it looks ok..sway bar is intact and links seem ok..any ideas?

you have a bad shock absorber-cheers Denny

Have you cked the bushing lower and upper

sounds like you got a inner tie rod end that is bad

check u-joints and sway bar bushings

Could be your shocks are no good and need replaced or if you have rear springs check to make sure there are no broken leaves in the springs.

Hi,
You might have your exhaust system checked to see if it's secured well or if it has excessive movement and is bumping against the body. Maybe a simple adjustment.
Hope this helps... Good luck!

The bumps do initiate the shaking. When my 2006 Ram 2500 4x4 started shaking, I had just had it aligned that morning. A month or so before that alignment, my passenger side outer tie-rod broke while driving down a rock road. I replaced it with a heavy duty MOOG tie-rod end. Anyway, the same day I had it aligned I was driving back home from a job and towing my bobcat behind me. I hit a bump and the truck did the "death wobble" with the front end shaking violently up and down in an alternating fashion (one tire in the air while one tire on the ground and then vice-versa). I changed the tires first (which were worn-out 305/75/17 mud tires). Since the day I bought the truck new in Jan. 2006, I've had larger tires on the truck than the tiny 235/75/17s that came with it and I've done a lot of heavy towing with it and never had a problem until this alignment was done at Sears. I;m still trying to figure out if it was the alignment specs that they used or if the problem coincidentally started that same day. I also changed the steering stabilizer. Neither the new tires nor the stabilizer/damper helped the problem. So I changed the other outer tie-rod end and the upper and lower ball joints (all MOOG with grease fittings). I turns out they were worn out. So, the truck no longer shakes violently up and down when I hit a bump. That problem seems to be in check. However, now when I hit a bump the truck's front end wobbles side-to-side. I can do a few things to recover from it. I can hit the brakes pretty hard and sudden (which can cause an accident on the interstate), or I can **** the steering wheel side-to-side a few times (from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock) and that stops it immediately...until the next bump in the road. Also, if I let my foot off the accelerator just before hitting a bump and let the truck coast over it instead of power through it, sometimes the truck will ride over the bump without incident. I found out yesterday on a 5 1/2 hour road trip that if I did 80 to 90 miles per hour and powered through every road blemish, the truck rode fine...no shaking at all. I suppose the high speed forces the tires to stay straight when they hit a bump. Lastly, to confuse my problem solving attempts further, sometimes the truck rides like a cadillac (for an hour or so) at regular speeds and no matter what bumps I hit. Then without worning, the front end will loosen up and get that sloppy feeling again and the wobbling comes back at every bump...until the next time it feels like tightening up and driving right again. I have no idea what to do now. I'm going back to Sears today to have them check their alignment. Other than that, all I can think of is to change the rest of the steering components and check the steering box for malfunction. I hope someone can help all of us Dodge owners out off of the road tested info that I've just provided. Dodge doesn't seem to care to address the problems with their trucks front ends, and we need a solution before people get hurt or die. I was almost run over by an 18-wheeler trying to figure out how to handle the shake. I can't afford to buy another truck. So I need to fix this one so I can keep working. If anybody has a concrete solution to these problems, please let us know. I've read 20 different opinions from mechanics on these blogs, but nobody has said yet that they fixed someone's truck with these problems and have since heard from that customer and everything is still working fine. Opinions are helpful sometimes, but they're also confusing when they're conflicting.

How about the shocks and possible hugh air pressure in tires? When you push down on front end the body should return without bouncing. Hard tire won't absorb road shock. Give those two a look at.. good luck

ON MINE IT WAS THE WISH BONE BUSHES, CHANGED ALL WITH THE POLYUATHANE DONE THE JOB

You may not need the entire strut, just the part that serves as a shock absorber. The term strut refers to a complete assemby with coil spring and a central shock absorber. When their seals fail completely, whether gas or fluid filled,they are just a piston in a cylinder with nothing to damp their travel so they can slam at both ends.
American made 'shocks' were once only really effective for ~20k miles but both foreign and domestic have improved a great deal but one of yours may have left the factory less than perfect.
Shop the parts before you let the car go to anyone to see if they are scalping you or only marking their cost up a little.