Hi all,
Hoping to get some ideas/things to check before I take the car to a suspension shop.
It's possible I'm just getting old here, but I've been experiencing what I feel is poor ride quality on a stockish suspension setup. Car is fine on a smooth road, but if I hit a bump or a section of roadwork where the pavement is uneven, I'll get a loud thunking from the suspension, like it's not able to absorb the bumps properly, and even a little instability like the car is skittering around. It's uncomfortable and annoyingly noisy. However, I've replaced just about all the suspension components that would reasonably contribute to poor ride quality. Here's the specs:
Car: 230+k <- this may be the source of the problem right here, although it has clean title/carfax.
Alignment: iffy-the alignment itself seems fine but I think the camber is too positive as I had it done at a local service station after removing some lowering springs that I didn't like and I don't think they reset the camber.
Suspension and mounts:
speed source poly engine mounts
speed source aluminum front crossmember bushings
stock springs
newish koni yellow inserts front on softest setting
blown OEM struts rear (have new OEM in box but so far too lazy to install them)
NO bump stops front or rear (old ones disintegrated. have new ones all around but haven't installed yet) <- also possible culprit, but don't think I should be hitting bump stops that often on random city roads?
newish Moog swaybar endlinks all around
newish Moog ball joints
new OEM strut top mounts front
new OEM hub spherical bearings all around
new OEM inner control arm bushings front
new OEM swaybar bushings all around
full SuperPro bushing set (control arms) front and rear (minus spherical bearings on hubs)
http://www.gt4-racing.eu/ rear poly subframe bushings
Mario aluminum diff mount bushing
Things I DON'T think are the problem:
Bushings- The mounts and bushings probably seem pretty aggressive. I had the SuperPro set, rear subframe bushings and diff mount, and crossmember bushings all done at the same time recently to replace unknown mileage OEM bushings (the only non-original bushings that had been on the car for a long time were the poly engine mounts). I didn't feel a significant difference in ride quality before/after. It was poor either way. The bushings tightened up the response a bit, but didn't really affect the comfort level on bumpy roads.
Lack of bump stops- of course I shouldn't be running without them, but I'm skeptical that this is the source of the issue as I get poor ride quality even over low speed bumps. High speed bumps I could see them coming into play more. But I get consistently poor ride quality over any kind of bump or uneven pavement at any speed.
Things that may be the issue:
- the obvious discrepancies like the rear struts and bump stops that I need to address.
- the chassis itself: it's seen a lot of miles on northern roads. It's possible what I'm feeling is the chassis itself flopping around in response to suspension action. The windows are definitely loose and possibly the doors as well which may be contributing to the noise over bumps. I've had some rust repaired- notably the front swaybar mounting points. There could be more although I've asked multiple professional techs to inspect it for that very thing and they haven't noted anything structural.
- the konis: maybe these are just more aggressive than I had anticipated? Seems unlikely but possible for someone that is expecting a stockish ride quality.
I've never driven a low mileage stock alltrac for comparison but I previously owned a 140k mile '93 with a stock strut/intrax spring setup and a Tein SS setup with engine mount inserts and aluminum rear diff mount and neither of those setups felt uncomfortable to drive in any way (unless LA roads are significantly nicer than DC roads).
I'm at a bit of a loss as to what might be causing the issue so any suggestions welcome!
Thanks!
J
Hoping to get some ideas/things to check before I take the car to a suspension shop.
It's possible I'm just getting old here, but I've been experiencing what I feel is poor ride quality on a stockish suspension setup. Car is fine on a smooth road, but if I hit a bump or a section of roadwork where the pavement is uneven, I'll get a loud thunking from the suspension, like it's not able to absorb the bumps properly, and even a little instability like the car is skittering around. It's uncomfortable and annoyingly noisy. However, I've replaced just about all the suspension components that would reasonably contribute to poor ride quality. Here's the specs:
Car: 230+k <- this may be the source of the problem right here, although it has clean title/carfax.
Alignment: iffy-the alignment itself seems fine but I think the camber is too positive as I had it done at a local service station after removing some lowering springs that I didn't like and I don't think they reset the camber.
Suspension and mounts:
speed source poly engine mounts
speed source aluminum front crossmember bushings
stock springs
newish koni yellow inserts front on softest setting
blown OEM struts rear (have new OEM in box but so far too lazy to install them)
NO bump stops front or rear (old ones disintegrated. have new ones all around but haven't installed yet) <- also possible culprit, but don't think I should be hitting bump stops that often on random city roads?
newish Moog swaybar endlinks all around
newish Moog ball joints
new OEM strut top mounts front
new OEM hub spherical bearings all around
new OEM inner control arm bushings front
new OEM swaybar bushings all around
full SuperPro bushing set (control arms) front and rear (minus spherical bearings on hubs)
http://www.gt4-racing.eu/ rear poly subframe bushings
Mario aluminum diff mount bushing
Things I DON'T think are the problem:
Bushings- The mounts and bushings probably seem pretty aggressive. I had the SuperPro set, rear subframe bushings and diff mount, and crossmember bushings all done at the same time recently to replace unknown mileage OEM bushings (the only non-original bushings that had been on the car for a long time were the poly engine mounts). I didn't feel a significant difference in ride quality before/after. It was poor either way. The bushings tightened up the response a bit, but didn't really affect the comfort level on bumpy roads.
Lack of bump stops- of course I shouldn't be running without them, but I'm skeptical that this is the source of the issue as I get poor ride quality even over low speed bumps. High speed bumps I could see them coming into play more. But I get consistently poor ride quality over any kind of bump or uneven pavement at any speed.
Things that may be the issue:
- the obvious discrepancies like the rear struts and bump stops that I need to address.
- the chassis itself: it's seen a lot of miles on northern roads. It's possible what I'm feeling is the chassis itself flopping around in response to suspension action. The windows are definitely loose and possibly the doors as well which may be contributing to the noise over bumps. I've had some rust repaired- notably the front swaybar mounting points. There could be more although I've asked multiple professional techs to inspect it for that very thing and they haven't noted anything structural.
- the konis: maybe these are just more aggressive than I had anticipated? Seems unlikely but possible for someone that is expecting a stockish ride quality.
I've never driven a low mileage stock alltrac for comparison but I previously owned a 140k mile '93 with a stock strut/intrax spring setup and a Tein SS setup with engine mount inserts and aluminum rear diff mount and neither of those setups felt uncomfortable to drive in any way (unless LA roads are significantly nicer than DC roads).
I'm at a bit of a loss as to what might be causing the issue so any suggestions welcome!
Thanks!
J