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I am getting what I would describe as a loose feeling when I am at speed. It happens when I am making a lane change or when I am going through a slight bend in the road. Its almost like it feels like I am hitting a patch of ice. During a lane change it makes one shift, but in a long bend it may do it 2-3 times. I have looked around the vehicle and the only thing I can see with any wear is the upper control arms on both front and rear. I have order both to change. I also have ordered front sway bar bushings, just because I know they are a wear part. Do you guys think I am going down the right road with these repairs.
So after searching the forum and reading quite a few older threads, here is the list of parts with pricing at this time that I have sourced for my suspension update. I have used all OEM replacements with the exception of the rear sway bar links which are MOOG and are same as stock just a little thicker diameter.. Thanks to the guys before me that helped with sourcing some of these parts... Total for everything was just under $1000.00 for parts, but I saved a ton on labor and time not having to press bushings...
Parts List:
Front Upper CA's - Amazon Online
MCSOE38 $135.00
MCZOE39 $170.00
Front Sway Bar Bushings - Rimmer Bros
C2P13649 $30.00
Front upper CA bolts(if cutting old ones) - SNG Barratt
C2C5694 $8.00 each
I just recently learned how much an alignment can effect the handling and feel of the car. I got an alignment done after replacing two control arms and the steering wheel was loose, handling was sloppy; the car just felt like crap. I took it back and had them redo it properly and now the car feels like its brand new.
Well I wouldn't replace anything without doing an inspection of the area first (you or a shop). You didn't mention how many miles on your cat...
Probably unrelated but I noticed on mine a couple years back it would pull to the left slightly when driving and when braking. I thought an alignment was certainly in order. I needed tires at the time so I replaced the tires with the intention of getting the alignment done shortly after (Discount tires doesn't do alignment so I had to take it elsewhere). Well that ended up working out because it tracked perfectly after the tire change alone. Have yet to do the alignment.
I was also going to mention looking at the tires. My old BMW used to eat tires on the inside edges, and while they looked fine on the outside edges where I would usually look at them, but the inside edges would wear down so that the belts were showing. The car became very squirrely when the tires wore down that far.
I have just over 40k miles on car. Tires are new, so no problems there. What I am dealing with is not what I would call your average car pulling one way or another. What I am getting is almost as if someone took your wheel a gave it a tug and you have to make an adjustment to compensate for it. I think it is doing it when I go over small imperfections in the road while making a slight turn or lane change, like going over the lane markers or when the lanes have been poured so that there could be a slight elevation difference.
Ok, so I have all my upper control arms and put the car up on stands yesterday to start what I thought would be a fairly easy task. That's what I get for thinking... So for the guys that have already done this, are there any tips? Looks like the front shocks and springs have to be removed to have enough access to remove bolts? As for the rears, i can't understand why they would run the brake lines through the middle of the control arm? But more importantly how is the nut on the backside of the most rear nut accessed?
Unfortunately, you will have to remove the shocks/springs in order to replace the upper control arms. As for the bolt on the rear arm, I believe Brutal and some other members had mentioned that sometimes those bolts were installed backwards from the factory and that it was a huge pain to get them out. Unfortunately, I don't remember what their specific solution was.
Would like to hear opinions on cutting the bolts on the front and replacing them with bolts that are feed from inside the engine compartment rather than going through the extra step of removing the shocks/springs? If I did this what rated bolt would I need to use?
As for the rear I picked up a set of metric crowfoot wrench's to attempt to remove the back bolt and nut on the rear upper CA. I hope this will work. I will report back...
Would like to hear opinions on cutting the bolts on the front and replacing them with bolts that are feed from inside the engine compartment rather than going through the extra step of removing the shocks/springs? If I did this what rated bolt would I need to use?
As for the rear I picked up a set of metric crowfoot wrench's to attempt to remove the back bolt and nut on the rear upper CA. I hope this will work. I will report back...
No doubt in my mind I would cut the bolts and replace them with new and insert them from the right side. I would get the bolts from Jaguar.
Crowfoot wrench worked perfectly. These are the only tools needed to replace rear upper CA... I had the right rear replaced in under 45 minutes total. Will do the left side tomorrow... Decided that I am going to cut the front bolts once I get replacement bolts. Last two pics are of the right rear CA that I pulled as you can see the rubber is completely shot and there is plenty of play, which I hope results in taking care of what I have named the “lane change shimmy”.
So I did the right rear upper CA without any issues, but I noticed a difference on the left rear. The lower CA does not seem to be centered on the bushings and the upper does not simply drop into place like the right side did. Does anyone know if the lower CA not centered would put the upper in a binding position, to where it doesn't just go into place easily? Should I remove lower CA to see if upper then lines up correctly, and if so can I simply re-center lower CA bushings and reinstall?
Subscribed. Thank you in advance for documenting it with pics.
No problem, I will take a couple pics tonight when I get home of the lower CA that I have referred to that isn't centered... Also I have ordered replacement bolts for front upper CA's, just waiting on them to arrive before starting...
So I decided to remove the left rear lower CA last night, looks like I am in need of at least a couple of bushings on the lower rears as well. Can someone tell me if there is an affordable ford equivalent like the uppers I bought or have bushing part numbers?
Here are a couple of pics of the left rear.. As you can see the lower CA is riding all the way to the right or towards the rear of the car. The bracket for the upper doesn't seem to be aligned properly, seems to be twisted just a little to me, not sure if its enough to matter?
So I decided to remove the left rear lower CA last night, looks like I am in need of at least a couple of bushings on the lower rears as well. Can someone tell me if there is an affordable ford equivalent like the uppers I bought or have bushing part numbers?
While I am waiting on my new bolts and rear lower CA’s to be delivered, I decided to go ahead and replace the front swaybar bushings... What a PITA!!! After removing all the under pan bolts and getting that out of the way I could finally get to the 13mm bolts that hold the brackets for the bushings... 1/4 turn at a time, It took me 1 1/2 hours to do those two bushings.... Geeeesh
And to add insult to injury, my old bushings looked fine... Pic of one old and one new bushing...
Last edited by TexasTraveler; Aug 15, 2019 at 08:45 PM.
Suspension - Alignment or Both?
