03+ LS v8 owners come in...does this happen for you?

blacked03ls

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So i have an 03 ls v8 with 33k on it. I just got it and love the car but my question is when you put your car from park to drive does your car buckle down a little? like after i put it in drive the car jerks forword a little...is that normal?
 
my car rev's alittle bit like 300 rpms but nothing major, only thing it does that i dont like, is its a hard shift from any gear to park, sounds like your throwing it in there w/ no oil in the tranny or something
 
im prob at between 1000 rpm to 1300 rpm...doesnt seem that bad...it doesnt do it going into reverse just drive...i was seeing if it was common on a ls
 
blacked03ls said:
im prob at between 1000 rpm to 1300 rpm...doesnt seem that bad...it doesnt do it going into reverse just drive...i was seeing if it was common on a ls

Is this is Park or Drive? At Park, after the engine warm up period, mine drops to around 800-900.

In drive I think it was around 400-500.
 
blacked03ls said:
So i have an 03 ls v8 with 33k on it. I just got it and love the car but my question is when you put your car from park to drive does your car buckle down a little? like after i put it in drive the car jerks forword a little...is that normal?

Your asking about the slight buckle when changing gears, that is normal to a certain degree. There are a few threads relating to this issue. It seems to be a common Ford trait among various models/transmissions. I wouldnt worry about it. If you shift a little slower, go to N...then D5, it isnt as noticable.

As far as idle, when you first start the car it revs alittle high for a few seconds during a cold start. I have found if you shift right away after starting the "buckle" is more severe. When the engine settles down it isnt as bad.
 
This is normal for the LS; when your foot is on the brake, if you shift from R to D5, the car will squat, and if you go from D5 to R, it will lift. It happens to some extent in all slushboxed vehicles, but the LS's anti-lift rear suspenion exacerbates the effect.

If you think about it, when you load up the driveline, it's trying to rotate the drive wheels forward, but the brakes are absorbing the forces, and the brakes are attached to the suspension. As a result, when the driveline tries to rotate the wheels, it also imparts these forces onto the suspension, which also tries to rotate forward.

In most vehicles you don't notice it because the suspension mounts on the chassis are both fore and aft of the drive axle, so the forces are balanced, with an upward force behind the axle and a downward force in front of it. The LS's suspension chassis mounting points are all ahead of the rear axle, so there's nothing to counteract the downward force ahead of the axle, and the car squats.

The same is true when you go to reverse, but the direction of the forces are reversed, so the car lifts instead of squatting.
 

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