ALL suspension bushings shot - need advice - feel free to make fun of me

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2Old4This

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My 2003 LS v8 with 113,00 miles needs a complete suspension rebuild due to ALL the bushings front and rear being bad.
And one of the front sway bar links is broken.

I had already bought 4 new shocks and the front sway bar links before realizing that, just maybe, it would be a mistake to have all that work done

Honestly I do not give a red rat's ass about the car being a bit squirrelly. I want to just replace the links and shocks and keep going.

So, what's the worst that could happen, ignoring handling issues? I'm thinking maybe when the bushings disintigrate it could cause a really exciting control arm failure, but what do I know.

I cannot do the work myself. My mechanic gave me a price of $600 labor for the front and $1,000 for the rear.

Any thoughts?
 
If you don't drive it at all you might make it to your next vehicle inspection, where it will fail and they force you to fix it anyway. Although you could always get into an accident on your way to your inspection. Might get super exciting if it's in the winter too
 
Do you plan on holding on to this car for a long while? If so it might be cost effective to replace the suspension bushings with the poly stuff. If it's just to buy time until you can get something else I'd try to find the parts you need from rockauto & Tasca (check their ebay store too) and replace what you need to.
 
2Old4This said:
...So, what's the worst that could happen, ignoring handling issues? I'm thinking maybe when the bushings disintigrate it could cause a really exciting control arm failure, but what do I know.
...
Click to expand...
I had a bushing issue with a lower front control arm that caused sudden (no prior warning) severe steering issues. If it had been at more than the 15 or MPH it happened at, it would have been a bad wreck. As it was, it nearly rolled one of the front tires off of the rim. Right after that, it seemed fine. I took it to a shop and they looked and pried and pulled on stuff and couldn't find any problem. The mechanic took it for a test drive. He came back all white faced and said he didn't want to talk about it. After replacing both lower front control arms, it never did it again.

Short story: the worst that could happen is complete loss of control and the possible consequences of that range from almost nothing all the way to people die.
 
2Old4This said:
Honestly I do not give a red rat's ass about the car being a bit squirrelly
Click to expand...
Well you should be. If everything is sloppy, you might be putting other drivers at risk.

The bushings are not available separately... and the old ones are a bear to get pressed out anyway. You are better off at this point to have your mechanic install new aftermarket control arms. both upper and lower... front and rear.

I assume the shocks you bought are aftermarket "name brand"??? They won't hold up very long, and are much softer than the OEM ones.
 
Also... with the car having handling issues, you forget that the rear toe links also turn the rear wheels slightly when going around curves, and for that matter, you should probably replace the rear toe links also.
 
I'm having a hard time believing that an LS with only 113K on the odometer, needs a full suspension rebuild.

You might want to dig around on the internet with your VIN number to see if your odometer has been rolled back.
 
IDK, it's an 03 & he bought it a year ago @ 86K miles. Time is not kind to the DEW98 suspension, & there's no way to know if anything was replaced with "lesser" parts already
 
For reference I replaced my rear control arms on a 2005 with Moog RK621951 and RK621952. They are listed for THUNDERBIRD 2002-2003 and LINCOLN LS 2000-2002. I compared them side by side and there was no difference that would indicate they wouldn't hold up. The alignment checked out good and after several years of driving there has been no issues.
 
But Uro and Deutchparts are not on that list
 
Thanks for the replies everyone!

To follow up, I bought KYB shocks. They were on clearance and i got a rebate.
And yeah, my mechanic told me to buy new parts rather than trying to replace the bushings, so now there's two votes for that.

I'm sure most if not all of the bushings are shot as it does feel strange and squirm a bit. Plus it squeaks and groans like a couple of morbidly obese sex maniacs going at it on an old Army cot.

Rockauto.com had almost everything I need in stock about 6 months ago, I haven't checked since. I found a few of the parts on other sites as well.

I haven't added it all up, but I estimate this is gonna run me $3k. I really did not want to sink that much money into it, because I thought the thing probably wasn't even worth that much, but I find that they are going for a lot more!
Ah, yeah, well, the Jaguar DNA is showing through with some weird little electrical gremlins but what the hell. I can poke around here and maybe find solutions, and it's probably just bad grounds anyway... I think... I'll take the chance.

So, partly due to the responses here and the fact that the resale is still pretty good, I'll take out a personal loan and have it done. I really hate doing that, but it needs doing sooner than later.

I could never find anything fun for $3k other than a love doll anyway.

Thanks again!
 
The rear toe links solved the majority of the rear darting left/right, hard to maintain straight steering. Also, I pressed out/in rear lower control arm bushings (6 total), front lower ball joints, complete front upper control arms, front/rear sway bar links. Still need to replace upper rear control arms. Should fix my negative camber problem in the rear. Other than that, I feel very confident at the wheel.
A hydraulic press is a must and also i had to get creative on fabricating the press tools to stay even on the process.
 
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