Suspension Diagnosis

[miatatomark]

I find the most unatractive aspect of my 98 LSC is the "busyness" telegraphed to the steering wheel. I'm still on what I believe to be original air with no problems, no clunks or other noises, corners fantastic. But going from my Toyota Avalon to the Mark, the smallest imperfection in the road is felt through the steering wheel. I think bad SRB's would clunk. The ball joints look worn and probably original, but I don't have the "pulling" problem described in other posts. I'm thinking control arm bushings, and if I'm doing the control arm bushings, I will probably order a new set complete with installed ball joints. The prices for this versus purchasing and installing separate ball joints and bushings, taking into consideration my skill level and tools, seems to be the way to go. Since I have everything apart, I would replace the SRB's too (not moog).

Also, what's the difference in the kits on ebay? Prices range from $97 to $300 for complete kits.

Think this is/will resolve my issue? Uppers and lowers, either/or? I'm only driving the car one day a week, so this is really not an imperative issue, but I will go for it with some definitive guidance that I can normally get from the people on this site.

Thanks.
Bob.

 

[soduka]

If you're going to do the front suspension on this car and you think you have all original parts on their or close to it, just do it all at once. It's a hell of a lot easier to work on it when it's all apart. I don't know what it is about this design on this car but the front suspension gets chewed up like nobody's business.

The lower control arm bushings are built into the arm and you will save yourself infinity + 1 headache and trouble by just buying the entire arm(s). Same with the upper control arms. Buy quality parts on Amazon or Rockauto. I'm not going to specifically bash 'ebay kits' because I don't have any experience with them but on Amazon you're looking at about $50-$60 per control arm, 4 in total. Bushings are usually best bought directly from a Ford parts retailer.

As for whether this is part of the problem you're describing, well I'm not an expert on these cars. I do know that worn control arm bushings will cause these cars to jerk all over the road when you hit the brakes and I also had experience with what I believe to be an excessively worn passenger side control arm bushing that caused it to pull.