PLEASE FORGIVE ME IF THIS HAS BEEN ANSWERED BEFORE (I COULDN'T FIND ANY INFO)

I have 94k on my 02 J30A1 and I'm having some issues with my suspension. I can feel every little bump in the road when I drive and get a lot of rattling under the hood as well. Can even feel it into my steering column/Dash board

I have replace 3 (broken) of the 5 motor mounts, springs and shocks (H&R, Tokico Blues) and new set of Bridgestone Grids hoping that that would fix the problem, but no luck. I'm am not hard on my car at all as you can tell from the mileage.

The problem was present before replacing the shocks and springs so i know that's not the issue.

I was told that it could be the strut mounts (they were not replaced when shocks were put on from some reason) and or control arm bushings, and or the ball joints.

Does this sound about right? Should I just go ahead and replace all those including strut rod bushings and or any others (tie rod ends, etc)? Just want my old ride quality back and right now i cant even go over a crack without feeling it in the dashboard.

I know something is wrong. i am the only owner it has ever seen, so I remember what it used to ride like and this isn't it.

PLEASE!!! Provide any insight that you can... Thank you in advance for your help.

 

Don't forget to check both of your inner ball joints as they can sorta rattle and you can feel them as you go over cracks/bumps on the road.

 

thank you for the response!

Should I just go ahead and replace all of these seeing how old the car is?

Which would be the most effective to replace? or should I just go ahead and get something to this effect? this kit rebuilds the front end (Does not include the inner ball joints)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWAX%3AIT

 

first off, there's no such thing as an inner ball joint, unless you're meaning the inner tie rod which has a ball joint in it. replacing strut mounts, bushings and ball joints won't affect the ride quality. it will only tighten up the handling if you have significant wear on those parts. It could fix the rattles assuming that's where it's coming from. On an 02, not much of that should be worn out at 94k, unless you have torn boots everywhere. really the only thing affecting your ride quality is your spring/shock setup.


BTW, don't buy cheap suspension parts off ebay, especially ball joints. if you can buy the good name brand stuff on ebay, go ahead, that's what i do. remember, your safety is at stake, plus you want to do it once.

 

that's what i thought from the research that I preformed. I only found lower and upper.

The rattling and jarring of the suspension was present before the spring and shock swap. the only thing they didn't replace were the strut mounts

And the parts that I linked to was just for reference purposes.

I had a local mechanic take a quick look, and they couldn't find anything wrong with the initial inspection. but they really didn't due an extensive look. I was in there for a alignment and just had them take a look.

may just have to take it in to have them perform a multi-point inspection, or is that a complete waist of time?

Its just driving me crazy. i have to dodge ALL bumps in the road or i get a hard jarring in the whole car.

 

you said you have H&R springs, and tokico shocks, so are they drop springs? if so, how much? If you are lowered more than an inch or inch-and-a-half, you'll have to live with it. new strut mounts aren't going to help, and an inspection of the vehicle will be a waste of time and money. if it's that bad, go with a different spring or go back stock. I have the Eibach ProKit springs and they ride great.

 

Sorry, they are the sport series. So, 1.5 in the front and 1.2 in the rear.

But again, this was happening before the shocks and springs were added.

I did extensive research and found that this combo is very popular with the 02 J30's and no one reported of having a bottoming out issue or anything of that nature if that's what your getting at. As well as Tokico stating that the blues can take up to a 1.5 in drop without any issues as well, but...

The ride is great until i get to a rough/un-even surface then i get rattling under the hood (it seems like) and jarring of the car if the bump is significant enough.

 

you shouldn't have any issues with bottoming out with that setup. if your ride is stiff, it only means your suspension is stiff (since you aren't slammed and bottoming out). someone would have to ride with you to really see what'd going on, so it's hard to say. It's almost impossible for it to have been riding that rough with the stock setup. do you also have very low profile tires?

 

I'm rolling on 215/55/16. While it is a lower profile then stock, I don't consider it a "low profile" tire, but...

Again, the ride was rough if not worse with the stock setup, that's what led me to replace everything. I had about 88k on the stock springs and shocks, so i thought "damn" these b's are just worn out. Once I got the drop setup in place it was about 50% better then it previously was. Which is why it leads me to the bushings, strut mounts, etc...

Yeah, the only one that rides with me on a normal bases is the girlfriend and trying to explain it to her just doesn't cut it if you know what I mean. But she does feel/hear it as well.

That's the next step, will just need to have a import tech ride along with me and get his opinion.

thanks again for all the insight!!!