Suspension rehab checklist

[RareGMFan]

OK, so I've been saying for over a year now that I'm going to overhaul the extremely tired suspension system on my car (which is about to hit 158k miles). Since driving to and from work is becoming more and more scary (thanks to shot struts, a broken rear passenger spring and ready-to-break front driver's tie rod), I think it's time to get moving on this. I'm trying to make this a complete/loaded set up so that there is no switching over of ANY parts from the old spring/strut assembly. Just drop the old parts out, and slap in the new assembly. And while everything is apart, I want to replace anything that's even questionable. I've got most of what I need, but wanted to make sure I'm not missing or forgetting something. Keep in mind this is for the '01 GTP.

 

Have so far:

KBY GR2 struts

Monroe strut mounts/bearings

Adjustable camber bolts

Moog inner & outer tie rods

GMPP front & rear sway bars

W-Body Store engine & transmission mounts

W-Body Store polyurethane dogbone bushings (both ends)

 

 

Soon to order:

Moog variable rate or Vogtland springs (still debating this)

KYB front upper spring seat insulator

KYB front lower spring seat insulator

KYB rear lower spring seat insulator (apparently there's no rear upper, as no one has a listing)

Energy Suspension polyurethane front endlinks

Moog polyurethane rear endlinks

Energy Suspension polyurethane front & rear center bushings

 

The control arms came off a 6k mile GP 2 years ago, so the ball joints are fine, and I replaced the CV axles with ZZP stage 2s at that time. I'd LIKE to go with the Vogtlands, but even with those, as mild as the drop is, I still read about a lot of complaints of premature strut wear out, so I will most likely stick to stock height Moogs. I was also thinking about getting the GMPP trailing arms, but it looks like they're discontinued? Anyhow, are there any other rubber parts or anything in the strut assembly I'm missing? Anything else I should replace while I'm that far into it? I'm tired of cars with beat up suspension and piss-poor ride and steer-ability. I want this thing to go down the road and around corners like a new car again when I'm done with all this.

[jman093]

The GMPP arms are indeed discontinued. I have no idea why as they still seem popular.

 

If you're interested in GMPP arms and poly parts, why not get performance struts like bilsteins or those performance KYB's (AGX I think)?

 

If you do put on lowering springs, you might look into that one trick where you put on one the "pucks" from the subframe bolts under the strut rod nut, or something like that. It's been discussed on clubgp I know and it's supposed to help with the ricer bounce.

 

Personally I wouldn't use those camber bolts. They work but are smaller and are weak sauce compared to the factory bolts and I like torquing the heck out of these so they don't budge. If you do need to adjust camber you can just grind the knuckle. This is how GM says to do it anyways.

[pwmin]

Dorman makes trailing arms that use square tubing (put them on the Regal until I can afford the BMR trailing/lateral arm kit). Not sure if they're as good as the GMPP ones, but they're definitely better than the stock stamped steel ones.

[AL]

The GMPP arms are indeed discontinued. I have no idea why as they still seem popular.

 

If you're interested in GMPP arms and poly parts, why not get performance struts like bilsteins or those performance KYB's (AGX I think)?

 

If you do put on lowering springs, you might look into that one trick where you put on one the "pucks" from the subframe bolts under the strut rod nut, or something like that. It's been discussed on clubgp I know and it's supposed to help with the ricer bounce.

 

Personally I wouldn't use those camber bolts. They work but are smaller and are weak sauce compared to the factory bolts and I like torquing the heck out of these so they don't budge. If you do need to adjust camber you can just grind the knuckle. This is how GM says to do it anyways.

I might look into those puck things

 

Also, with everything you are doing, I would recommend getting the AGX struts... They will work better with the rest of your mods

 

Cant wait to see the results

[RareGMFan]

I really don't want to spend the money on AGX' or the likes. They cost twice as much as the GR-2s, and in my case, even more than that since I bought my GR-2s on eBay at a good price + Bing Cashback + an eBay coupon I had to use up. I know about the anti-pogo washers as well, but my bigger concern is that, washers or not, people are complaining about the GR-2s wearing out a lot quicker even when lowered with springs as mild as the Vogtlands. Since this is the case, I will most likely just go with OEM replacements. The car now has over 158k miles on it, so I have no intentions of going nuts on mods. Everything I'm changing is worn out and needs replacing anyway, and is being replaced with parts that are around the same price as OEM, give or take a small percentage. I just want it to ride and drive like new again, maybe with a slight improvement over factory, but without going way over what OEM replacement parts would cost.

 

I actually found several companies that make performance trailing arm replacements that are not as cheap as GMPP, but a lot cheaper than BMR. One place is currently moving their facilities though, so they're not taking orders till mid-spring. Not a big deal, as I can replace those whenever.

 

Only thing I noticed I missed in my list is the bumper stops and dust boots, though I don't know that I really want to spring for new dust boots. Other than that, I think I'm ready to place my order for the remaining parts unless someone can think of something else I overlooked.

[white4d96]

Links to TA places?

[jman093]

I don't think GR2's are any worse for lowered cars. Here's a picture of my car below and how low it was when it had ST Lowering springs. GR2's all the way around. The car was like that with the shocks slamming, bottoming out in their bore until I changed springs just recently, probably 60-80k miles (depending on when Paul, pwmin, installed them) they were like that and 3 out of 4 were still working when I checked them while they were out of the car. I figured no shock could take that abuse for more than a few thousand miles. My biggest complaint with them was their own proprietary threads on the shaft that doesn't let you use the special tool for installing them. Major PIA for installation/removal so changed my bad one with a Gabriel, but none of that's a concern on a 2nd gen.

 

Edited April 19, 2011 by jman093

[MiriV]

Premature strut wear is not fully atributed to lowering springs. If anything, I know plenty of people running GR2's without issues and I heard of people running AGX and having them fail after slapping a lowering spring. Its a lottery, they can fail even on a stock spring.

 

Honestly Id get vogtlands over any stock spring. A mild drop is better than no drop. Chances are ur gonna get rid of the car by the time strut wears out.

 

Dorman trailing arms are good. Def worth every penny vs stock ones.

Edited April 19, 2011 by MiriV

[The Guz]

GR2's aer for stock springs. I was on GR2's and B&G's on my 99 at one point. The struts were gone just a little after 10K miles. The GMPP trailing arms are discontinued. UMI makes some for the w-bodies. It is also said that the 05-08 GXP trailing arms are tubular and the exact same thing as the GMPP's. I would also skip on the camber bolts. I was going to say the same thing about the inner tie rods but you already have them. Yuo can reuse the dust boot and the bump stops from the existing set up. Also, if this is a daily driver I would just use the bushings and endlinks that came with the GMPP sway bars.