For past 9 Months I’ve replaced most of my front suspension parts:
LCA(Beck Arnley)
Strut Bar(OEM)
Inner tie rods(Beck Arnley)
Outer Tie rods(Moog)
Sway Bar bushing/end links(OEM)

And even Engine/Trans mounts(OEM)
also changed out Rack and pinion bushings(OEM, Passenger side only because the driver side is too difficult for me, I have arthritis lol)

Purchased OEM size new tires and rebalanced and multiple alignments throughout 9 months.

despite all this, the steering feeling is still a little loose, Driving in a straight line and when braking/slowing to a stop the steering wheel turns right, weird vibrations on freeway speeds, and when finishing a turn at low speed the steering wheel will maxed itself out whichever direction I’m turning to. It was so frustrating and annoying, spending money and time to an issue for so long😡

And the entire time the issue was… Alignment. Made no damn sense but I’m so glad it got fixed

My alignments in the past was done by a major automotive repair franchise, and another through a friend that has an access to one(German Car brand)

Just to be clear I’m NOT bashing or putting down the places or people I’ve got my alignment done but rather just spread awareness that the machine could have a problem I.E broken or not calibrated correctly as my latest alignment tech said when given the spec sheet. The main reason I didn’t think it was an alignment is because of the sheet of paper that tells me it’s all green, that’s my fault but what do I know? I’m not a mechanic or a technician, the car is 25yrs old;

Long story short, ALL my suspension woes were fixed, even found out one of my new tires a defect🤦‍♂️

So if you were experiencing issues although you’ve replaced parts it might worth to double check the alignment at another place or to a shop that specializes in suspension systems, the place I’ve went to also calibrated steering angle position.🙂🙂🙂



Alignment done from Major Retailer

When I brought my car to a suspension specialist in my area

After alignment was done

 

Alignment done through my friend.

 

Can confirm - I agree that the car is extremely sensitive to alignment and setup. Especially when it comes to steering feel, the weight of the steering, the ability for it to return on-center and how the steering feels when at high degrees of angle. I find the car responds quite well.

I personally prefer slightly more than stock caster and toe-in. I like the stability it provides.

 

This is the first car that made me feel burden because of what the steering/suspension was doing prior to this fix. Mind you I was coming from an 15 M3 and 18 A6 3.0T, so maybe I expected too much especially going into a 25yr old car that uses hydraulic PS vs Electric PS. But despite those newer cars before this, I felt more happy with this LS400, mainly because nobody trying to race me or try to tailgate me LOL. Anyway the new place also did a strobe light wheel/tire balancing for me because apparently these OEM wheels are HEAVY HEAVY and uses some specialty type of measurement to eliminate(100% gone and smooth now)high speed vibration.

 

Interesting. I've always had road force balances at tire rack and been pretty happy with them (except when I got a bad batch of tires that had 20lb of road force on them instead of low single digits).

I have lots of experience with modern cars too. S3, Porsche's, Trackhawk, Corvettes, Teslas. Nothing is quite comparable to the LS. I actually quite appreciate how it drives and think in many ways it is a better benchmark than more modern cars. Certainly in steering feel, but also in its ability to not hit the bump stops in 0.2 inches. It rides like a trophy truck on some truly ****ed up bits of pavement. The suspension is so predictable, the chassis doesn't do anything "weird" which upsets the car even on a bump or rut mid corner. You don't get crazy geometry deflection under high suspension loads. It's very impressive considering what it is.

And now that I've fixed my own vibration issues lately, it's just another world. No other car rides as well as this does. Not even Tesla's or Lucid EV's. Wish the seats held you in better though. That's one of the only things I don't like. Super comfy, but man you just slide out of them lol.

 

Yeah with other cars, just cant compare with this car. Its crazy despite how advanced the cars I and you've had; this car just rides so special, I only wished that I had bought this car sooner.
YES! Those seats, I feel the same way about them, soon as you do turn(car thinks its sharp) you slide out Mines are ok looking but the driver front has a tear on the upper side so I been researching for a several months now to replace them in fact. There is two choices here but the first problem is stock and what I'm talking about is the Celsior seats that's cloth or wool vs the Leather ones we have in our car. For the life of me I cannot find one here that's for sale unless you opt to buy the entire car lol. The 2nd choice is an aftermarket semi bucket seats, issue here for me because I have OCD is that the seat color may not match the rears and or seat button functions are rendered useless. For me I like to keep it clean or least close to stock as much as possible. So yeah I'm stuck, between the two and as of now researching other methods like either repair or finding a glove like FIT cover for them, so far SEATCOVERSUNLIMITED.COM seems to be a promising product.

 

There is a third option. Find some professional shop who will reupholster the seats. It won't be cheap though. You might need to ship it out to a big car-culture area, like Detroit or California. I'm not sure if they need to source virgin leather, or if you can source a crashed\wrecked car and salvage material from their passenger\rear seats. Beyond my area of expertise.

Good luck!

 

Either junkyard hunting, ship out to upholstery or local area.. Oh man

You know what, I’ll buy a front set from seatcoversunlimited.com 🤞🤞🤞

 

@ 49:00

Posting this just proves the fact this car is extremely sensitive when it comes to its suspension. So anyone that has issues regarding how their steering or suspension feels, alignment alignment alignment.