1jztts

I have a 91 soarer with 95k miles on the clock. Everything stock
The ride is spine breaking, going over rough or washboard type surfaces the car rattles violently, the entire suspension feels like its about to separate from the car, I can feel the bumps driving over painted lines and road reflectors. The steering wheel rattles and shakes, it feels like all of the 4 tires are flat. The car also tramlines when the road is uneven.
I crawled under the car and took a look around....LCA bushings look okay, but its hard to tell. No leakage coming from the shocks. I tried doing the bounce test but the suspension feels really stiff. I can only push down on the car about 2", it doesn't bounce back repeatedly though, just rebounds once to original position. The rear seems like its sitting lower than the front....about 1/2"

I am stumped, I want to figure out if its the bushings or shocks before I start ordering parts...
thoughts?

TechGreek

iTrader: (4)

The tram-lining screams bushings. You can't really tell without taking the bolts out and dropping the arms out of the mounting point but it's very hard to do so.

http://www.l-tunedparts.com/index.php for the control arms, mine were Supra arms that came in but no big deal. I preferred them anyway.

Shocks if you push down on the car and it's slow to rebound or stays stuck down, they would be blown.

Are you the first owner? Are you sure the P/O didn't put drop springs or cut the stocks?

scmissle

Did you happen to check balance of the tires and also check air pressure? Cut springs will make it rattle, and shake, but also if somebody owned before put in super stiff lowering springs on stock shocks or cut the springs your going to have problems. Im not familiar with the term tramline, explain? There are many other areas that will make the car seem as its going to fall apart. A bent steering column will make it shake bad, really bad, an unbalanced driveshaft, uneven brake rotors, stuck brake calipers, bad subframe bushings ( suspension has way to much movement, been here had this) a bent steering rack. Also be sure to check the rear suspension, diff mounts and bolts, axles and play in rear suspension. How is the steering wheel when sitting with wheels straight? If control arm bushings are bad, you will have to actually steer that car, it will go all over the place.