Ever Been a Successful Front Suspension Rebuild ?

[CrackyWainwright]

Hey, gentlemen. I still enjoy reading the forums here although I don't post much.

Having heard a lot of stories here locally and having read this forum for a long time, I've come to a question: is anyone ever successful in rebuilding the front suspension on an aging car or truck?

So many times people talk about how an aging suspension chews up tires so they have a shop replace ball joints, control arms, tie rods, and the list goes on and on. Then after spending $$$$ the vehicle chews up new tires just the same or pulls one way or the other.

Reckon why it's so hard to repair a front suspension? I fear that on my older vehicles worse than engine or transmission problems.

 

[barkingspider]

I have replaced upper and lower control arms, ball joints, tie rods, axles and sway bars, mainly on GM trucks that I have owned and/or still own. I just get it aligned by a good shop after replacing the parts and it's all good. Tires wear normally. What vehicle are u talking about?

 

[Zaedock]

I do it all the time.

Sounds like you may need to find a new shop.

 

[exranger06]

I rebuilt the front suspension on my Bronco 2 years ago. New axle pivot bushings, radius arm bushings, upper and lower ball joints, all new steering linkage, new shocks, new wheel bearings and seals, spindle bearings and seals, brake pads, rotors and calipers, new wheel studs, new u-joints, and new spring buckets and brake dust shields (replaced due to rust). It rides like brand new now and the tires have been wearing great.

 

[The Critic]

Most of the time, people replace more parts than needed. And when they do it, they install aftermarket (and not always quality aftermarket) so they end up causing more problems than they begin had to begin with.

I only replace the items that are worn and leave the rest of the components alone. Even if they're "old." For parts, I only use OE or the OES (e.g. Lemforder, KYB, etc) components.....not Moog, Mevotech or MAS.

 

[kschachn]

Every one of my cars, at least once. The BMW was the most expensive considering I did use some Meyle parts the first time (which had to be replaced) instead of Lemforder/BMW. That was also the most difficult with rust and fasteners that were difficult to remove.

The two Toyota cars were the easiest, I just did the ECHO about a year ago and the Sienna has been rebuilt twice. The Honda also twice since my daughter first hit a huge rock and then because she ran up onto a roundabout.

I have found (as the Critic points out) that nothing lasts or fits like OEM. On the Toyota cars 555 is OEM so if I can find those as aftermarket they have worked well.

 

[double vanos]

My 330ci. Twice in 160k miles. Also did RTABs too. Always lined up good and drove well.

 

[bdcardinal]

I have done a bunch, including replacing the whole front end on Mustangs with Maximum Motorsports parts. Nothing quite like a perfectly setup car.

 

[Nick1994]

Sounds like an incompetent shop doing the work.

My brother just bought a 1997 Chevy C1500 Silverado that we're replacing the entire front end. Upper and lower control arms with bushings and ball joints, inner and outer tie rods, pitman arm, idler arm, sway bar bushings, repacking wheel bearings and putting in new seals. Then it goes for an alignment at the dealer.

 

[thr_wedge]

Last front end I did I used cheap [censored] parts and aligned in my driveway with a tape measure. Did that 6 hears ago, sold it to a friend at work 3 years ago who daily drives it, and he's never touched anything and the tires still wear fine.

So no I don't think it's a problem. Vehicle i did it to was a 96 zj with 210k miles.

 

[RooflessVW]

My Phaeton front and rear was done, at a not insignificant cost, by the original owner (my customer at the time) about 20k miles ago. The car drives like new, and is head and shoulders above any other still riding on original components.

I have had a few 7ers as well, and they all got their front ends rebuilt. The 2001 was armored and was significantly harder on the front suspension. The whole front end needed doing at 60.000kms. The '92 got a full rebuild when it developed a steering wheel shimmy at speed at about 300.000kms. It was clearly long overdue for its rebuild. Lastly, my '87 got its front and rear rebuilt when I bought it and discovered it was still riding on its original. nearly 30 year old components.

All three times on the BMWs it turned a rattletrap car that crashed over bumps back into a smooth riding, confidence inspiring machine.

 

[Ethan1]

It's not hard at all. If the suspension is tight and properly aligned, a car won't chew up tires unless the frame is damaged.

 

[MinamiKotaro]

Yeah. As long as you can get good parts and there's nothing wrong with the frame/chassis itself, it's not a big deal.

 

[Wolf359]

You only hear horror stories because those are the only ones complaining. I've replaced many parts in my front end over the years, tie rods, ball joints, struts, end links, wheel bearings etc. They're fine afterwards. And it's a mix of OEM and aftermarket, some aftermarket is better than than OEM.

 

[CBR.worm]

Yes, using OE parts I've not had a problem. I suspect people only talk about the ones that cause problems. Not many people post to say they did something and it worked great - except here re: oil changes.

 

[sleddriver]

Been there, done that on the sled. No issues with odd tire wear before or after. Front ends live a hard life and parts wear out. It happens.

I did all the work myself using OEM parts....

>213,000 miles and still haulin' groceries.

 

[Exhaustgases]

And it may not always be the parts but the alignment. I know of a few cars that it seems no one can get them aligned properly. I don't think the alignment systems are all that accurate and or too much rushing the jobs.

 

[Merkava_4]

I've done a lotta suspension work; what you wanna know ?

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Replaced a bad unit bearing and put 4 new control arms in my Cherokee and it stopped chewing the front tires.

Aligned it myself.

 

[Robenstein]

Did it a few times. On my 70 Nova, on my old 62 Impala, and on my 66 Galaxie. I also resto modded a couple mustang II suspensions on old Ford hot rods. All drove very well when done....tracked fine down the road, and didn't wear tires unevenly.