Need suspension suggestions/help

At 105000 miles just have all of it checked. If the ball joints and all are good leave it alone till you need them fixed. Newer Chassis it just so much more improved unless you have a problem. The Big Change is the Panhard bar in the rear keeping the rearend from feeling fidgity or loose. Actually I drove a 2000 Gt Mustang with Ford Racing "C" springs and stock shocks while owning another 97 GT. I could not believe it road Smoother - yes smoother with them. I bought them the next week cause yes the stock springs ride like shiot. First thing to change IMO. Bought my 97 GT with brand new Monroe Sensa Tracs Which everyone said would blow out but I put 50000 miles on them an no problem and with the C's it rode smoother and handled great. I would however go with the earlier 93 back Strut/ rear shocks which are shorter and match up better to the lowering springs for better longevity. Tires make a difference too. I bought the Kumho ASX as I drove it in Snow and they worked great for all around conditions and road smoother too. Now I have a 2000 GT like you with Eibachs and Tokico Illumina 5 way adjustables. The Springs seemed to be a little harsher and only ride smooth like my old C combo mentioned on 1-2 soft setting. Either combo will be actually better on rough roads than the crappy stock setup.

Fox and SN95 Mustangs don't have a panhard bar. They use a triangulated 4-link to locate the rear axle.

In terms of the OP, you don't want to lower. For Michigan roads, this is not a bad philosophy (if your roads are anything like they are here in Southern Ontario...) However, I could recommend a kit that replaces the shocks, springs and sway bars and which gives OE ride quality and much better handling. Look into the FRPP M-5400-A kit. Jegs shows them for $550:

Ford Racing M-5400-A Ford Racing Mustang Handling Kits

This is basically the suspension that came on the Bullitt Mustang. It lowers the car 0.75" or so and really flattens cornering without giving up compliance. It's a decent choice for rougher roads of the Salt Belt. If lowering the car is not an option, I'd only replace the springs if they were showing signs of sagging or corrosion. Otherwise leave them alone.

I'd inspect the ball joints in the front (inner and outer tie rods, lower ball joints on the control arms) and replace as necessary. Modern ball-joints don't wear as quickly as in the old days but your car is 10 years old now...

Sway bars don't really "get loose" although the end-links that tie them to the lower control arms (front) can break over time and the bushings can take a set. If you're in there doing other things I'd replace the end-links no matter what. They're cheap and easy to replace.

As for bushings, it's rare that they need replacing. You'd hear clunking, have tire wear/alignment issues and/or would have tracking problems (car wandering around on the road) if the bushings were really bad. That's not to say they don't degrade over time. They can crack or tear, for instance, and you may not be aware it's happened. Replacing bushings takes specialized tools (e.g. a press or vice). I'd stay away from urethane or other non-OE bushings for a daily driver. They'll increase NVH, are often noisy and won't wear as well as OE parts.

You may also want to inspect the steering rack bushings and rag-joint in the steering shaft for condition and replace as necessary.

Sams2000GT said:

Thanks to both of you for your tips/help.

Arnold regarding your Tokico Illumina 5 way adjustables, how exactly do those work? Are they hard to adjusts? Do they also control the height to lower or raise the car?

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Damper settings are as simple as turning a knob on the top of the shock:



Getting to the rears for adjustment will require removing interior panels to reach the shocks.

As far as adjustable goes, ask yourself this: How often will you actually adjust them? Makes me think of tilt/telescope steering and 6-way power seats: Once I adjust them to how I like, I never need to move them again...

Shocks don't hold up the car or affect ride height.

Trinity thanks for your in-depth response. How do you think the kit you posted compares w/ the kit above?

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The kit above is "coilovers" whereas the 5400-A is factory parts.

I personally don't like coilovers on Mustangs because the spring loads are moved from OE locations into the shock towers. While the structure may not have a problem with this I'm still uncomfortable with it. Ford designed the front suspension and structure to pick up the coil spring loads at the K-member where it meets the frame rails. This is pretty substantial structure here. By going to coilovers, you move the spring points into sheetmetal originally designed to handle only shock absorber loads. At the very least you might consider getting a strut-tower brace to help the shock towers out.

In the rear, it's the same thing. I wouldn't feel right putting a steel bar up into the rear shock mount and then jacking the car up by that point. This is what you'll be doing with coilovers in the rear. Like the front, the OE rear suspension puts the spring between the control arm and the frame rails and they're designed with that sort of load in mind. Shock towers are not as robust.

BTW, there's a chance that the kit shown in that eBay image is not what you'd actually get. It might look something more like:

Tokico Illumina Suspension System ILK238 by Tokico Illumina

Notice in that photo the rear shocks don't appear to have spring perches so maybe that kit retains the OE rear suspension layout.

As for comparison: The Tokico kit is more expensive and more adjustable. But as I noted above, how much adjustability do you need for a daily driver? The 5400-A also comes with sway bars, front and rear, whereas the Tokico kit doesn't appear to. This is where a good deal of the cornering improvement is going to come from.

I like how the kit you posted has all the components I'd need but I am having a problem finding it in stock online. Most places have it backordered, plus i want to do some more research.

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Makes sense. I've heard rumblings that it's becoming hard to find as well. Keep looking around.

I must be getting confused. Isn't the sway bar the same thing as the anti-roll bar in that kit?

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Same thing.

The clunking noise you mention from the bushing is something i hear when I go over large bumps over 5 mph, that is what prompted me to start think about replacing suspension parts.

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Once the car is in the air and the suspension is hanging free you'll be able to check for things like loose ball joints, tie rods and wheel bearings.

The main problems with the suspension right now is I feel that it is not tight like it used to, the clunking noise over bumps at 5mph +, and the fact that when I am driving I get pulled in and out of the lanes. I am not sure if any of you experience this but in Michigan the roads have a "W" groove from the trucks that go over the roads with such heavy weight. This plus the fact that I have 265 width tires in the front and rear and my tire kind of gets "stuck" in the grooves. I guess I can't really fix that unless i get a smaller tire which I don't plan on doing. I currently have the Goodyear Eagle GS-D3 265/35/18.

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The general looseness isn't surprising on a car with those sorts of miles on those sorts of roads. The tracking issue may not be "fixed" completely: Short (35) stiff sidewalls and wide treads are going to exacerbate this problem when driving on truck-rutted roads.

If your roads are bumpy and terribly uneven like Chicago.. dont lower it unless you have another car to drive most of the time lol.