I am just trying to figure out why my car is so sloppy upfront. when I drive it feels like the junk. What are the most common upgrades for the front suspension, what goes bad in these cars.

http://www.overkillengineeringmotorsports.com/

first thing i would do is check out your control arm bushings and tie rods.

sway bars bushings.struts and springs. k frame brace

OK sounds like a plan. I know that I have a k brace, front and rear strut tower bars and front and rear sway bars ready to install. I will check everything out.

http://www.overkillengineeringmotorsports.com/

and whats sloppy about it? whats it doing? we could tell you to replace a bunch of stuff and it might still not fix the problem

Well when I put the pedal to the floor, it feels like the front end wonders around. Also I am almost positive that it has memory steer. The front end just does not feel firm at all.

http://www.overkillengineeringmotorsports.com/

so basically when you step on it, it pulls to the side? does it pull to 1 side all the time? you may have a problem with your tie rods

Actually thats what I was thinking. I know the front sway bar end links are shot to hell, but i have a brand new addco, so I am not going to just replace just those. it does pull to the left when i get on it, but more or less it just feels like something is worn out.

http://www.overkillengineeringmotorsports.com/

The end links won't cause any pull. It sounds like you have an alignment issue. How are the tires wearing? Has anything ever been replaced before, or is it all OE?

All oe, except the struts, there monroe blues, the @!#$tiest shocks available. they have been on the car for a good 80k. The car has 170k on it so all of the front end stuff is probably shot. I just had the alignment done and it helped a little but not much. what happened was, this was my sisters car. She was driving home one night and the tranny mount went out. That cause the control arm to bend, the inner tie rod to bend, outer tie rod to bend and the car has never been the same. I replaced the inner tie rod, control arm and the outer tie rod, but something feels off. I am wondering if it might have thrown something off?

http://www.overkillengineeringmotorsports.com/

Went underneath and noticed that the tie rod on the pass side is shot, the ball joint on that side is shot as well and the sway bar bushings are totally gone.

http://www.overkillengineeringmotorsports.com/

FAST2.4 P wrote:Went underneath and noticed that the tie rod on the pass side is shot, the ball joint on that side is shot as well and the sway bar bushings are totally gone.

Get to working!

At least when you're done fixing this, it'll be basically a whole new front end! (Guessing by the fact that this is a J, you've replaced the wheel bearings and brakes at some point prior. )


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2002 Sunfire -->
- Ractive steering wheel
- ASA 17" EM9 + Nexen N5000 215/45/17 (steelies for winter)
- D-Spec Lowering kit @ 1.4" (issues currently )
- Rockford P250.1 + MTX MZS1004 + Panasonic CQ-C8313U head unit
- Barely legal tint.