Ok well i've known for a while now that I have several problems with my front suspension. I have alreay replaced the upper ball joint on the passenger side. When im going over bumps and hitting pot holes (you can't avoid them here) you hear the clunk and lack of give in the suspension that it's supposed to have. What exactly can i do to check each part of the suspension to test it's stability. Say if i jack up the car, and take off the wheel what tests can i do to track down the root of the problems. Say if a tie rod bushing or a ball joint is bad what do i have to do to tell? Hopefully this is making sense to you. Im trying to word this the best that i can. Say if there is give up and down pushing on the rotor then that means .... is bad. Or give left to right means ... is bad. I need to trace these down before the shootout and hopefully not only replace them but upgrade them for the future. I've been looking around and i found these http://www.prostreetonline.com/store/bushings/suspension/ i've read alot of people say they don't notice a difference. That doesn't matter to me, i want to know how well they will fit and what kind of lifespan i will see out of those vs. the stock replacements. Any help here would be great!!

With the wheel off the ground:

If you can shake the wheel side to side, look for play at the inner tie rod ends, outer tie rod ends, and the wheel bearings. Make sure you're not just turning the steering wheel a bit though, since it's pretty easy to do. In and out movement on the top of the wheel could be upper ball joints or wheel bearings, movement at the bottom of the wheel could be one (or both) of the lower ball joints, or the wheel bearings. HTH.

Thanks greg that is exactly what i wanted to know!!!

No problem. :thumbsup

btw if I have problems with certain bushings and I buy those as replacements. Are the bushings pressed into the suspension components. I.e. I have a bad lower ball joint can I just buy (from that link) as a replacement and reuse the stock component minus the bushing??

Greg in order to accurately test in that manner you need to releive the stress cause by the strut/spring. Its easy to miss a balljoint that is just starting to go bad like that.


Aaron place the car on jack stands and put your jack under the mount on the lower lateral where the wishbone is and jack up just enough to take tension off lateral to strut mount. this way the ball joints are not preloaded from suspension travel or spring tension. you should have zero movement in the balljoints, they designed to pivot obviously but not move up and down or side to side.