eBay Moog Suspension Control Arm Set

[PieEyedPiper]

Noise, Vibration & Harshness.

 

[gixxerdrew]

Sorry, what's NVH?

The roads aren't horrible but they are bumpy. There's a lot of patched so it's not a smooth ride.

What would you suggest Prothane vs Energy Suspension vs OEM?

Yah I would suggest OEM if your driving on the road. If you want to weekend track it, or you are willing to give up a lot of NVH for handling. What you will notice is things like seams, reflectors on the lines in the road what used to be in the high speed frequencies as a dull thud will be a be a loud THWACK. What the bushing does is attenuate high frequency vibrations at the cost of control of the tire. Some poor sap engineer at mitsubishi devoted some work to sorting out the best possible compromise for that bushing and the final compromise is usually cost. There are rubbers out there that will give you better attenuation and better control but they are usually expensive. I am not knocking those energy, prothane etc bushing kits. They are really great products, but you better know what your getting into to put them on a road driven car. You are talking about a moderate handling performance increment in exchange for a lot of NVH.

If you look at replacement control arms from the factory on higher end sports cars they are spendy even when the rest of the parts are cheap, the high end rubber isnt cheap. Know your compromises and choose wisely, may the force be with you.

If you wanted good street manners and good handling, the first suspension piece I would look at is a stabilizer bar. I would rank it as having the lowest compromises for greatest effect on handling, second to some nice tires.

 

[PieEyedPiper]

Great suggestion. I think it was just this year that there was a thread revolving around how one ought to lower their car and buy shock/springs/coilovers before even thinking about a stabilizer bar. I'm pretty sure it's even outlined in a sticky or tech article as a strong first step.

 

[Artago]

Cool. Thanks for all the wicked info.

So the consensus seems to be OEM bushings + strut bars.

I thought you needed a press to get the OEM bushings in? I'd like to go that route if I can install them in my garage with basic tools.

Thoughts?

 

[PieEyedPiper]

Cool. Thanks for all the wicked info.

So the consensus seems to be OEM bushings + strut bars.

I thought you needed a press to get the OEM bushings in? I'd like to go that route if I can install them in my garage with basic tools.

Thoughts?

I don't think you're going to be pressing in new OEM bushings. If you want OEM bushings you're keeping the old ones, getting used ones or buying brand new OEM parts.

Also, for clarification, see below. Strut vs stabilizer.

 

[Artago]

^ Right. I always thought it was called a sway bar, but thanks for the clarification.

So if I want OEM bushing I have to replace the control arms?

Regarding stabilizer bars, I've read that the rear makes a big difference but the front is minimal gain, is this true? Should I do both or just the rear?

Also, should I do strut bars as well? Will those have any negative affect on NVH?

Sorry for asking stupid questions, but my suspension is bone stock and beat up so I'd like to fix it up and all this is new to me.

Thanks a million, Tom.

 

[PieEyedPiper]

I don't think you'll notice much of anything from the strut bars. A triangulated bar could be of decent benefit though.

I'd start with the rear sway bar and then experiment if you want the front.

 

[DSM Jeff]

My 62 year old father daily drives a 1g I put together for him with fully poly bushings. (front and rear) and he loves it over the stock bushings. Told me, "theres no more slop and the car is more predictable" (the car also has timing and trans poly mounts and no balance shafts) If you're getting oem arms, then they'll come with new bushings, which will be firmer then the aged ones in your car.

I've built my own front strut bar on my car, did notice some extra stiffness. It does not flex like the aluminum ebay bars though. I'd say most noticable, is an upgraded rear sway bar.

 

[Artago]

My 62 year old father daily drives a 1g I put together for him with fully poly bushings. (front and rear) and he loves it over the stock bushings. Told me, "theres no more slop and the car is more predictable" (the car also has timing and trans poly mounts and no balance shafts) If you're getting oem arms, then they'll come with new bushings, which will be firmer then the aged ones in your car.

I've built my own front strut bar on my car, did notice some extra stiffness. It does not flex like the aluminum ebay bars though. I'd say most noticable, is an upgraded rear sway bar.

Thanks. I definitely need new bushings but I'm afraid the prothane ones are are too stiff for daily driving.

 

[Thomas91169]

yeah dont get that ebay kit.

Even the moog parts that came with mine (tie rods and swaybar endlinks) are crap. THeyre not shot but after maybe a year the rubber sleeves that protect the innards are already cracked and failing. My pass side endlink is completely ripped.

I will likely re-order a new OEM kit directly from mitsu, front and back. I expect to spend $1200 but I want it to feel like a brand new car for another 100k miles, not 1k.

$260 sounds cool but ive already replaced each sides lower control arm due to starting to "creak" at low speed turns. My upper control arms ball joint has huge amounts of slop in it.

 

[Artago]

yeah dont get that ebay kit.

Even the moog parts that came with mine (tie rods and swaybar endlinks) are crap. THeyre not shot but after maybe a year the rubber sleeves that protect the innards are already cracked and failing. My pass side endlink is completely ripped.

I will likely re-order a new OEM kit directly from mitsu, front and back. I expect to spend $1200 but I want it to feel like a brand new car for another 100k miles, not 1k.

$260 sounds cool but ive already replaced each sides lower control arm due to starting to "creak" at low speed turns. My upper control arms ball joint has huge amounts of slop in it.

Thanks for the good feed back. I've already decided not to go with that route. I'll probably do an OEM replacement.

EXTREME PSI : Your #1 Source for In Stock Performance Parts

I've been checking out this package but it only includes the 2 lower arms and the knuckle which I don't need.

I'd like to replace everything that has bushings or ball joints. So I guess that would be the...

compression lower arm
lateral lower arm
the upper arm
front stabilizer bushings
tie rod ends?

... but that's pretty much a new front corner. The only place I know to source all that (besides eBay) is RockAuto.com but they have may brands and I don't know which are good quality and which are bad.

Thoughts?

Here's what is would cost for 1 corner using middle of the road Beck & Arnley parts.

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^^ Add $13 for sway bar links and $20 for sway bar bushings.

 

[DSM Jeff]

Thanks. I definitely need new bushings but I'm afraid the prothane ones are are too stiff for daily driving.

I wouldn't say so. Adding poly subframe bushings definatly made my car stiffer, then just suspension bushings. But I'm on simple suspension (prokit and gr2's). If you're on coil overs, this will cause a much stiffer ride. My fathers car is on stock springs and gr2s. He takes my mom shopping in the car and she's never complained. So if a couple of 60+ year old people don't have any complaints about ride quality, I don't think anyone should.

 

[Artago]

I wouldn't say so. Adding poly subframe bushings definatly made my car stiffer, then just suspension bushings. But I'm on simple suspension (prokit and gr2's). If you're on coil overs, this will cause a much stiffer ride. My fathers car is on stock springs and gr2s. He takes my mom shopping in the car and she's never complained. So if a couple of 60+ year old people don't have any complaints about ride quality, I don't think anyone should.

I'm on stock springs and Tokico Blues. The car makes a clunking noise when I hit bumps.

But here's thing, the clunking noise happens when I gently roll over speed bumps.

It also happens when I gently roll over small bumps in the road or sometimes even when I make turns in a parking lot.

So something is loose but when I checked the control arms for play i can't find any.

The whole suspension is loose and clunky and I want to tighten it up.

 

[PieEyedPiper]

Don't buy parts store replacements. i.e. Beck & Arnley. You will not receive OEM quality. But if they're warrantied, then whatever.

 

[Artago]

Don't buy parts store replacements. i.e. Beck & Arnley. You will not receive OEM quality. But if they're warrantied, then whatever.

Yeah, that's what I wanted to know. Where can I get Mitsu OEM besides the dealer?

..or should I just to Prothane or Energy bushings?

All I want to do is fix the clunking and tighten up the suspension. It's pretty beat up.

 

[PieEyedPiper]

You can't.

Deal with your gear, junkyeard gear, parts store gear, "eBay" gear, OEM gear or prothanes. Sorry, I wish there was another way.
If it were me, all bent on replacing everything, I'd score OEM lower arms, and replace the bushings in the old a-arm with prothanes. Endlinks and crap are extra.

Really, though, you need to pinpoint the issue. I know, it's tough. Here's a thought though, I can remove a spring/shock from the rear of the car in like 10-15min, it might be worth inspecting if you can get it out and back in, in short order. If none of the control arms are wasted, I'm thinking springhat/isolator.