Hello there 04 cvlx

[Sidneyious]

My baby, got this for $1500 3 years ago and replaced almost everything.

Recently was the suspension front and rear because front had blown and broken parts(thanks roads).

My car has almost every single option at the time except a rear sway bar and I think that's what's causing the car to have a boat feeling.

I don't really care for that boat feeling so would a sway bar help keep the front from having this old car wandering feeling?

When going down the highway I have to loosen up my input and let the car go in the roads grooves and this is concerning because cops are..

Anyway I don't like the idea that I look like a drunk going down the road because of I get tight in controlling how straight the car goes it feels floppy.

Everything but 1 damper is Ford, new springs, shocks, bushings, endlinks all around is new.

Tires are continental trucontact eco + and while it all does seem to ride ok on our crap roads it still floppy and in some cases it can jerk you around.

Had a recent inspection after about 6 months of all the repairs everything is gtg.

Would a rear sway bar help with the front flop?

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[Mainemantom]

The wandering in the lane could be in the steering box. My 1996 CVPI wandered badly until I replaced the box with a "red head" steering box. All the steering shafts were replaced too. Huge improvement. It wanders a tiny bit however I do blame the roads.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

The wandering in the lane could be in the steering box. My 1996 CVPI wandered badly until I replaced the box with a "red head" steering box. All the steering shafts were replaced too. Huge improvement. It wanders a tiny bit however I do blame the roads.

2004 is steering rack. It should track better than the older style recirculating ball steering cars, at least from all of the R&P cars I've been able to drive. I love my -'02 chassis stuff, but the '03+ stuff is definitely point-n'-shoot without the fuss.

Never had the pleasure of taking a '03+ out without a rear anti-swaybar, but having driven my '87 and a '00 without them prior, I found the early chassis to just be sloppy through turns, and I'm sure the '03+ stuff only fares marginally better without the anti-swaybar.

A rear bar, regardless if it's HPP, Police, or retail will help out considerably than running without. However, for the boat and float, much of that will lay with the suspension itself. The shocks and struts are usually what's gonna affect the general rebound qualities. KYB Gas-A-Just and Bilstein have worked well for the '79-'02 chassis crowd, but Bilstein doesn't offer anything for the '03+ crowd, and there's been many reported leaky struts with KYB on the front for '03+ owners. Police rate struts and shocks usually will reduce some of the excess boat sensation, but it would seem Ford OE type work best on the '03+ cars unless anyone else can comment on that.

I've happily run KYB Gas-A-Just police rate stuff on both my cars, but obviously I won't recommend them for later cars since they've had leakage issues. I certainly won't touch anything from Monroe at this point, especially any of their blue colored Monroe-Matic series stuff. Might as well just set that money on fire since they do a really great job of looking like a shock absorber, while doing absolutely nothing useful.

I will also mention that at the end of the day, these are also still full size cars, that were designed to offer a generally smooth ride, and aren't going to ride excessively harsh unless you go out of your way to modify them to do that.

[Mainemantom]

I forgot that the steering system changed.
I have to agree with the shock absorber/strut lack of quality. Hard to find good parts.

[Sidneyious]

Thanks folks, when the suspension was fixed the shaft was replaced because it broke going over a gas station underground gas fill cap thing because for some reason they have to be raised higher than the rest of the pavement.

I'm guessing the floating could be a combination of soft tires and whatever qualities as Ford OEM shocks and struts.

It does ride good just I can feel imperfections in the roads almost like the gas filled tubes are working harder.

Is there a fluid filled s/s out there that ride good?

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[FordMan77]

I run police spec KYB's all the way around on my 03 LX Sport. Have a factory rear bar. Still running factory springs up front (can't comment on the rears since I have air suspension). I will say that it is much tighter feeling than the old Ford stuff, but it is also stiffer and can feel more bumps. It doesn't skip around or jar your teeth out like an old I-beam truck but it was a noticeable change. I like it better since I've done my best to get rid of the "grandpa ride engineering" that all of these were designed with without upsetting the balance too far. I could likely use poly bushings everywhere to stiffen it up further.

Likely the reason you are feeling more imperfections is because you installed NEW springs and shocks all around. You were used to riding around on old, likely 100K+ mile suspension. Now that everything is new again it's as it was designed.

The 03+ cars seem to be sensitive to front end alignments and can be wander if it's off too far. I have some specs from one of the Maruader guys that has best setup for these cars. I haven't had mine adjusted yet so can't comment. Plan on doing that in the coming week hoepfully.

[Sidneyious]

Hello there 04 cvlx

I'm hurting right now

I couldn't keep the original post text in the edit and all the pictures wouldn't upload and I don't know why it has 1 picture twice

[friskyfrankie]

Do you have collision insurance (from the year my guess would be - no)? How bad is the actual damage (difficult to tell from the one photo)? I feel your pain as we all know what it takes to maintain these cars.

[Sidneyious]

I tried to upload more than 1 pic guess it's a Tapatalk issue.



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[Sidneyious]

It should be fixable

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[87gtVIC]

Bummer. Will be totaled out unfortunately.

Of course it can be fixed though. Will cost way way more than what you paid for it. But if it is a good car and something you want to keep for a while and you know you cannot find another one then it may be worth putting the money into it. Sucks. Good luck.

[friskyfrankie]

Sucks is right as that is way more than $1.5K in damage. Unless you are doing the work yourself or have a best friend working with you on the deal of the century, it would not be worth it. If however, you have the volition and spare bucks you could do it, a little at a time, assuming it is not a daily driver.

[Sidneyious]

Well before this the KBB was 10k.

I will have it fixed or replaced and whatever I have on here that's new will go on another.

This is my baby and it's far and away still now the nicest cv in town.

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[Tiggie]

I suspect you'll need a whole quarter panel to make that right. Definitely makes you sick when it's your pride and joy.