fe3 suspension on lesabre.

[coop8070]

I have a 94 lesabre limited with the dynaride suspension. I am wondering if there is a stock suspension from a Bonneville that would bolt up to the lesabre that would give it a firmer ride. I am tired of all the body lean in the turns. Any advice?

[2003 SSEi]

yes any suspension that is compatible with a 92-99 Bonneville will work on your Lesabre

[Jrs3800]

Yep.. agreed.. There are some FE3 and F41 Olds 88's 92-99 out there as well as some 92-99 F41 Bonneville( 92-94 ), FE2 92-99... All of these will have the larger sway bars and should have stiffer springs.. The Bonneville F41 should be firmer than the Buick F41 for whats its worth..

[parkaveman83]

How do u tell the diff between that and a regular susp bonneville. Very interested in doing this same swap.

[Jrs3800]

Mainly the spare tire cover... Look for F41.. You'll want to look for 92-99... You can also measure the spring coils.. Should be close to 16mm for the stiffest bunch iirc... The front bar should be 32mm unless you find a 34mm( needle in a haystack, might just as well be a bar of gold ).. The rear bar should be 22mm

A regular suspension Bonneville would be an FE1 Suspension( RPO list on spare tire cover )

A Firm Ride and handling bonneville would be F41

And a Ride and handling Bonneville would be FE2( 94-99 only used FE1 or FE2)

[eighty8]

If you look throguh all the springs at Rock Auto, the only different springs they have for the front are for the super charged versions. I assume that is because the engine is heavier. SSE, SSEi springs, when you click on the part number, are supposed to fit 88's and Lesabres. When it does give specs, the coil thickness, spring rate, free height, and installed height all come out to be the same. If anyone has any insight as to where you get heavier springs, I would like to know about it.

[Jrs3800]

Its not really due to the weight of the motor, so much as it is the handling qualities...

I feel in most cases the Bonnevilles were the stiffer of the H body bunch... But there have been some Olds H bodies with a pretty stout suspension( must have been ordered that way )..

For the H bodies in most cases Moog and the like only offer 2 springs... One set will have the lighter load rating the other will be higher giving a firmer ride...

After the years I have dealt with these H bodies I would be more tempted to find an F41 Bonneville and strip the suspension off of it.. The F41 Bonneville seemed to sit down a tad over its FE1 brother... As well as being a firm ride, I also feel the right struts help as well..

My 95 Bonneville sits up a bit with the SSEi springs all the way around( Moog is what I used, I wanted a higher load rating )... The ride is quite good and firm for a full size car... I have since then scored a set of F41 springs, measured to be among the the thickest we have found... I will use this set when I do my struts, this will also help the car sit down a hair which is what I want...

[Tim's Buick]

i say do what i did with my park ave and go with a fe2 suspension. Cargo coils for the back, new struts, new coils for the front. The biggest change is in your sway bars. I upgraded my front one to a 32, and the back to a 26, the biggest you can get I believe. Use heavy duty polyurethane bushings in the center and end links. If you have air ride, restore it and keep it! The mods were the best thing I ever did to the tired out old car with 450,000 clicks on her!

[eighty8]

I did not change the struts. The car is a 99 Olds 88 with 83,000 miles. The struts were good. I don't particularly understand the posts I see on here about new struts going bad in 6 months. We have a Caravan with the original struts and 230,000 miles. When they go bad, I will change them as I just changed 2 on the Taurus with 190k. Had to change them all on the 1995 Cutlass Cierra and 1989 Celeberty we had, but they each had over 130k before I had to change them. However, the Celeberty went to 220k before it quit with no strut problems. The Cutlass Cierra had about 190 K with no strut problems before it was stolen this year
I went to Pull A Part looking for sway bars. The thickest ones were found the Buicks with the rear air ride suspension. I changed the front 28mm to 32 mm, and the rear 18mm to a 22mm. I bought the poly sway bar links for the front. I also had the poly center bushing I got from Rock Auto. They came in a Carquest box which had a little Moog symbol on the box. The center bushings were supposed to be for a 32mm bar. They would not fit, no way, now how. They were like 3/4 to 1 inch of extra poly I would have had to compress with the clamps for the bushings. I ended up putting the rubber bushings back in for the 28mm bar, and they fit fine. They were in good shape anyway.



While at Pull a Part and Pick a part, I picked up the 16" aluminum wheels from 2 different Bonnevilles. 2 wheels came off the back of one and two wheels off the back of another. I figured if there was a bent wheel, you are more likely to find it on the front, plus they are much cleaner with no disc brake dust. Then I bought some new tires.

The end result is the car handles great and corners very flat no matter how hard I push it. It may slide, but the body doesn't lean much. With all this being said, the 98 Taurus drives better. The steering is quicker and the springs are stiffer. However, the Taurus rides like a truck on the rear. I think it is worse than the 2012 Chevy 2500 van I use for work. The Olds is much smoother and has much less road noise and engine noise.

[Jrs3800]

The sway bars make a big difference... But the next time you are in the yard look for a 92-93 Bonneville( F41 ) or 92-99 Lesabre Grand Touring ( F41 most of the time )... Some of the Olds 88's also had the F41 especially the LSS..

This will give you a firmer ride...

Glad you are improving the car... I like a Big car that can surprise people..

[gweg_b]

I have a set of FE2 sways at home that I was someday going to swap onto my LeSabre. I was also going to go with the Moog springs, but I'm not liking the idea of the car sitting higher.

Don, I think you talked me into looking for F41 components. That, with the wider GTP wheels I have on the car, should give me some nice handling (obviously, once I get the car back on the road).

[Jrs3800]

If you have a Caliper measure the spring coils and get as close to 16mm as possible.. You might have a rear measurement of 15.8-16.1 and a front that should be 15.9-16.2 iirc

I have the Moogs on my Bonneville, But the ride height is higher... The ride quality is good, but I would like a tad firmer and a tad lower..

[gweg_b]

I definitely want firmer. I also need something that can handle some load as well. My stock springs (which are original) are worn out, and any weight I put in the back causes scrapping of the tire in the wheel well over any kind of bump.

I was thinking about getting adventurous and adding air ride to my LeSabre to help with the issue I mentioned, but I'm a few years away before getting into any of that. But, my mind always has its gears turning!

[Jrs3800]

All I did on my 95 was a manual air fill... works.. I keep 20 Psi in the struts at all times just to keep the bags pretty well inflated.. Currently at 100,000 miles and no leaks.. Internals are history but they still hold air...LMAO