89 bONNEVILLE sse shocks, struts, springs...

[yogidad]

Time for new tires and shocks all the way around. I have tried IN THE PAST , as per other Bonnie owners advice, to do the Sensatracs by Monroe. Bought them online, from autobarn via amazon, real good price, life time warranty, thought I couldn't go wrong. Well, within the first mile of driving I could not find anything to like about the new shocks. Don't know if I got some bad ones, or what...I kept them for awhile, then sent them back. All they would do is send me the same exact item, wouldn't let me upgrade to a better brand or something even paying the difference. I paid a mechanic to put these in, and was disappointed yet again with their performance. Especially bad was the feel of bumps, rough surfaces, etc. I don't push her by any means and the cornering seems ok, just the roughness of the RIDE. I do have the FE2 luxury set up from the factory, maybe I was sent the sports shock by mistake, could that do it? All I replaced in the front was the strut itself in the past two tries, maybe I was thinking the all in one spring shock isolators etc are maybe what i need. The regular auto places I have around, being in Loss Angeles, only seem to carry the Monroe's too.

I read such mixed reviews on the Monroe sensatracs for the Bonneville, don't know what to believe...any suggestions?

[Jrs3800]

Roughness of the ride? FE2 is not the luxury set up, its the Ride and handling set up.. As well the rear struts with the bladders are part of the system and this will make it stiffer as well when its holding air like it should be..

FE1 would be soft ride

FE2 Ride and handling( all SSE's from 88-91 got this )

Others could be had with F41 Firm ride and handling..... FE2 and F41 are actually one in the same FE2 uses rear air struts F41 does not..

[SuperHbody]

I've been looking at redoing my suspension recently as well. It seems KYB excel's are recommended, too bad the AGX's are not made for us. I've been scrounging for FE2/F41 suspension parts to tighten up my soft, panzy riding FE1.

[yogidad]

Ok, I stand corrected Mr. Jr3800's...lol..so, what set up do you recommend as far as Monroes, etc ?

[Jrs3800]

The only one I can think of for you is the sensatrack.. The Monroe matic plus tend to ride harsher.. The sensatrack is great on an FE1 car.. The stock springs on the car is a straight rate coil, they aren't as compliant or forgiving as a variable rate spring but a variable rate will ramp up in firmness as it's compressed.. It's all a mixed bag of tricks.. I like my cars to ride decently firm..

The sensatracks have valving in the that react quickly to road changes to aid in handling and safety.. If you are going to change them out then maybe try kyb.. I really don't know what other advice I can offer other then you have a 4 door sports sedan..lol

[Zeik75]

You could swap to softer springs might do it but either way new struts will be much firmer than worn out 20+ year old struts.

[yogidad]

thanks for the feedback. What I am guessing is that I just got some bum parts by ordering as i did online. Maybe they were not up to the task, or I just expected too much of a difference having new shocks and all. I can say tho that I travel very little in this car, just a two mile each way to work in suburb driving, occasionally a little farther. No back seat passengers, or junk in the trunk either. They should have held up a bit better I think, instead they are worn out and I bounce all over the place. Maybe i will go with the quick strut, that comes pre assembled with the new springs and isolators, all those extra goodies I have never replaced before.

[Zeik75]

Are you looking for a soft floaty ride? If sorry to tell you but you won't get that back after changing from the old shocks. If it's like mine was i still had the original factory shocks till 3 years ago i believe. I them got the monroe quickstruts and rear struts. All of them were the sensatrack series. For me it was much better because it would stop bouncing and flopping all over the read and handle decently well. However because the suspension now acts like it originally did the ride is much rougher than it was before. Simply because the parts do what they were meant to do not what they could manage after 20 years.

Like i said you could try the softer springs and see what happens but i wouldn't waste money on more struts. Don't mean to sound rude but i'm sure the struts are fine, they just aren't what you expected. Also with the springs you should get new rubber isolators, those are probably pretty worn and dry rotted which could be some of the roughness. If you need help finding anything just ask.

[yogidad]

hi again. Yes the ride is...hard to put it...rough. The car will feel like its bottoming out going over speed bumps at a quicker pace, with a hard thud sometimes. I don't know enough about what components of the shock/strut system does what. I am leaning towards it probably being the rubber insulators, etc being worn out along with the part that pops up inside the hood, on the wheelwell, what is it, the top shock mount? That hasn't been changed for many years even when I was putting in new cartridges, etc, The sway and wavy bounces aren't as bad as they used to be, but the car is just rough, takes bumps hard, is all I can say.

I spent some time looking up my shock possibilities. The Monroe quick strut seems logical, but I can only find the part no. 171797 for the fronts, When I look at the description, it says is for the sport suspension. I looked it up on the Monroe website too. They call the FE1 suspension the "luxury ride", which I was schooled by our beloved JR's 3800 that it actually called the "ride and handling " suspension. For this FE1 they only offer part #71632, the strut only, no quick strut package? What to do?

[Zeik75]

Alright that makes a bit more sense now. I would suggest changing all the mounts front and back to Moog problem solver series. You should be able to get new isolators from Moog too. Nothing should pop up into the wheel well really the mount shouldn't allow that. The monroe sensatracks are the softer of the monroes and probably what you want to stick with. I would change mounts and isolators next and see what happens.

[yogidad]

ok yes, but isn't it a good idea to do the monroe quick strut, because it has all the components matched up and torqued down from the factory? my other question, is this #171797 ok to use even tho the description is for the sports suspension? Is there a noticeable difference in an older car like mine, with potentially other worn parts contributing to the hard ride I am experiencing currently? I will be putting new tires at the same time, I like the Falkin SN 211, good reviews, plus .PEP boys locally having all kinds of sales on them both, the monroes and tires. even install of shocks are 50% off...i am leary of pep boys touching my car, but these shocks seem easy to install ....thoughts?

[Zeik75]

That part number should be fine for the quick-struts and it would be less labor/ easy to do yourself. The quick-struts should have the sensatracks and whatever spring they decided on, i'm not sure how it compares to stock.

The struts are easy to install, I'm not sure about how you personally get along with car work but it only takes maybe 2 hours for me to change them and thats when i swap springs. The only potential problem i can think of would be rusty bolts holding the strut to knuckle, however it may not be a problem in your case since the struts have been changed recently. I personally have never set foot in a pep boys so idk how their service is.

All in all the quickstruts are probably the cheaper option if you get them installed. They should have mounts for the front on them already. You should still get rear mounts and maybe spring insulators.


Also just for understanding some basics on suspension. The springs are the part that hold the car up for the most part. The mounts provide some play/movement relative to the body for comfort and to distribute stress or the road and such. The front mount also has a bearing to allow for turning. The strut/shock is the part that helps the car stay stable through turns and over bumps. It is supposed to assist the spring to a degree and help slow suspension travel to stop bouncing up and down/side to side/front to back etc... There are a lot more components but as far as ride thats the main points for the average car. Tires also have a big impact and as they get old the rubber naturally gets harder, could be part of the problem. Every set of tires i have put on to replace old ones has made a huge difference in ride quality.

[yogidad]

Thanks for your help Zeik...

[Zeik75]

Anytime

[yogidad]

I just had new tires, the FALKIN SN211's installed on my sled, wow, what a difference already in her ride and quietness! Going over smaller bumps are now less harsh, but that just tells me i have to replace some more hardware to get back some of her former glory days. I was thinking to take it to a reputable frame and suspension place, let them go through it and tell me what she needs to have replaced. I know if $$ was no object I could just replace everything based on the mileage, etc, but I don't think I can do that right now. Are the body to suspension bushings a hard thing to replace? I know some of these front end parts aren't too pricey, save for control arms, but the labor could be a killer if i had to pay some high steppin repair shop their fees to do the work. I have always preferred my friend Lewis to do what he could, but he has moved like 100 miles from me each way, in the middle of the desert ,and I don't know, just too far...If I go with new Monroe Quick struts in the front, Pep Boys has a special of 20% 0ff the price plus only $40 a side to install them, which I don't think i can beat. I bought the new tires there with a buy 3/ get one free offer, plus 10% off, and was happy with the whole process. tipped the kid doing the mounting up front a ten spot, and he did good by me.

[Zeik75]

You could try the quick struts and it would probably help. Buy suspension to frame do you mean subframe (part that holds engine) to body, or subframe to contrlo arm? Thet are doable but not easy imo. The subframe to body could be done one at a time if all were loosened slightly for some play. It would need to be in the air though. Control arms aren't too bad to replace bishings but mist be off the car. I found it easiest to drill out the old rubber as much as i could them was able to grab them with vice grips. Huge pain in the ass but doable. However a shop probably won't use these methods and charge quite a bit in labor. Enough so that the control arms at least would be cheaper to buy and put on with preinstalled bushings i would think.