I have a 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix with 205k miles and ever since I owned the car (170k miles) there has always been a problem with the suspension. It feels like the car does not have any suspension at all. I can feel every small and large bump in the road. Almost like the struts are bottoming out or something.
I have already tried bouncing the car to see if the springs/shocks were going bad but the car just returns to normal height with minimal bounce.
I have inspected the(front) suspension and noted some problem areas:
Sway bar on one end is cracked and the other end is missing a small chunk.
Passenger side control arm rubber bushing is loose.
Passenger side bottom motor mount has deteriorated
Here are some videos of the suspension.
Please keep in mind I know there is ALOT wrong with this car. I have no clue how much longer it will last which is why I am not looking to spend a lot of money replacing everything. I am only trying to find the source of the bumpy ride.
You need to replace all the damaged suspension parts and all the bushings. You probably need new struts too. Given the age and mileage, I’d do it all if you plan to keep the car. After that is done, get a 4-wheel alignment.
Definitely going to get an alignment after this and I don’t plan on keeping the car for long, believe me it has a ton of problems but I want to keep it until it’s too expensive to fix. It actually rides well just when going over large bumps it dosen’t handle well.
I’m not trying to invest a lot of money into rebuilding the suspension just want to fix the critical parts to keep it riding.
Also I have updated the links. Please let me know if it works.
This is a lost cause. You cannot make this car ride smooth or handle at all given its problems. If you want a smoother ride, drop the tire pressure to about 28 psi all around. It will handle like a pig… bit it isn’t so great now, it will wear out the tires quicker, but it needs an alignment anyway and it will get poorer MPGs… but it will ride smoother over the little stuff!
You can’t make a broken down plow horse win the Kentucky Derby.
I doubt it CAN be aligned given all the problems with it.
The videos would not work for me. However, to address the bounce test on the struts I might add that test is not always accurate.
It’s quite possible to have little or no bounce and yet a strut (or both of them) will be faulty. If the struts were removed from the vehicle and disassembled (meaning springs off) you would likely find that if the struts were operated manually there would be free movement in them.
I’m normally not a fan of eBay or online parts but you might consider checking eBay for suspension rebuild kits and struts.
I’ve seen complete kits on the cheap (amazingly cheap) and that could be an option. Even somewhat low quality is better than what you have now. Below illustrates what I’m referring to + free shipping.
