Improving ride quality in my 92 gt??
 

Hi all I own a 92 gt and have been hating the way it rides and feels going down the road. Every little bump, crevasse, pebble I feel and it's greatly exaggerated due to what I'm assuming is body flex. The car is bone stock. 120k on it. My main mechanic who I trust 100% as he's owned and worked on foxes ever since they've been around said my shocks and struts were old but perfectly fine and I might see a 10% better ride replacing them. I know a 20 year old fox has a lot of body flex so I am planning on maximum motor sports subframe connectors very soon. How much will these help? Also I am concerned about the interior shakes, rattles and just overall noise. Will that be helped as well?

Thanks for any info guys

subframes won't improve ride quality...it'll stiffen the car like a board, as for rattles, good luck.....20+ year old car could have lots of interior stuff loosened up, go after it all one by one......decent pair of shocks and struts will help more than 10% as well as a tire that is not hard....look at treadwear rating, the higher the number the harder the tire

Subframe connectors and good shocks & struts will certainly improve the situation, but people generally don't buy a 92 Mustang for its ride quality. Even new, their ride quality was only *okay*. But they can be made to handle very well with the right parts.

Wow thanks for the great replys guys. I'm defiantly not expecting a caddy here but I feel like its a little extreme. I mean one little bump sends a jolt through the whole car something fierce. It just feels like something isn't doing its job anymore to dampen the shock. My back isn't happy with it either lol

I would get new shocks and struts then get so quality coil springs with polyurethane coil isolaters, I put Eibach sportlines with the isolaters and my car rides very smooth. I also did poly motor and trans mounts as well

hello:

mjr46 is correct. stiffening the body stiffens the ride. the inherent designed in flex causes a softer ride.

if it is that harsh, either you are a major wuss or there is something seriously wrong like a bent shock etc., lol.

if your shocks are bad your ride will be SOFTER as long as the suspension is not bottoming out.

stiff shocks like konis will be a much stiffer ride than cheap 5.00 shocks.

the springs obviously also affect ride quality. if it is not bottoming out you can have eibach make some custom softer springs and rhen just but the cheapest shock you can find or buy some very expensive shocks with adjustable rebound and compression damping and adjust to your liking.

So it's looking like I'm just expecting a decent ride out of a car that was never good to begin with. I guess I was more concerned about something being wrong and maybe causing more damage. So am I wrong to say that after 100k miles that the shocks are fine because the car rides rough? And I always heard that subframes will Improve the ride because the bumps and movements are being absorbed by the shocks not the body. If the body is flexing I'm going to feel everything through the body right?

The shocks and struts main purpose is to control the compression and the extension of the springs. Bad shocks mean the ride will get more bouncy as there is nothing to control the springs. A stiff ride means the springs are not absorbing bumps well; they're worn and fatigued to where there is little compression before bottoming out or they're too stiff to where they will not compress. Im guessing worn on a 92. So much goes into ride quality: spring rate, age and quality; shock quality and age; tire pressure, aspect ratio, type; chassis flex; seat padding and so on.
Replacing shocks and struts will help but your springs and isolators are probably worn out too.

where in Md are you?? you want to feel a car that has all the suspension goodies, you can go for a ride in mine, it's as stiff as a board and set up for the track. Also, I think the foxbodies ride okay, but nowhere near as decent as the newer mustangs......and I've driven plenty of the new stuff to compare.

Ah some more great info! Springs was my next question. I can almost garuntee my springs are too stiff because literally the smallest thing in the road feels huge. I also forgot to mention that the nose dive during breaking is huge too.