2009 LX Suspension Changes

[JusticePete]

During our Pedders Day following the Woodward Cruise we had on LX owner come in with a 2009 Charger. The OE suspension had some interesting upgrades from the factory.

1. The rear trailing arm is no longer cast alloy. It is now a more robust tubular arm. If you break or bend this new trailing arm you have a seriously built HEMI or went off roading...

2. The front radius rod bushes have been upgraded to a more solid rubber bush. We didn't tear down the car to pull the front control and radius rod arms to compare the part numbers, but our guess is the problematic OE voided rubber radius rod bush has been replaced by the control arm bush. The ID of the loop on both arms is the same so using the same bush in both arms would reduce inventory / production cost and should be more reliable in service.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. Maybe Tommy Z did. I know that Mike (dms) has pictures from the Challenger so I have asked him to post them here. These changes are IMO upgrades to the LX making a fine automobile better.

[dms motorsport]

During our Pedders Day following the Woodward Cruise we had on LX owner come in with a 2009 Charger. The OE suspension had some interesting upgrades from the factory.

1. The rear trailing arm is no longer cast alloy. It is now a more robust tubular arm. If you break or bend this new trailing arm you have a seriously built HEMI or went off roading...

2. The front radius rod bushes have been upgraded to a more solid rubber bush. We didn't tear down the car to pull the front control and radius rod arms to compare the part numbers, but our guess is the problematic OE voided rubber radius rod bush has been replaced by the control arm bush. The ID of the loop on both arms is the same so using the same bush in both arms would reduce inventory / production cost and should be more reliable in service.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. Maybe Tommy Z did. I know that Mike (dms) has pictures from the Challenger so I have asked him to post them here. These changes are IMO upgrades to the LX making a fine automobile better.


I did a major analysis of a Challenger SRT8 several weeks ago. It basically the same thruout with a couple of exceptions that I found:
1. The rear trailing arms are in fact a steel tubular desgin. This is a great improvement
2. The radius rod bushings appear to be a carryover, but what is definately different are the front upper control arm bushings are definately more robust than previous models.
3. Nivomats on the rear were gone. In their place was a set of Bilstein rear shocks.

Here is a link where you can see the underside of the Challenger and all the suspension components:

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2513577430054308893duQqTL

The picture below shows most of the links in the back end. The 2 black ones on the bottom are the new trailing arm bushing. What is interesting about this unit is where the interference fit is. They did not redesign the bushing, but found the bushing was too tight. So they made the interference fit only in the center and the outer edges of the eyelit were chamfered. Actually pretty smart.

This Challenger had only 600 mile on it or so. But there were a lot of bolts that were MUCH tighter to remove than any of the other LXs I have worked on, Not really sure why.

But critical bushings, except the front upper control arm bushings, all appear to be carryovers

mike
dms

[fargo59]

nivomats have been gone since 08. the other day i noticed joes daytona didnt have them. probably noticed that there is no need for them anymore since people switch them out when they can. also, the nivomats on R&T's were magnum load levelers. with the lack of a magnum, why put nivomats in anymore? probably changed sway bar and spring rates to compensate for the ride difference.

[JusticePete]

All the way back to 08 - LOL

Nivomats were used across the range of LX vehicles. The coil rate absolutely has to be changed as does the length of the coil when a Nivomat is removed. The rear sway bars appear to be the same on both Nivomat and non-Nivomat LXs.

[MattRobertson]

Mike, remember how I told you guys to pay attention to the tubular control arms on my car when you did my install? At the time I thought they were slated for the Mopar Performance catalog. Now we know different.

:-)

[WildBee]

All the way back to 08 - LOL

Nivomats were used across the range of LX vehicles. The coil rate absolutely has to be changed as does the length of the coil when a Nivomat is removed. The rear sway bars appear to be the same on both Nivomat and non-Nivomat LXs.
I have an 08. Does not have Nivomats

[dms motorsport]

Mike, remember how I told you guys to pay attention to the tubular control arms on my car when you did my install? At the time I thought they were slated for the Mopar Performance catalog. Now we know different.

:-)

Hey Matt,'
I absolutely do remember our conversation. I have also seen 2 other vehicles with variations of them.

The new ones I saw were ver nicely made, and the bushings pressed out nicely and our Pedders units fit perfectly.

Great hearing from you

mike
dms

[dms motorsport]

nivomats have been gone since 08. the other day i noticed joes daytona didnt have them. probably noticed that there is no need for them anymore since people switch them out when they can. also, the nivomats on R&T's were magnum load levelers. with the lack of a magnum, why put nivomats in anymore? probably changed sway bar and spring rates to compensate for the ride difference.

We have seen major inconsistancies on all the LX product lines; from SRT 8 vehicles without Bilsteins, to stock 300 6 cylinders with Nivomats. It has been really hard trying to deal with the LX in terms of standards.

Chrysler does seem to have some issues with suppliers and variations in specs. We see this on all kinds of bushings that they have knurled to get to fit, to major variations in bushing diameters.

mike
dms

[dtpracing]

Does anyone know for sure if the SRT suspension on the Charger and Challenger have the same spring rates and shock valving? Had a couple customers go to the SRT experience at VIR and said how much better the Charger handles over the Challenger, now we're just trying to decipher exactly what is different between the two.

[glhs837]

As I recall, the Challenger setting are different, to make the ride "softer", more "muscle car like". Thre was some data from the SRT Engineers during one of the last few chats, I"ll try and dig it up.

[JusticePete]

IMO the biggest factor is wheel base. The same is true for the Camaro and G8. The longer wheel base vehicle feels better on the track.