Aftermarket Suspension parts bad?

[Magmus]

I have no problem with adding power to my car, the stock drive train is built to handle a reasonable amount of additional torque and RPM's. I am not as comfortable tweaking the suspension. Sure I want to be able to turn on rails but it aint easy with a 4400 pound station wagon. I'm skeptical tossing in a thousand dollars worth of aftermarket suspension parts will make my fat bottom girl handle and ride better than the system Dodge engineering spent a fortune in developing without significant downside. I have a daily driver so I do not want to trade road manners for performance. It's nice to take a corner fast without body roll, but not at the expense of grinding every speed bump and chipping your teeth on a rumble strip.

Anyone have stories of going over the top with suspension mods and ruining the overall road manners of their LX?

[honu]

Daimler/Chrysler did spend millions developing the suspension, but it was tuned for the masses, not for the enthusiast. A well designed, manufactured and installed suspension upgrade will improve any vehicle's performance, without making it ride like a buckboard.

I'm no expert, but I know that properly matched springs, shocks, struts and bushings all work together, complementing each other. Just slappin' on a set of shorter springs will lower the car, but can overstress other OEM tuned components and create exactly the type of ride you're trying to avoid.

[karfreek]

Your bushings may be a good start, they may be bad and you dont even know it.

Jay

[fireman2118]

It's not hard at all to make these cars turn on rails. I've gone a bit to the other extreme with Eibach Sportlines. (2" drop)

If your not interested losing ride quality for extreme performance, you can go middle of the road with say, Eibachs Pro - kit springs. They will tighten things up a bit but not overly so. Many who have, them compare them to stock ride quality with a bit more performance and a better stance. (1" - 1.5" drop) Of course anytime you put in a shorter spring with an increased spring rate, you should change out the stock shocks for quaity dampers. Eibachs pro dampers go well with their springs.
To reduce the body roll, the only way you'll do that is by upgrading the sway bars.
The pro-system plus kit would set you up real nice. Not too much a departure from the ride you've come to enjoy. Something else.....Springs, dampers and sway bars will not cause any premature failure of your suspension components. No more than normal anyway.

Karfreek above makes a good point. Many of the rubber components in our suspensions will go bad. Some sooner, some later. Bushings, mainly. Upgrading your suspension will take care of some of these issues. It can also speed the demise of some others. Either way, a lot of the Magnum suspension components suck! It's just the way it is.

[Rob@WretchedMS]

I have no problem with adding power to my car, the stock drive train is built to handle a reasonable amount of additional torque and RPM's. I am not as comfortable tweaking the suspension. Sure I want to be able to turn on rails but it aint easy with a 4400 pound station wagon. I'm skeptical tossing in a thousand dollars worth of aftermarket suspension parts will make my fat bottom girl handle and ride better than the system Dodge engineering spent a fortune in developing without significant downside. I have a daily driver so I do not want to trade road manners for performance. It's nice to take a corner fast without body roll, but not at the expense of grinding every speed bump and chipping your teeth on a rumble strip.

Anyone have stories of going over the top with suspension mods and ruining the overall road manners of their LX?

If you live in the CT/MA area i can take you for a ride in my SRT8 with a complete Pedders Track 2 kit on it, it's driven every day by my wife and she loves it.