Hi everyone!

Have a 2002 R53 with 72k miles on it and the suspension hasn't been touched (with the exception of Madness strut tower reinforcement plates). Starting to feel a little sloppy at times, so I've decided to give her a refresh/rebuild. That and am thinking about taking her to Road Atlanta this December... :-)
This car will be predominantly a DD but I'd like to do occasional track/autoX/track attack days with her.
I can tolerate some more NVH, but nothing too insane.

I'd like your opinions on additions/subtractions to the list, especially things to do "while in there" so I don't have to disassemble this beast again for a while. At least as far as the suspension/subframes are concerned.
I feel like I'm missing things for the rear suspension, but most bushes I've come across don't fit the 2002?
No desire to lower the car.

Purchased so far:
Early TSW motor mount
Powerflex lower and upper engine mounts
Powerflex poly gear box bushing inserts

Likely:
Koni Yellows (still tossing around the idea of orange or FSD...) -- how many turns in front/rear do you guys recommend?
Powerflex Steering Rack Bushing
Powerflex FCABs and ball joints (pre-pressed- awesome option WMW!- with new brackets)
Powerflex FSB bushings
Crankshaft Position Sensor O-ring (looks like I'm leaking oil around here...)
Powerflex rear upper shock mount bushings
WMW rear sway bar

Considering:
WMW baffled oil pan w/new Felpro gasket- I suspect my oil pan gasket is leaking as well. Plus baffled because racecar?

Thanks for your ears and advice. I looked up as much as I could before posting this.

 

 

+1 on the crank sensor. I was convinced that my oil pan gasket was leaking until I had to replace radiator, condenser, rad support, bumper, etc ( don't ask!). While I had the car in front end service mode, I replaced the crank sensor o-ring, and sealed it with red rtv sealant, and the oil leak stopped.

 

Looks like a solid list to start.

I would do some consideration between the Koni Yellows and FSDs. If you want to or may want to lower the car later go with the Yellows as you can't use lowering springs with the FSDs. But if you know you're not going to lower the FSDs are great and ride so well.

 

 

kroach -

Mostly solid (hard plastic) motor mounts make things rough on the "car". You've already noticed this with increased vibration in the steering wheel.
Something needs to flex.

Many years back when I had a mid-9sec. drag race car. Most of my contemporaries ran solid motor mounts AND transmission mounts. MOST...of them were breaking their transmission cases about once a year.
My car, I ran solid motor mounts and an old fashioned factory rubber transmission mount. I NEVER broke a transmission case (11 years running), never had u-joint problems, no blocks cracking at the motor mount location..!

If you are driving this car daily or mostly daily and not racing it regularly...I'd be putting at least one of the transmission mounts back to OEM rubber. There's a reason that they are made the way they are..!

Mike

 

Second update

Installed rear shocks, larger WMW rear sway bar (set to middle hole/stiffness), and poly rear shock bushings. On a brief, and aggressive, test drive its very apparent that the rear sway bar is a game changer. And immediately so. The rear is now much more planted and corner speed seems higher. Instant ear-to-ear grins in this department. No new squeaks, no new rattles here with the bushings so far. The sway bar is definitely worth it if one is changing rear shocks and is looking for performance gain, IMHO. More to come when I take her to the track and drive her more around town.

I can't really yet comment on the shocks (Koni special active FSD) because roads weren't particularly bumpy, but my old shocks were definitely toast (2002 R53 w/72k miles on stock shocks). Fully, and easily, compressible with no rebound. More later when i can get the front end done.
As an aside, one of the lower shock bolts seized. New England was unkind to the exposed end of the bolt and I learned a lot about how to get a seized bolt out. Lubricant, a wire brush, a file, getting out metal between threads, good friends/neighbors, and screwing the bolt in and out with an impact drill and repeated application of the aforementioned were key.

After driving the car for ~ 1 hour, before installing above today, the motor/engine mounts definitely still have increased NVH. So far tolerable (more importantly wifey is OK with it) and more... visceral? Shifting is more precise and flex is reduced under heavy throttle load so the car tracks much more straight in that perspective.

Hurricane Florence coming tomorrow so will be a bit before the next update.

Thanks for everyone's comments and attention!

 

Thanks for the response
I plan only to occasionally track this car, mostly DD duty. No power increase planned- maybe exhaust/header upgrade when the old rusty exhaust finally gets a hole. The old rubber transmission bushing is still there but now has poly inserts around it.
Would this kind of use cause the issues you're mentioning?
Anyone have similar experiences with poly engine/motor/tranny bushings?

 

I'd avoid using poly bushes on the rear shock tops, the damper moves during the arc of the trailing arm and poly strains the damper rod, they can snap (also never bush the trailing arm either)

It's the bottom motor mount that gives the NVH. I tried this with Vibratechnics fast road plus the race bushes, swapping the top motor and the gearbox mounts to race made little difference, but the bottom one rattles your keys haha, I broke my fast road top mount which is why I was messing, so I nicked the race mounts off my other car and still haven't given them back. I like the change on track. I have since bought a new top mount but may well sell the fast road set and buy another race set with an additional lower mount so I can swap just that in five minutes after a track day. Undecided.

Maybe try and get some adjustable top mounts? For mainly road you could use -1.5 degrees front camber, and if yours is a facelift car, try for -1 at the rear, or -1.5 using the factory adjustment, with -2 up front. you'll see why it's a good set up soon enough even if it isn't lowered. It'll complement the bar imo ;O) Also maybe consider front toe to close to neutral or slight toe out, and rear only a few minutes toe in. Again you may see benefits everywhere or especially if you go on track, of course you may have already done this stuff ;O)

Only my2p

 

Just started replacing the front struts and I'm running into trouble!
Got the new front right strut mounted in place but am really struggling with the front left. I just can't get the strut into the wheel housing, seems its about an inch too long. I've tried bolting up the strut from engine compartment all the way but still can't get the wheel housing under the strut. The front control arm is all the way down as well and further downward movement is stopped by the subframe. Any tricks for this? Thought I could get around this by separating the outer ball joint from the wheel housing but that won't come free either.
Any tips?

 

Did you try pulling the taper or removing the ball joint housing completely on the outer ball joint? The housing has a couple of bolts (#11 below) and usually comes free, the taper can be a bear.

 

Ive removed the #11 bolts but can't seem to get the housing off the ball joint. I've jacked up the rotor to lift the housing and using a mallet in an attempt to separate the ball joint/front control arm out of the housing with no luck.

 

Be sure that each side (passenger and driver) is equally free to move, i.e., both sides on jack stands, both wheels off. Otherwise the anti sway bar will frustrate your efforts. I was able to do all of this without too much difficulty, but I popped the central bolt on the ball joints, not the two on the side.

 

Dang, that's bad luck. Might try some PB blaster and more "percussive persuasion". If you have a ball joint separator you can try the taper, but those are usually quite tight. Worth a shot though.

 

 

 

This is the method I used - metal head, not rubber or deadblow. Hammering right where the housing meets the carrier may help it shock it loose (a brass punch could help here), as well as downward on the arm.

I think I paid $12 for that joint separator at Harbor freight, good investment.

 

Thanks brother this is very helpful. Will try this today.

 

PSA:
If you're struggling getting those outer ball joints off the wheel housing I managed to get it done today- mine were seized. Used a
4# metal sledge and drove a flathead screwdriver between the housing and both sides of the ball joint flanges until they bent to the point where I could sneak a crowbar in and drive that in, alternating sides. Eventually popped free. Brutal but it worked. Bent the old outer ball joint flanges but replacing the ball joints anyways. Pictures below:
Driving in the flathead






Sledge, flathead, screwdriver

Flange is bent, but it's out! Note how rusted the cup is

Thank god that is over!
Fixed camber plates and Koni Special Active FSD struts are in.
Now time to drop the front subframe.

 

 

I have an Ingersoll Rand 20v impact that did short work of a similarly old MCS subframe. Might try to up your impact game if its within the budget, or you can try some heat (MAP gas has worked for me in the past).

 

Very disturbing on a car with only 72K miles on it. Good luck on drilling out those broken bolts.

 

Today I was able to get all of the sway bar bolts and inner/upper ball joint bolts out! It was glorious when they all broke free, and a celebration was had.
Thankfully all that was needed to remove the inner/upper ball joints was the sledgehammer on the bolt end. Taking the old FCABs was a little more of an adventure- the outer part easily came free, just had to rotate it. Clearly needed to be replaced because it easily spun and old crumbled rubber fell out! Getting the part of the FCAB off that was on the control arm required more... "finesse" with a crowbar. Note in the pics below how the FCAB bushing is coming out a bit- I'm assuming that will go back into place once bolted back onto the frame and undercarriage?
The inner ball joints were easily movable and torn.
New bushings all slid on easily.
Today I put in the poly FCABs , poly sway bar bushings, and new inner and outer ball joints. The subframe is ready to go back on but I gotta drill out the bolt the connects the subframe to the frame in the passenger wheel well. I still can't believe such a big bolt seized and snapped! Bought some cobalt bits ($60 for a set...) today and will have a friend help me drill it out tomorrow. Had to re-order a new bolt because I didn't have a new one of those :(
Pics of the new bushings in all their glory:

Note how FCAB bushing is coming out a bit- I'm assuming that will go back into place once bolted back onto the frame and undercarriage?

 

Got the remainder of the bolt out today! Never had to drill and easy out a bolt, and this one was tough! Big, hard bolt that was recessed in a ways.
Started with small carbide bits until I was able to carefully poke through the bolt. Would stop every 15-30 seconds to re-oil the drill tip and let it cool a little. With larger bits there was actually a decent amount of smoke and heat on the tip. I then used progressively larger bolts, trying easy outs in between, and was finally able to get the remainder of the bolt free with the largest easy out extractor. Was very fortunate that the drill hole was straight and did not take out any threads with it!
Let out a victory cry when it finally came out.
I'm even more surprised the bolt was seized given how decent it looked

 

Aaaaand just realized that the camber plates are backwards. A little concerning that Ireland Engineering didn't include any instructions or markings on the plates to suggest that the plates had to be on a specific side. Not too happy about this especially since I had to, and now have to again, pay for a shop to swap the struts because I can't find a spring compressor that will compress these springs enough.
Let this hopefully save $ and a headache to people in the future.

Does anyone have a good alignment setup to recommend?
I have -1.5 deg camber plates, so that's obviously the setting there. But what about caster and toe?