Hey guys, on a S14 chassis, what is the best single suspension upgrade you can do ,short of coilovers, with a noticeable improvement?
As an extension of this if you had to do suspension upgrades in an incremental manner what should be addressed first or which things should go together?
Thanks for all your time.
Zac
for bang for buck do some good strut bars.
you can install them yourself and doesnt require an alignment afterwards and you’ll notice the improvement.
this is only true for GOOD bars, not $20 ebay specials.
What Bing said. ands then after that Sway bars.
strut as in upper and not sway as in the lower right?
Ok I have some uppser strut bars, lowers next or toe/traction/tc?
springs recomend eibach
^ Serious?
Poly bushings is by far the best upgrade.
Think about it , your replacing 10+ year old rubber bushings with 200 000 kms of wear on them with new stiffer polyeurethane ones.
Wouldn’t recommend poly bushings for a number of reasons:
-Unless you have a press to do all arms (lots and lots of bushings, time consuming)
-Arms will still remain non-adjustable
-They CAN crack too… don’t think they can’t.
-Will bind worse/increased friction, articulation reduced further. It’s smart/good to know that they require greasing maintenance and the proper way is to install zerk fittings on the bushings/arms.
-They will initially feel ‘great’, as things will be more tight/together vs the old worn bushings, but you will eventually go insane with the squeaking crashing noises… car will start feeling worse too.
-Too much pita in my opinion… over-advertised and marketed gimmick… People who race choose this options (and do it right with zerk fittings) due to class restrictions in their respective race series…
-Either go slightly stiffer OEM/NISMO rubbers or go spherical bearings and call it a day… best decision I made was going from polyurethane bushings to full spherical bearings. Yes it costs money, but gotta pay to play…
My 2cents opinion…
I just put on tein tierod ends and noticed a world of difference.
What, I’m VERY surprised to hear strut bars on the list.
1st most important suspension upgrade that won’t hurt the pocket are SWAYBARS.
I had a well modified s14 with a good amount of suspension work done to it and I did it all myself in phases. Sways made a HUGE improvement, my car was driving on train tracks it felt so good.
Coilovers with sways didn’t make a HUGE improvement as compared to just having upgraded sway bars.
Unless you have a press to do all arms (lots and lots of bushings, time consuming)
Their easy as shit to install with a vice. it can be done in under a day by one person. I pulled my subframe , installed solid subframe bushings , installed poly bushings then did the front bushings and had the car back together by the end of the day. all using your standard crappy 40$ canadian tire vice. So its not difficult and i wouldnt consider it time consuming.
They CAN crack too… don’t think they can’t.
Yes they could crack, but chances are the car will be a pile of rust before that happens.
Will bind worse/increased friction, articulation reduced further. It’s smart/good to know that they require greasing maintenance and the proper way is to install zerk fittings on the bushings/arms.
How would these cause binding ?
“go spherical bearings and call it a day… best decision I made was going from polyurethane bushings to full spherical bearings. Yes it costs money, but gotta pay to play…”
this is a good option if you have money to spend and dont dd ur car but for the average person who does dd their car and are looking for a feasible solution to bring the feel of their suspension back its not. and dont even contemplate winterdriving that.
FYI, I daily my car and I have spherical bearings in everything other than LCAs, my car is less noisy than it was with polyurethane bushings (in everything). With polyurethane in everything I felt like I was driving a pile of crap that’s about to explode… and this was with street dampers with low springrates and not coilovers… now I have track rate springs and spherical bearings.
Research it some… oh well, take it or leave it this is my opinion and stance on the issue.
Also I honestly don’t see who would be dumb enough to winter daily an extremely modified 240 in the winter. No matter what you put on the car it’ll go titanic on you and you’ll be getting a pile of crap. Get a winter car instead.
Good info in here…
Absorb mode!
I agree with Samson.
Sway bars (the ones that go under your car) made the most difference for me.
Agree with Samson as well. Comparing s13 to s14 directly with stock suspension, the s14 feels like it has a lot more roll. Swaybars will be one of the best investments for you to minimize this.
But sways can get kind of pricey so like Bing said strut bars may have better bang for the buck value. Different function though as I feel that strut bars help with initial turn in whereas the swaybars help with roll during cornering.
In the end it depends on what you’re demanding from your suspension (and also steering). Suspension is such a broad term so let us know in more detail what kind of scenarios you would like to improve (cornering, dampening, daily driveability, etc.).
Since you took out coilovers from the equation, I think we’re all assuming you want to upgrade your suspension so you can corner with a lot more stability. If this is the case, swaybars hands down.
I still can’t believe no one has said TC rods… Most of them are shot by now, those gel filled bushings have to take so much stress from braking. Your front end will feel MUCH better once you upgrade. I think it’s the first thing one should do to an S-Chassis suspension wise. Sway bars are another good option too.
Thanks for all the great info, I defintely have a plan of attack now.
I know for sure the overall path would depend on the end plan and driving style of car and driver but this seems to be the groundwork for any drivinging style.
Zac
Sub frame bushings…fo sho. Sway bars. TC rods made a HUGE difference imo.
1; TC Rods
2; Sways
3; Aluminum sub frame bushings
Most effective. #2 can get expensive.
Just don’t cheap out on crap parts. Buy legit shit 
Good luck
Just don’t cheap out on crap parts. Buy legit shit
x2 don’t learn from other’s mistakes. Save now, spend on quality, or spend more later.
sways and tc rods
x10