suspension soft

[tamagee]

I drove my Wife's 350z this weekend and today realized how soft my Boxster feels.  Where should I start checking for worn suspension parts?  It's a 2002, so I expect bushings are getting bad.  Any "usual" places I should start with?



Terry

[arena]

I'm curious to hear other's thoughts on this too...

But from the perspective of a salesperson who drives a whole lot of different types of cars on a regular basis, I would encourage you to really try to figure out specifically what is feeling "soft" to you. Is it that the ride is more comfortable, or are you actually not getting the responsiveness that you would like? Is the car leaning/rolling too much in the turns?

There are a lot of different things that contribute to ride, and it isn't only the springs and shocks... it's important to really figure out what you want to improve before spending money replacing parts.

[tamagee]

I think the soft feeling is coming from "play" in the steering.  overall the car is solid in turns, but feels a little loose going straight.  I still have my winter tires on, perhaps they are too soft for 60+ deg.


Terry

[Brian Minkin]

I suspect your tires have a lot to do with steering response.

[Marty Kocse]

tamagee wrote:

I think the soft feeling is coming from "play" in the steering. overall the car is solid in turns, but feels a little loose going straight. I still have my winter tires on, perhaps they are too soft for 60+ deg.


Terry

I would think that winter tires are much softer than a good set of high performance summer or even all season tires. They need to be soft for winter traction. I would change the tires and I bet it makes a world of difference before looking at the suspension.
Marty

[tamagee]

Put summer tires on this morning and feel is better. Still a little soft, but manageable. We'll see how if feels at AX.


Thanks,
Terry

[arena]

tamagee wrote:

Put summer tires on this morning and feel is better. Still a little soft, but manageable. We'll see how if feels at AX.


Thanks,
Terry

[tamagee]

After doing more research into suspension and understeer, I've narrowed my issue to two possible problems:

Tire pressure: I'm running 29f / 32r.  Recommendations?  Others seem to start at 32 / 31.


Me:  I'm carrying too much speed into corners and not lifting enough, thus not enough weight transfer.
 

[arena]

tamagee wrote:

After doing more research into suspension and understeer, I've narrowed my issue to two possible problems:

Tire pressure: I'm running 29f / 32r. Recommendations? Others seem to start at 32 / 31.


Me: I'm carrying too much speed into corners and not lifting enough, thus not enough weight transfer.

I'm actually having the same issue with my Cayman and we haven't narrowed it down very much. I changed my fronts (which were getting old and hard) and it helped, but I am still pushing hard expecially in the slow corners.

The next thing I am going to try is an alignment... It's possible that I have too much camber in my front wheels which not allowing my wheel to sit flat, but at just 1.5 degrees negative that doesn't seem like enough to cause that sort of problems.

Most likely the culprit is my shocks, which are probably just worn out, making them soft. Soft shocks at the rear (where all the weight is) theoretically makes the back end grip more... upsetting the balance... I'm hoping this isn't the case because I don't feel like spending $1000 on new rear struts...

[Bill Lehman]

Re: Alignment, 1.5 isn't too much. I'm running 3.2. Larry Herman can help.