94 XLE supsension is all over the place

[bowlofturtle]

my father has a 94 XLE 4 banger. the car should be nearing 130k. for the most part everything has never been replaced.

I did a couple of motor mounts but thats it.

He has been telling me the car feels really loose now when driving. When i did his brakes i've noticed that his sway bar endlinks were pretty much done with, as the boots leaked out.

So with a desciprtion of car feels really loose when driving. He now brings it up even more so saying its feels not so safe and wants me to take a shot at replacing a couple of cheaper suspension parts.

So i'm thinking, sway bar end-links, ball joints, outer tie rod ends should be a sensible thing replace on a car with 130k on it. Not too sure how hard each one to do is...

Any thoughts?

[BlueFusion6851]

Well, I'm no help on doing it myself, but I had my endlinks and struts replaced and 90% of my suspension issues went away. Struts are another thing you may want to check out in addition to what you have, which is a good start.

[bowlofturtle]

i'm not looking at the shocks because i dont think play a role in this. just a bouncy ride, which doesn't sound like what my father is speaking of.

I have yet to drive the car. big fan of DIY. tie rod ends and end links are straight forward on almost all cars. ball joints are the weird ones as some need to be press some can just be bolted and unbolted.

I cant seem to find the FSM for the 94 year to look it up and see.



He hasn't hit anything serious to bend anything. Aside from struts and control arms i know if there are any more parts.

so far i can get ball joints, endlinks and tie rod ends for both sides for 120$-130$


BlueFusion6851.... what was your suspension issue?

[eddie926]

Not trying to be a jerk, but to say the car feels loose and not so safe, seems a bit vague to me.

You're ruling out shocks/struts cause you don't think he's describing something related to those. What does he mean by loose and not so safe? Like the steering is loose and unresponsive? Or he's hearing a lot of suspension noises (pops, clunks, squeaks, etc)?

I'm sure you'll test drive it before you change anything, but I'd want a better definition of the problem I'm trying to fix before I just started replacing parts at random.

[davemac2]

The ball joints on the V6 just bolt on with 3 bolts to the lower ctl arm, so they are fairly easy to replace. If you are definitely replacing them and don't care about the old ones, a pickle fork will take the old ones off the steering knuckle easily. The rear bushing on the front ctl arms tends to go fairly quickly and they probably have on this vehicle, but they won't really contribute to a lot of play in the steering. They can also be replaced. Rockauto has them.

The sway bar links are not super critcal to a loosness feel in the steering except for cornering.

If the struts are really bad, they can impact the feel of the steering I would think, especially if the strut bearing is really bad. Do a bounce test to see if any of them are at least blown out. It's fairly obvious if this is the case, so if they appear a little soft, I would not worry about that.

If you do the outer tie rods, then when you have them off, give the inner tie rod shafts some pulls and up/down/sideways movement tests to check for any looseness. They should move freely with maybe a little stiffness when new, but you should not feel any play when pulling on them. If it is tie rods though, it's more likely the outers.

Check to make sure his strut mounts on top and strut connection to the steering knuckles are solid too.

dave mc

[bowlofturtle]

thanks thanks...

obviously i'm going to drive the car prior to replacing anything.


father is a little bit away so thats why i'm taking up suggestions and thoughts of what can be wrong so i have a clue what to look at when i'm there.


I'm assuming he means loose and not responsive, there is poping noises which i've always thought is the sway bar bushings and end links.

when you state ball joints on a V6 how different is that to the 4 banger?

I think replacement of ball joints and tie rods should make a decent improvement. I did a couple of bounce tests about 6 months ago and it looked decent. Never checked mounts/bearings and stuff regarding the struts.

thanks guys

[Black95Cam]

Originally Posted by eddie926

Not trying to be a jerk, but to say the car feels loose and not so safe, seems a bit vague to me.

You're ruling out shocks/struts cause you don't think he's describing something related to those. What does he mean by loose and not so safe? Like the steering is loose and unresponsive? Or he's hearing a lot of suspension noises (pops, clunks, squeaks, etc)?

I'm sure you'll test drive it before you change anything, but I'd want a better definition of the problem I'm trying to fix before I just started replacing parts at random.

i know what you mean.. throw parts at the car will not always be the best thing to do since some parts of the suspension arent cheap. the better description you give us (the readers), the more accurate the answer will be given to ya.

best of luck and hope you get it fix...

[bowlofturtle]

update, he states he feels excessive play in the steering wheel when driving. probaly loose feeling in the wheel.

A noticable "THUD" when going over bumps.


to me it kind of sounds like ball joints, with ball joints it looks like its 3 bolts to loosen it from the Control arms and a castle nut/ cotter pin to get it off the steering knuckle. with a ball joint tool to get it out... am i correct?

[davemac2]

if it's the 4 banger, it may have an integrated ball joint/control arm rather than what the V6 has, so you would need to replace the entire control arms. (~$75 ea).

Pops are probably bad strut mounts or bad binding struts.

Loose steering is usually outer tie rods, but it can be a combination of several worn parts also. Who knows, maybe one of the wheels is loose or missing a lug nut or something. :0

dave mc

[bowlofturtle]

so i drove it, it does have a loose feeling to the car.

I'm looking at ball joints and tie rod ends at this point. Tie rod ends i'm going to hold off on untill about a month later on as i probaly will need an alignment afterwards. I'm just going to do ball joints now and the endlinks

I clunks on dips, which feels exactly like bad endlinks.


My main concern right now is HOW can i find out which type of ball joints are on the 94 XLE 4 banger.... obviously looking at it would be the easy way to tell. but i didn't have a good look at it.

[xtremeskier97]

Originally Posted by bowlofturtle

....When i did his brakes i've noticed that his sway bar endlinks were pretty much done with, as the boots leaked out.......

Since when do endlinks 'leak out'? They are just solid pieces of rubber...they cant leak out. Are you sure you are describing the correct thing here? You sure you aren't talking about the outer tie rods?