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kbrighton
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- Mar 7, 2011
I've had my '03 since 2011. It's got 15000 miles on it now, so obviously I don't drive it much. This year I decided it needs to be driven more, so it's getting use as my daily driver. I commute 25 miles (40 km) each way to work, with about 5 miles of that in city traffic, and the rest on rural roads.
I've never liked the suspension much on this car. Basically it does nothing well. I find the car to be over spring and under damped. I know, Ford wanted it to be a "relaxed cruiser", whatever that means. I had considered replacing the shocks with Lincoln LS sport shocks, but the rear shocks are unobtainable. So, what do do?
I spend some time cruising the LS forms. A guy on that forum replaced his shocks with units from the Jaguar S-type, so I started looking into that. Since the t-bird, LS and S-type are all built on the same platform, it should be a straight bolt-on swap with Jaguar parts. Nope. The spring perch on the front shocks is a different size, so the springs won't sit properly on the front shocks. This guy replaced the front springs with ones for the S-type. I also read that Ford spec'd the t-bird springs to be softer than either the LS or S-type.
I don't like the idea of having stiffer springs only on the front. It seems to me that would upset the handling and the car would be squirrely to drive. So if I'm going to go that route, I'd want to replace the shocks and springs in front and back. So I headed over to terrysjag.com to put together a parts list. Here it is:
Rear - Part Jaguar Part Number
The Jaguar parts are kind of expensive. Each shock retails for around $400, so I wanted alternatives. The part numbers for the shocks are for Bilstein aftermarket parts. I found them on Rock Auto for about $120 each front and rear. The damper gaiters in are Jaguar's terminology for the dust boots on the shocks. They're about $50 each. I substituted Motorcraft upper shock mounts for the gaiters and spring isolators. Motorcraft part numbers are 3W4Z18197AA for the rear and 3W4Z18183AA for the front, both about $50 from Rock Auto.
I also substituted springs from Suplex, a German aftermarket spring supplier. Suplex part numbers are 13035 for the rears and 13038 for the fronts. I found a supplier in England on E-bay who had them for about 50 GBP, and even with shipping Fedex from England they were about half the price for the same parts from the US or Canada.
I could have saved some money by re-using some parts from the T-bird, such as the upper shock mounts. I decided I wanted to be able to just swap the complete strut without having to disassemble the original units, and to make it easy to put the car back to stock. Altogether I have about $1100 CAD (prices above are USD unless noted) in this project, and I'm waiting for the parts to arrive from Rock Auto. Installation looks pretty straight forward, so I'll do that work myself.
Some notes on the Bilsteins: there is a B4 and a B6 version of these shocks. The B6 is supposedly a stiffer shock. I am not looking to turn the T-bird into a sports car, just to make the ride less floaty and bouncy. I'm a bit concerned about what the stiff shocks would do to the flexibility of the car's structure, being that it's a convertible and has the infamous cowl-shake and chassis flex, so I went with the B4 versions.
Shocks and springs are installed, and have driven about 100 miles on them. Didn't take pics, but I'm pleased with the results. Ride height is unchanged from stock. The car behaves more predictably now, with far less body motion on uneven surfaces. Both compression and rebound damping are greatly improved. I'd describe the ride as firm, but not stiff. I'm glad I didn't get the B6 Bilsteins. I think that would have been a mistake.
The best part is the car is no longer upset in a curve when hitting a bump in the road. Previously, it would upset the line and move laterally a foot or so in one particular curve near my house. I didn't have confidence in taking that curve over 40 MPH. Now, 55 is no problem. The car corners flatter too.
Overall I'm happy with the switch. It wasn't cheap, but I like the improvement. Of course, these are my opinions. If you're satisfied with the suspension, then of course stick with it. If you're not, then maybe using Jaguar parts would be a route you could take.
I've never liked the suspension much on this car. Basically it does nothing well. I find the car to be over spring and under damped. I know, Ford wanted it to be a "relaxed cruiser", whatever that means. I had considered replacing the shocks with Lincoln LS sport shocks, but the rear shocks are unobtainable. So, what do do?
I spend some time cruising the LS forms. A guy on that forum replaced his shocks with units from the Jaguar S-type, so I started looking into that. Since the t-bird, LS and S-type are all built on the same platform, it should be a straight bolt-on swap with Jaguar parts. Nope. The spring perch on the front shocks is a different size, so the springs won't sit properly on the front shocks. This guy replaced the front springs with ones for the S-type. I also read that Ford spec'd the t-bird springs to be softer than either the LS or S-type.
I don't like the idea of having stiffer springs only on the front. It seems to me that would upset the handling and the car would be squirrely to drive. So if I'm going to go that route, I'd want to replace the shocks and springs in front and back. So I headed over to terrysjag.com to put together a parts list. Here it is:
Rear - Part Jaguar Part Number
- Spring Packer MJA2162AA
- Spring Isolator C2Z15891
- Damper Gaiter C2P3211
- Spring XR811174
- Bilstein B4 Shock Bilstein part 24-026628
- Spring, damper mount XR858419
- Spring Packer MJA2162AA
- Spring Isolator C2Z15891
- Damper Gaiter C2P3211
- Bilstein B4 Shock Bilstein part 24-024921
- Spring, damper mount XR858419
- Spring XR835298
The Jaguar parts are kind of expensive. Each shock retails for around $400, so I wanted alternatives. The part numbers for the shocks are for Bilstein aftermarket parts. I found them on Rock Auto for about $120 each front and rear. The damper gaiters in are Jaguar's terminology for the dust boots on the shocks. They're about $50 each. I substituted Motorcraft upper shock mounts for the gaiters and spring isolators. Motorcraft part numbers are 3W4Z18197AA for the rear and 3W4Z18183AA for the front, both about $50 from Rock Auto.
I also substituted springs from Suplex, a German aftermarket spring supplier. Suplex part numbers are 13035 for the rears and 13038 for the fronts. I found a supplier in England on E-bay who had them for about 50 GBP, and even with shipping Fedex from England they were about half the price for the same parts from the US or Canada.
I could have saved some money by re-using some parts from the T-bird, such as the upper shock mounts. I decided I wanted to be able to just swap the complete strut without having to disassemble the original units, and to make it easy to put the car back to stock. Altogether I have about $1100 CAD (prices above are USD unless noted) in this project, and I'm waiting for the parts to arrive from Rock Auto. Installation looks pretty straight forward, so I'll do that work myself.
Some notes on the Bilsteins: there is a B4 and a B6 version of these shocks. The B6 is supposedly a stiffer shock. I am not looking to turn the T-bird into a sports car, just to make the ride less floaty and bouncy. I'm a bit concerned about what the stiff shocks would do to the flexibility of the car's structure, being that it's a convertible and has the infamous cowl-shake and chassis flex, so I went with the B4 versions.
Shocks and springs are installed, and have driven about 100 miles on them. Didn't take pics, but I'm pleased with the results. Ride height is unchanged from stock. The car behaves more predictably now, with far less body motion on uneven surfaces. Both compression and rebound damping are greatly improved. I'd describe the ride as firm, but not stiff. I'm glad I didn't get the B6 Bilsteins. I think that would have been a mistake.
The best part is the car is no longer upset in a curve when hitting a bump in the road. Previously, it would upset the line and move laterally a foot or so in one particular curve near my house. I didn't have confidence in taking that curve over 40 MPH. Now, 55 is no problem. The car corners flatter too.
Overall I'm happy with the switch. It wasn't cheap, but I like the improvement. Of course, these are my opinions. If you're satisfied with the suspension, then of course stick with it. If you're not, then maybe using Jaguar parts would be a route you could take.
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