Hi all got a jap import s2k with 81k miles on the clock, the tyres are new bridgestone potenzas and are all at 35 psi but at higher speeds (90+ ) on bumpier b roads the car is a bit skittish and realy gets pulled around by bad road repairs.

I am going to have the geometery set up by tgm, I believe I have checked all the bushes are free so hopefully they wont have to muck about with the car to mutch.

I'm only guessing here but I suspect that knackerd or seized bushes would cause my skittish handling.

The car also seems to show me every bump on my local rather porly maintained roads however on the few reasonably flat roads it seems to be fine?

what is the better set up to ask for If I want the car planted and stable rather than flickable ?

 

Have the dampers ever been replaced? Wouldn't be a big surprise to need those at 81K miles.

Also, your bushes are free but are the anti-roll bar ends snug?

 

if your S is a MY00 i would wait for an answer from a same year owner with same amont of miles to get a better idea what could be wrong...

 

hmmmm I suspect my springs and dampers are probably quite worn, the car is a 2000 model jap import so almost 9 years old.

I dont mind spending a bit on it so I think I'll look into some new shocks and springs before the geo set up.

 

Well...the ap1 has a well known bumpsteer issue (actually it is roll steer, but most folks wouldn't know what that is).

But your car is pretty old and all the bushings have been exposed to a salt environment, which deteriorates them much more quickly.

If I were you and you have some cash to spend to bring the car up to snuff, I'd do the CR suspension swap (shocks, springs, AND swaybars + swaybar bushings). That will really tighten things up. Then, replace the front lower a-arms since the bushings are probably quite worn. And you might consider doing the rest of the a-arms both front and rear.

Now to the mods that will help bumpsteer. There are a couple of anti bumpsteer kits (BSK) available which replace the rear trailing arm link (or toe link). Probably the most reasonably priced is the Megan...but I'm partial to the TCDesign (may be hard to get in the UK though), which is very robust although expensive. There are a couple others out there, but be careful of the one's meant for race application only...they really mean it when they say that...the race style toe link can break with too bumpy a road like you might find in the wilds of England.