Hello All -

I'm new to the board, but not to automobiles. My last daily-driver was an SHO, but gave it to my little brother in favor of something that was a little lesser maintenance prone. So now I have this '92 Bonneville SE with every option, and a '88 Mustang. So between my mustang and the SHO, the Bonneville leaves quite a bit to be desired in terms of handling despite having quite high-performance tyres on it. (Firestone SH30'*)

I was wondering what, if any differences are there between the SSEi and SE suspensions are? If the SSEi suspension is any better, then I'll be headed off to the yard to gnab springs and sway bars.

So, are they different? Is the SSEi any stiffer?

-Duck (<-- yes that really is my name )

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'92 Bonneville SE, every option. Slower than I like, but love the ride.

Hey, welcome to the forum! Just about anything you can think of has been done here, or is in the works. We've got 3 performance shops involved in the forum, and alot of other individuals who are very knowledgeable.

I can tell you for certain the SSEi has stiffer sway bars than the SE. I can also tell you if you get them from the junkyard, you can use them. One thing you made me think of is that I don't know if the SE has a strut tower bar. The SSE and SSEi do. I also don't know if the struts/springs are any stiffer. We have air struts on most of the SSE and SSEi models, almost all of them have electronic level control which uses an onboard compressor, and some have selectable ride stiffness.

Somebody a bit more knowledgeable on suspensions is gonna jump in here now and make an *** of me.

Yeah, my SE does have the strut tower brace. I increased its thickness using some spare welding materials that I "borrowed" from a friend. That helped a little bit on my on ramps, but not nearly noticible enough.

I think I'm going to try and gnab some front/rear sways from an SSE/SSEi then with some new endlinks (just get some from NAPA) that should help out a lot.

Thanks.

-Duck

You might want to check out the Techinfo section. There'* a procedure listed for the rear sway bar. Anything else you do to your suspension, let us know here. We can post it in Techinfo for others to use!

Yeah, I'll call around tommorrow and see what I can find. I'll even get out the digital camera and take pictures if that'* useful to people here. I dunno, swapping sway bars always seemed pretty much a no-brainer to me, but hey! I'll help out people trying to learn stuff.

-Duck

theduckylitte:


the SSEi has a solid 34mm sway bar, the SE has a hollow 32mm. If you want a SSEi front bar, I have one, brand new in fact, never been used (I got it through a shipping screwup). I'll sell it for $50 + SH.

and as for the rear bar, Addco sells a larger one, it'* on their webpage, it goes for $220 IIRC.

also you can purchase poly bushings for the bars, I think Addco sells those as well.

I can get teh Addco rear sway bar including the bushings for under $200 dollars easy for a Bonneville SE, or many other Bonneville years. Just let me know or email me (down below) for more info.

Thanks for the info. and offers guys.

But, I'm doing this el-cheapo:
* Find the bars in the junkyard (it'll take me some lookin' but they're around)
* Use Napa bushings/endlinks

My Bonnie'* just a daily-driver I want to be more competent, I spend the bigger money on the MESStang.

But again, thanks for the offers.

-duck

Duck, take one for the team here if you don't mind. You've spent alot of time under cars, and some of our members could use the ideas, advice, and help. Would you mind writing up a procedure for the front end when you do it? If you do, make it similar to the rear sway bar procedure we already have in Techinfo, and don't worry about pics. There'* a few guys here who have talked about doing this, and your experience could be put to use here. If you can do this for us, PM me your procedure and I'll move it up to Techinfo.