Endlinks for stock suspension with Tokico Illuminia stuts and coils

[sothardw]

Hey Everyone,

I was wondering what folks thought about endlink replacements for both front and rear when having a Tokico Illuminia strut/coil combo. I recently hit a nasty pothole and killed my rear driver side strut. When I went to order new struts I caught wind of Tokico doing 68% off of the Illumina series. So I picked those up. I had some nasty loose noise coming from the entire backend of the car. After getting in there to swap out the struts I found that the lower bushings on the stock endlinks are toast. So I need to replace them. I figure I will have to tackle the front as well when I swap that out. No noise from there, but figure I will swap them out anyway. Just hit 75k miles on the car and don't feel like having to tear the front apart again to swap those out if they decide to break down anytime soon.

I have seen so many different options for endlinks but not sure what to go for. I don't need the expensive adjustable endlinks. I drive this car daily about 40 miles one way. So what should I get? Anything else anyone recommends swapping out while I have everything torn apart? I already swapped out the stock rubber sway bar bushings for poly bushings.

Thanks for any help everyone!

 

[theEZV]

2002 Moog Ford Escape endlinks will work and are a bit more beefy. Where can one find the Tokicos on sale?

 

[RicoP5]

2002 Moog Ford Escape endlinks will work and are a bit more beefy. Where can one find the Tokicos on sale?

Yep those he mentioned from the ford escape. Ftw

 

[sothardw]

2002 Moog Ford Escape endlinks will work and are a bit more beefy. Where can one find the Tokicos on sale?

Thanks guys, I will check these out. As for the sale, I just called Tokico themselves. They had the sale on their website but I called to verify. Then since I talked them, the dude kept an eye out for my order and expedited it for me. So they shipped same day and had the kit within the week. Beautiful looking setup. Only thing I have noticed is that the coil doesn't match up with the top strut mount. If you line the coil up with the mount indention, the mount is 180 degrees out of lining back up with the car. Also, this kit lowered the car an additional .5" from the HP's and gives some very noticeable camber. :-/ I figured that it would drop a small amount over the HP's but not enough to need to order camber kits or a need to shim... oh well... the fun of mod'ing! HAHA

I have been looking and I see the escape end links for the front, but what about a suggestion for the back? Anything out there with the grease fitting and nut behind the boot so no need for the "awesome" hex head in the bolt design?

 

[RicoP5]

or you could get fancy. which I will eventually and get these

http://www.aggressiveautoculture.com/wp/

 

[sothardw]

or you could get fancy. which I will eventually and get these

http://www.aggressiveautoculture.com/wp/

I hate you for showing me that site! HAH If I didn't have other builds going on, I would love to not be on such a slim budget on my MSP... in the future though!

 

[RicoP5]

oh yes very great products. I cant wait to get my brake set up from them and links. then eventually the link kit!

 

[sothardw]

Yeah... those polished black calipers with that brass finished piston assembly looks like a museum piece. I just want one sitting my my desk!

Speaking of some more suspension questions that come to mind... My trailing arms squeak like crazy where they meet in the middle of the rear. Think I could pop them off and just grease them be good to go? I wish I could find replacement poly bushings for the trailing arms... get rid of those awesome rubber bushings...

Also, the lateral arms (not sure of their true name, but the ibeam supports that run under the rear doors to the front of the wheel assembly) have those big plastic covers where they meet with the wheel assembly... any issues ever come of that... noise or anything? Mine seem solid and good to go, but just wondering. Never really intended on doing much to my MSP to start off with. It is just too fun to cruise to work in as it is... wishing I could get a lil more power but don't want to make the car unreliable or do any engine damage.

 

[RicoP5]

you can try greasing them if that works then great no need to spend money. and you mean the trailing arms?

?

 

[sothardw]

Those were the second part (the part with the plastic cover). The first part was about the arms that run from the center of the rear out (sidways) towards the wheel assembly.

Also, what endlinks are you using on the rear?

 

[RicoP5]

first part you are talking about the lateral arm bushings which are these arms (blue ones going from wheel to the center of the rear of hte car. from left to right

 

[sothardw]

Yeah! Those are the super squeaky dudes. At their bolt point in the middle of the car. I need to grease them up. So loud!

 

[RicoP5]

yeah try that out first.

 

[sothardw]

What about rear end links? What are you using?

 

[RicoP5]

OH SORRY missed that one. im running some adjustable ones that hkpro5 did a group buy for a little while ago..

 

[sothardw]

Nice... any clue which I should go with for the rear without having to drop the big bucks on adjustable? Moog or anything else? Also, I have seen a few different sizes and haven't been able to crawl under the car yet to verify size I should order. I want to just order something or go pick them up so that I can get rid of the loud clanking banging noise.

 

[RicoP5]

yep moog. same with the front

 

[sothardw]

Cool... I was going to get the escape Moog end links for the front. I will get some moog's for the back too. I am guess I will just have to get the protege ones. Is there an preference for length or thickness on them that I should be aware of?

 

[RicoP5]

yeah do that for the front. they are a pretty nice diff on the tickness.

and on the second part not that im awared of for the rear

 

[sothardw]

I went out and measured my endlinks on my car finally and found that they are from top to bottom:

Front: 12"
Rear: 8.5"

On Rockauto I was looking at the Moog endlinks for the rear and found they have two options but they conflict with what is on the car. The two options are:

Exc. MPS option; Length 8.5"; Rear
MPS option; Length 7.25"; Rear

This makes it sound like someone replaced the endlinks with the wrong ones in the past... What size should I get? Stay with the 8.5 or go with the 7.25?

I have not seen any length mentioned on the fronts online but I am getting the Moog endlinks for the 02 escape as talked about before.

Just not sure what to go with for the rear link's length... any thoughts?