Stiffening 2005 Ford Fivehundred Suspension

Just pay attention and slow down. HIGHWAY ACCIDENT AVOIDENCE. I just pissed myself laughing so hard.

Better shocks/struts should do the job.

mike hunt

Are you sure this is really needed? In the Consumer Reports avoidance maneuver test, the Five Hundred did 49.5 mph. A Mustang did 51.5. Not a lot of difference in my mind given how much larger, heavier and especially taller a Five Hundred is than a Mustang. A Toyota Avalon could only do 48 mph (and we know they are PERFECT).

I suspect you would be better off looking for better tires, and maybe running a slightly higher tire pressures. People often get sucked into buying stiffer shocks that ruin the ride and don't actually do anything measurable for performance (but they do feel sporty I suppose - feelings are often more important than reality). If you really want to spend a lot of money looking for small improvements, lowering the center of gravity by getting different springs is probably the best way to improve avoidance handling. I suspect the Freestyle has stiffer anti-roll bars, so you might look into buying a set of those. They should bolt right in with minimal effort.

I recommend if you think the ride is too mushy, go for higher performance tires and up the tire pressures. We have a Freestyle, and the Continental Tires on the car are just OK. I certainly don't consider them performance tires. If you are mostly trying to reduce the lean during hard cornering (which I have not noticed in the Freestyle by the way), then thicker anti-roll bars will help, but without some proper tuning you are just as likely to reduce your ultimate cornering power as to increase it. A Five Hundred is a tall vehicle and lean is a characteristic of taller vehicles. Anti-roll bars reduce lean by transferring additional load to the outside tire - which is already the more highly stressed tire in brisk cornering.

Ed

Ed, Thanks for your thoughtful response chris