rear end sways when hitting bumps?
 

i cant tell if this im just getting more paranoid or what.

i installed kybs and lowering springs on my 96 s14 like a week ago. i dont know if i noticed it now because my suspension is stiffer or what but now when i hit bumps or variations in the road, the rear end kicks back and forth.
it seems like it is getting worse, but it could just be my imagination.

i jacked the back end up, and there is no play in the wheels or suspension. all the bolts appear to be tight. all of my rear bushings have been replaced with solid ones, so i doubt it is that.

is it possible my alignment got that bad that it would do this?

do you have RUCA on the car and re-set the camber? sounds like your toe is out. that causes what you're saying and i've ran into it on cars before that are lowered.

stock rucas. i just didnt realize alignment could cause this.

my sister road in it today and said it felt like there was only one wheel in the back lol.

mine does it as well. im about 98% sure that its my blown rear shocks haha. are yours new or you bought them used?

i had them on my old car and they were awesome. they dont feel blown now

had the same thing on my bmw, problem was the bad subframebushes. you still got the old one in?

It's most likely alignment.

Most likely rears shocks are blown. Same thing happened to me before I changed to Coilovers. I had tokico blues with tein springs.

Lol I just posted a similar topic similar problem I do remember that when I initially installed my coilovers I also installed rucas and I had the same problem but all the time. I ended up installing all new adjustable arms in the rear and got an alignment and it fixed the problem

Winner Winner, chicken dinner!

Send me it next day air!

alignment seems to have cleared it up 90%

What's the last 10%

The last 10% is caused by lowering, and there is no cheap cure.

These rear ends are made to toe in dynamically on compression and droop.

By lowering the car say 1", it means the car will toe OUT on droop for say 1/2" of suspension travel, and only then will toe in. Drop the car 3", and the suspension will never toe in on droop (which ricers dont care as they just dont have suspension travel because they fit rock hard springs)

It means the lower you go, the crappiest it will drive. BTW, what do you think your suspension does when braking ? Yup, you guessed it. Goes on droop.

You could counter that by adding more static toe in. But then there is tyre wear, and the car might be twitchy on acceleration and not flat roads.

There are only 2 solutions :
1/relocate toe arm pickup point on the knuckle or
2/relocate toe arm pickup on subframe.

Neither is easy.

There IS one known and working solution. Stock suspension height and suspension arm angles. If you want a lowered car that fit, you need sot keep suspension arm angles unchanged, so if you fit 2inch shorter coilovers, raise you subframe as much, basically. See the "roll center correction" thread for more info.

Buy coilovers = problem solved. Worked for me anyways! Car used to skip in the front and rear all over when I was running old stock struts.

i aligned the rear in my garage using string. the problem is gone but my steering wheel isnt straight anymore. oh well.

Mine was doing this before i pulled the engine. But im putting coils and s14--->s13 bushings in so hopefully itll stop

it was the rear toe in doing it

Nice. Good to know i just needed a alignment after i biught all these parts to fix it lol

Sub frame bushings are shot. That does a lot more then people give credit to. Not saying the other reasons don't make up the majority but don't overlook those 4 attachment points. That's a $50 fix if you just get collars.

no. it was the alignment.

Like I said majority other reasons but the bushings do play a role in that sway.