C5Dobie

So I have been getting some creaking going over speed bumps, or entering parking lots/driveways w/ inclines, and getting a little rattle over uneven pavement etc. - front & rear. Car is an '03 Z05 w/ 24,000 miles - I have already replaced the shocks w/ bilsteins. Long story short car was purchased w/ just under 13,000 miles interior/exterior in pristine condition, dynoed strong, doesn't burn or leak oil, BUT - previous owner lived right on the ocean & the whole undercarriage is heavily oxidized. I have had the car up on a lift & poked around seems to me the majority of rubber bushings & any/all bearings etc. are dry rotted & need replacing.

See attached pics - not just cosmetic, I think eventually getting an alignment done will be near impossible w/ parts this corroded.

SO - I have ordered new front/rear sway bars & bushings from steinjager (mostly cosmetic on the sways but my stockers are corroded, the bushings do need replacement), 4 moog sway bar endlinks, moog front inner/outer tie rods ends, & rear outer tie rod end links from ecklers (not sure brand, but only place I could find them reasonably priced).

Question is where can I get rear inner tie rods? Would it be wise to also replace ball joints?? If yes what brand/where to get??

Think I should replace any additional bushings?

Will attempt most of the work myself (w/a friend) in garage over winter.

Moto One

Are you sure that your car is not a flood recovery? My car has been at the salt flats (a number of times) and has seen what CalTrans calls Sea Brine (aka Salt solution) and looks nothing like that...

You have your work cut out for you.

Mark.

Sox-Fan

I live on the ocean and have parked my car at the beach parking lot every day, 8 hours a day, for the last two and a half years. My car looks nothing like that. Are you sure yours didn't see some flood damage, because that's really bad.

The only way to know with the ball joint is to really inspect them. It' hard to tell in the picture. The nut is rusty, sure but the actual join inside the boot might be fine, might not. Only one way to know and that's to get it apart and inspect it.

Your parking brake setup doesn't look that healthy. Does it work ok?

To be honest, as rusted and pitted as the sway bar itself is I'd be afraid of it snapping.

CV boot looks ok. As does the lower control arm bushing.

No pictures of the front suspension. Are the front sway bushings ok? Front Lower control arm bushings?

apex26

There was a local guy years ago who insisted on a totally rust free car so purchased a 1970 from Florida. Upon closer inspection later, the windshield frame was rotted clear through under the chrome trim. The prior owner lived where mist from the sea had blown on the car constantly. Very probable here too. Good luck.

C5Dobie

Carfax came back clean and I purchased it from a corvette dealer who has a good reputation, the interior does not show any signs of water damage. What I think is that the previous owner barely drove the thing, put a car cover on it, and a tarp over that- I was told by someone who works on vettes a lot that is what it looks like- tarp doesn't allow moisture to escape and can cause oxidization like this.

Parking brake works fine, it drives fine no issues there, I drove it before I bought it obviously but didn't look super hard at the under carriage because it only had 12,000 miles on it and during driving showed no signs of problems and like I said I bought it from a very reputable dealer. I have put about 13,000 miles on it.

Obviously too late to do anything about it now- I own it, although I had thought about going back to this particular dealer & making them give me a deal on another one in better shape underneath....let them sell this to someone else again....or else I make a stink about it and tarnish their otherwise stellar rep. They also gave me the contact info of the previous owner & he was an OLD guy and sounded like he kept the car in storage the majority of the time, so I tend to believe what my tuner thinks caused it (tarp on top of car cover)- the other reason I'm fairly positive that it was not effected by flooding is that it had the original Goodyear supercar tires on it, if it was sitting in stagnant water for long enough time to corrode metal the tires would have certainly been toast, and they weren't- didn't even have dry rot or cracking, but they were hard as rocks of course having been 13 years old.

But honestly I'm already invested into this car between new tires, clear bra, MGW shifter, intake and tune I think I may be past the point of giving up on the car and starting over. I'm going to replace all these suspension components, get the car up on ramps and clean all the cast AL components like the control arms and cradle, then polish them...that should really freshen up the undercarriage & prevent any issues getting alignment done in the future & hopefully eliminate the creaking I have heard.

The sway bars are getting replaced, I don't think the ones on there would snap it is still just surface rust they are thicker than you think, but I got new steinjager ones just for aesthetic purposes.

So- back go my question- does anyone know a good place to get rear inner tie rod ends? Or toe links as I think they're also referred to? That's the last part I wanted to order....would probably like to get new mounting bolts for the sway bars, sway bar bushings, and shocks...