FE2/FE3

Hi all! New to this site, although i have lurked form time to time.

I work at a GM dealer and have access to the parts computer. It tells me that all Riv's (98) had FE1 suspention. But i can't find what Auroras have.

Does the Aurora have bigger sway bars and stiffer front struts? Or, where they available with FE2 /FE3? My car is apart, in the middle or a resto, and supention wise, i have only purchased new GM rear shocks so far. I want to work the big boat ride out of this car, and wondering what stuts/springs to purchase that will work well with the rear, but stop the rolley polley front end at speed. It's just too soft. I know thats Buick's thing, but i'd like it to handle like my old Olsmobile Toronado Trofeo with FE3. It rode decent, and handled great. The Riv rides great, and handles decent. I want to turn that around.

I did a search and Aurora swap info is rare. Someone said they have six Auroras to one Riv in the local pick and pull...........me too.

Any info will help , nice to be here finally, nice looking fast site!

Greetings and welcome aboard.

Bert

We actually have a mod to put F-250 Rancho struts in...click on the Write-Ups tab at the top, scroll down to suspension and handling, and there you'll find plenty of handling mods!

Welcome to the site. Which year Riv do you have?

Thanks Bert and IIan. And thanks for pointing me there.

My sig did'nt work, Had Pref wrong it think , and i need to load my avatar of my tore down Riv on.

It's a 98, Pearl white /tan int., everything but a roof and polished rims. It has the rims (five spoke) from my old 96 Cutlass on it. They stick out an inch more and IMO, look way better than stock rims. Amazing how they only offered one rim style on this car. 100k. Engine is done; ready to go that is, all checked out, new gaskets ect, body and suspention left to do. Just some dings and a full paint on the body, but i took it all apart except the doors. Welding up the trunk lock and antenna hole, leaving all emblems off. Wife bought it originally five years ago, had to buy her a Bonneville to get it away from her. When it's done i'm sure she'll whine to have it back.

Cadilac STS front and rear sway bars with FE3 suspension. I think 1998 -2002.?
They fit the Riv.
Also a front STB from the same car.

There were 3 rim styles for the Riviera.

Rickw wrote:

Cadilac STS front and rear sway bars with FE3 suspension. I think 1998 -2002.?
They fit the Riv.
Also a front STB from the same car.

We can use some of the caddy suspension parts or the upgraded addco front and rear bars. those plus the strut tower bar and poly links/bushings would be a great bang-for-the-buck in the cornering. As for the struts, i went with the self fill rear shocks (i see you already got the delco $$$$ ones), but in the future you may want to swap out the air ride for some lines and the $70/pair shocks from rockauto. i couldnt be happier with them. i can set the ride height and firmness with just a bike pump and it doesnt loose air.
KYB GR-2 front struts and eibach shocks will help with the front, or if you really want a sports car you can get custom coil-overs for some more $$.

Like jack mentioned we had 3 rim choices for 98 riv's (4 choices for the 95-97). all were 16's though.

Vista Cruiser wrote:

Hi all! New to this site, although i have lurked form time to time.

I work at a GM dealer and have access to the parts computer. It tells me that all Riv's (98) had FE1 suspention. But i can't find what Auroras have.

Does the Aurora have bigger sway bars and stiffer front struts? Or, where they available with FE2 /FE3? My car is apart, in the middle or a resto, and supention wise, i have only purchased new GM rear shocks so far. I want to work the big boat ride out of this car, and wondering what stuts/springs to purchase that will work well with the rear, but stop the rolley polley front end at speed. It's just too soft. I know thats Buick's thing, but i'd like it to handle like my old Olsmobile Toronado Trofeo with FE3. It rode decent, and handled great. The Riv rides great, and handles decent. I want to turn that around.

I did a search and Aurora swap info is rare. Someone said they have six Auroras to one Riv in the local pick and pull...........me too.

Any info will help , nice to be here finally, nice looking fast site!

regardingthe rolley polley front end - yep I fixed mine too, kids were getting seasick in the back seat. Here is what I tried:

new OE struts - nope.
new Monroe Sensa-Trac struts - sort of fixed it but I still did not like the ride.
Gabriel struts with VST - yep, fixed it and also were better at damping small movements like highway expansion joints and pavement seams. Very nice ride. They never wore out but I replaced them when the cases had rusted to the point they started to seep fluid through.
KYB GR-2 - running these now. yep, these fix it too.

You do not need any other mods (other than the KYBs) to fix the rolley polley. The Caddy STB is not that beefy. The stiffer roll bars fix a different complaint (body lean in cornering, in spirited driving)

IMHO keep the air ride, the Rancho rear shock conversion is just a different way to ask for the back end to drag when the trunk is loaded; I would not do it period.

As for the Aurora I think if you hunt around you will find on the '96 I think there were optional electrically adjustable struts in front with air rides in the rear.

hope this helps

Albertj

PS can you tell if the rear lateral arms for the Riv are the same ones used on the '03 - '05 Park Avenue Ultra?

Albertj

Thanks again all.

Albert i'll try to find out about the bars.

As far as body lean, i want the fattest bars i can get. IMO the Riv does'nt lean much for as soft as the ride is, GM did a nice balence. But it's not for me. My kids get sick in the back seat of the Riv too.

One day, in a spirited mood, i took it to 110 and a dip in the highway sent the car into a bucking snit. I understand why the cutoff is there. My opinion of my car greatly suffered that day. I realized the car was made for the retired crew who used to drive Coupe Devilles.

As far as the rims, i know they had different choices, but the "style" are the same, or at least very similar. At 100 feet, (except finish) they all look the same to me, and no offense, like Pep Boy hubcaps. However, the chrome ones, like i've seen on the '99 Ghosts look much better than the regular aluminum ones i had.

The largest front bar gm offered was 30mm (available on several models, listed elsewhere)
the addco front is 1.25" or 32 mm

The largest rear bar offered was 22mm hollow (cadillac STS only)
the addco rear bar is 7/8" or 22mm solid.

these options (years, pn, etc) have been discussed extensively in this subsection. I'll admit the search function isn't super effective on this particular forum so the addco p/ns are 02015 and 02018. Find the post about addco bars to see what other parts you need (Rear bushings)

I recommend you go with Addco. There's a 10% discount coupon for summit in the "info/reference" subsection.

Vista Cruiser wrote:

Thanks again all.

Albert i'll try to find out about the bars.

As far as body lean, i want the fattest bars i can get. IMO the Riv does'nt lean much for as soft as the ride is, GM did a nice balence. But it's not for me. My kids get sick in the back seat of the Riv too.

One day, in a spirited mood, i took it to 110 and a dip in the highway sent the car into a bucking snit. I understand why the cutoff is there. My opinion of my car greatly suffered that day. I realized the car was made for the retired crew who used to drive Coupe Devilles.

As far as the rims, i know they had different choices, but the "style" are the same, or at least very similar. At 100 feet, (except finish) they all look the same to me, and no offense, like Pep Boy hubcaps. However, the chrome ones, like i've seen on the '99 Ghosts look much better than the regular aluminum ones i had.

No Kidding, you put KYBs or Gabriels in for the front struts, you'll fix the bobbing. You *may* want to also replace the strut mounts with the Monroe StrutMates and be sure to use the extra metal washers in the Strut Mate kit on top of the strut boots if you replace the boots. Monroe technical support's 800 number will explain if you need/want more details. The issue is the OE strut boots are *functional* not cosmetic - they have, as you know, a thick metal top. Replacement boots don't. That top works with the bump stop to spread out the impact at end-of-travel. Bottom line - Only the Monroe strutmates come with the extra washers you will need if you replace the OE boots with (anyone's) aftermarkets.

As for the rims teh '95s had a machined aluminum lip, later rims had painted lips. I got a set of '95 rims to use for winter and when I removed corrosion and repainted them I smoothed (with Scotch abrasive wheel) and painted over the machined lip. If you ahve the stuff you could remachine it and paint clear wheelpaint over it I imagine.

Albertj

Vista Cruiser wrote:

IMO the Riv does'nt lean much for as soft as the ride is, GM did a nice balence. But it's not for me. My kids get sick in the back seat of the Riv too.

I agree, the stock ride was a little floaty, until I replaced the struts and rear air shocks.

Vista Cruiser wrote:

One day, in a spirited mood, i took it to 110 and a dip in the highway sent the car into a bucking snit. I understand why the cutoff is there. My opinion of my car greatly suffered that day. I realized the car was made for the retired crew who used to drive Coupe Devilles.

I disagree - with good struts it shouldn't bob around like that. And yes, I have exceeded that speed quite a few times, both before and after I upgraded the sways. How many miles on your struts? There are different levels of damping in struts - that which absorbs the little jarring bumps on the roads, plus that which stops the boat-like bob. Clearly it's not a corvette, but it should not 'float' either, in stock form.

I have the addco front and rear bars, plus the caddy STS STB, and love the way it rides. It still leans a little in the corners, but nothing like it did.

Vista Cruiser wrote:

Thanks again all.
I realized the car was made for the retired crew who used to drive Coupe Devilles.

I think the demographic that bought these cars new was much younger than retirement age.
Middle management types, 40- 55 in age. That's who I saw driving them back then.


Welcome to the board!

Sweepspear wrote:

Vista Cruiser wrote:

Thanks again all.
I realized the car was made for the retired crew who used to drive Coupe Devilles.

I think the demographic that bought these cars new was much younger than retirement age.
Middle management types, 40- 55 in age. That's who I saw driving them back then.


Welcome to the board!

40-55.......that's us. I worked at a Buick dealer from 97-07. I saw more 50-up. But what i ment by the Coupe Deville was the Riv feels just like one. My grandfather had one with a 472. One day i was driving the Riv, we had'nt had it long, and i realized it felt just like the Caddy. Lots of torque, soft ride, effortless accelleration, big, ect.

In '98 i went to the GM training center in Buffalo, NY for the G-body class. Very cool class. Lots of crash test films. At the time, the chasis was way ahead of it's time. Glued roof, extremely stiff chasis, monster rockers, and huge door pillars. BTW, we had to learn how to take the doors off. If you ever do have to, the studs will fall into the cowl if your not carefull. There is a proceedure to cut open the cowl to get the studs back in the holes so it will maintain it's rigidity. The cars were Volvo safe. But, the minds at GM never advertised this, and the sales showed it.

At the time my car was doing sine waves down the highway it had about 70k on the original struts. I just did'nt expect it to do that. Much like a friends Mustang GT. Just kept gobbleing air up under the front. I have an 82 T/A that i've owned for over 23 years. When i go over 100 with it the shape of the car pushes the front down and it stays glued. I was expecting the Riv to be similar. So it was'nt a race car and that was ok, it sure did soak up pot holes in the city nice however.

Now it's under the knife. I expect to be done by April/May. I hope my GTP will last until then, but i played with the blower bypass today, so i'll probably end up blowing it up before the leaves come back.