[Sled]

Tony (and any others); when your upper strut mounts were trashed did it affect your alignment or make any nasty noises (other than the suspension hitting harder)? I am at least replacing the upper mounts and bearings but I know I need struts too so I may just get it all at once this week (at least order the parts). My car has a pull left and nasty vibration that gets worse as speeds increase. Also there is a kinda whirring sound from the left front (possible bearing but they are less than one year old!). I am sick of this crap and its getting worse (the vibrations are, though the sound is same and not that loud). The whole suspension seems to hit hard and rough and that is prolly the struts that have around 55,000 miles on them on crappy roads and with Roush springs their whole life. I got right around 40,000 out of my originals and that was on stock tires and suspension. Definitely time for new ones. I guess worst case is that if the problem doesnt go away with the new struts and mounts then I drop another $139.02 for a new wheel knuckle/bearing.

Also, since I just got an alignment and I know they didnt adjust anything with the ST200 rear brace I think I should loosen it then retighten right? Didnt yours cause major alignment issues when you first put it in? Gimme some input and thoughts on how it affected your car. Thanks.

(we need an emoticon of a smiley kicking the crap out of the side of a coug)

 

[OSUStallion]

My car felt better when I replaced that one. But I think my other one is shot now so who knows. My struts are probably also baked becasue of the ground control. Its probably just a good idea to replace them. THey are only like $15 on fordpartsonline I think.


When I had my st200 rear brace put it... WOW huge alignment problems. MY buddies put it in while I worked on my engine. They may have tighened it wrong or something because in order to driver forward I had the top of the steering wheel pointed at like 2 O clock. Needless to say I got that fixed in a second. I guess when they tighted it they pulled the rear tires in or they pointed in or some crap.


Anyways good luck. I will be on break soon so if you need a hand pm me and I will make a trip up to C-town.

Tony

 

[Sled]

Just tried to order a set of SPAX struts. (getting new front rotors and upper strut mounts front and rear too). Damn SPAX are on back order Now its either Sachs for $79 ea. or BAT for $99. each. I would rather pay the extra if they are worth it but I dont know. I just dont wana do struts again. I really wanted the SPAX though since they are 1" shorter rod length to accomodate lowered suspensions. BAH!

 

[Sled]

Well BAT just missed a $500 order just because the guy answering the phone didnt know anything. I ordered the upper mounts and strut bearings at Fordpartsonline and am going to order a set of KYB struts from SP Motorsports monday. Would you believe that nobody would answer the phone and the voicemail box was full?! What a pain it can be to locate parts.

 

[OSUStallion]

yeah sometimes I dont understand how people are still in business when they have crappy customer service.


Tony

 

[Sled]

Update: Good news I think. Tonight on my lunch break instead of eating I decided to unbolt the crossmembers of my st200 rear brace as well as loosen the top bar to see if that was affecting my cars horrible suspension issues. While driving home at 4am is not exactly a way to get conclusive evidence I can say that the vibrations are reduced around 50% (now not too bad at 60 but still pretty noticeable at 70mph) and the left pull MIGHT be gone but is at least greatly reduced. I am going to pull the front strut brace tomorrow and take a trip out to my dad's place (there is a brand new section of I-480 for a couple miles to try out with no potholes or ruts yet) to see what kinda improvement there is. If all is still fairly well I wont be ordering struts just yet. When the upper mounts and bearings arrrive next week sometime I will determine the strut situation and will likely just hold out for the SPAX units as I have now read bad reports about the KYB struts. When I do the install we will film the entire thing so that anyone attempting a brake job, strut/spring job, and possibly a wheel knuckle install will be able to purchase (for a very very small fee) a full video how-to. I am hoping to find that my left front upper mount is toast cuz that might explain some things. Also there is a vibration in the rear that feels like maybe a wheel balance problem but I also suspect the Roush rear sway bar so if I still have the stock one I may swap them just to be sure. I'll let you all know what I find over the next couple weeks so that hopefully you can avoid the same problems.

 

[silverkat]

If you didn't have bad luck, you wouldn't have any luck at all.