Steeda lowering springs noises

[Loumoud]

Hi, I am new to the forum, not speaking english as my native language...

I own two GTs , one convertible, one coupe, I had those cars equipped with Steeda lowering springs, installation done by a shop, on two fairly new cars (1000 miles on the convertible and 3500 miles on the coupe).

Then as soon as I had this installation done I had the cars shipped to europe (not officially imported here, a blast to own !).

When I had a chance to drive it I noticed a lot of noises coming, mostly, from the front suspension (less noise in the convertible due to rigidity) especially when riding on bumpy roads.

I contacted Steeda, they told me about the recall of the perches, I had them replaced, with no changes about the noises.

Now after all this done Steeda doesn't want to offer any support about that problem, they claim they don't produce defective parts and there is no mismount possible (understand: it is do able by any home mechanic).

I sent them pictures I took during installation at the shop, during removal "inspection" when I found about the noises, during replacement of the perches, and also sound files with the noises.

They said (no jokes) they have no speakers to listen to it....

I begged them for help, told them I wouldn't stay like this.

They don't want me to return the parts (I have two more kits on the shelf for other cars) because it is more than 30 days after purchase....

So I need help on three things :

what is the reputation of Steeda ?
what could my noise problem coming from ?
How can I have Steeda doing something about this ?

Thank you for anyone helps !

 

[celticstanger]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Steeda are pretty well established and I'm guesssing that they must be pretty confident that it isn't their product which is giving you trouble.

Can you post your perch replacement photos? I hadn't heard of any recall on them and am getting a bit of noise which I suspect may be related to perch/tower.

:edit: Welcome to the boards. Your English is just fine!

 

[Loumoud]

I know they have been around for long, at first I had a very good contact and then they refuse to help find out what the problem is.... I forgot to mention than when I swap in the OE springs it doesn't make any noises.

The perches recall is very well known (I leraned from then...TSB 05-09-11) I understand it makes noise when turning, not driving straigh, mine weren't concerned. Search the forum you'll find a lot about this.

I'll put all the pics on a site, I dodn't know how to do it but I'll find out !

You have the eibach, does any kind of rubber sleeve comes with the kit ?

 

[RICVA05]

Have you thought about replacing the stocked struts and shocks with the Tokico 16 way adjustable shocks and struts. I have the Eibach Sports and before I replaced mine it was quite a rough ride.

 

[Stangpilot]

I have seen where the factory front swaybar endlinks are loose and they make a rattling noise. Check out your endlinks and tighten them up really good. If its not the strut mounts, that may be the answer.

 

[Loumoud]

Upgrade shocks are the next upgrade I'll go with , I had a good experience in the past with the TOKICO on a Nissan NX (small FWD coupe) , at the time I bought those for that car I never heard of that brand, and after some research what I remember is that it's a sub-brand of Kayaba (very well known in motorcycle, off road). I'm not sure of this information.... But they were very good, I would say equal to Bilstein, a little harder, the settings is certainely an interesting feature to avoid this.

Does the Eibach did any noises ? and most important does the kit comes (and installation instructions mention) RUBBER SLEEVE ? if so where does they goes ?


The Sway bar links is the only suggestion made by Steeda, I already chek this, it is fine; I'll re-check again

Next week I'll call Steeda over the phone (not an easy task for me).

I tried to set up a website about the 2005 mustang, it is not that easy !

My first try with the creation wizard of my ineternet provider :



Please do not laugh ! I already spend 4 hours to do this !!!! Now I start to understand how does it work and I'll try to built an other one with Frontpage.

Wish me luck ! and thanks for everyone help !

 

[Loumoud]

Also I'll cut the antenna (this week end, what a project !) and order wheel spacers, I'm thinking about the H&R, because of their TUV homologation....

 

[Loumoud]

I hope you'll easily find the links to jump from one page to the next !!!

If anyone sees anything...

What about the eibach, does they comes with rubber sleeves ?

Any other owner with Steeda springs ?

Thanks

 

[thump_rrr]

I put more pics online :

http://yves.nodet.neuf.fr/

I hope you'll easily find the links to jump from one page to the next !!!

If anyone sees anything...

What about the eibach, does they comes with rubber sleeves ?

Any other owner with Steeda springs ?

Thanks

I have the same problem as you.
I was in florida at the Steeda Stampeede
2 1/2 weeks ago and I told them about my noises and they told me to check the top plates also.

They also told me to check the clocking on the springs which should be aprox.180 degrees.

The problem is I replaced the top plates on tsb and made sure they didn't pop before installing springs. I also put the Steeda competition end links because I thought it may be an end link problem.

I'm going to be making another call tomorrow and speaking to Gus. If we both speak to the same person maybe they'll begin to believe that there's a problem.

 

[Loumoud]

your post is comforting me (sorry) , what I have hard time to believe is that we are the only persons with that problem, your car and mines seems to have no other parts that could cause the trouble....

What I found on my side is that when I got the replacement perches the kits comes with a set of rubber sleeves (one per side) , I tried to install that sleeve around the bottom of the spring, where it is in contact with the metal of the strut, that didn't solved anything, so I removed it and installed it on the top of the spring, where the spring touch itself on big suspension compression (see pics on my site, you can see the blue paint that is a little scratch because of this) , and SURPRISE : the noise is totally gone on the convertible, it can be heard , very barely, on full compression, but it as nothing to compare than without that sleeve.

But on the coupe it is not the same, the noise have been reduced a lot but it is still very noticeable, even on small suspension compression.

I'll try to install a second sleeve, in the bottom again....

As of today no explanation from Steeda, I guess they just don't care.

Before contacting them again I wait to hear from other Steeda lowering springs kits owner, with or without that problem.

Also what I want to find out is : does other brand lowering kits comes with any rubber sleeve or any other additionnal parts ; on the fordmotorsport website you can see that their kits comes with a big rubber piece....

 

[Firedude]

Hi. I have the Steeda's and have no noise what so ever. I did the install myself and used the plastic sleeve that was on the stock springs. I would think you need a sleeve to help get rid of the noise.

 

[Loumoud]

very interesting input !

where does the sleeves goes exactly ? do you have any pics ?

thank you

 

[Firedude]

Sorry it took so long to get back. It goes on the bottom coil starting from about a inch from the end. If you still have the stockers you can see it.

 

[GTRacerX]

Steeda Springs - noises

I have the same problem and have taken my car to Steeda several problems with no resolution. I emailed both Gus & Mike recently and never got a response back. I just assume its their springs at this point because I did not have that problem with the stock springs or H&R Super Sport Springs. My suspension noises come from the front & rear and sounds like a clicking sound - Must be their springs !!! I've already decide to switch to H&R OE springs and be done with it !! I also have a clunking sound coming from the drivers side front end that Steeda has looked at three times - fixed and keeps coming back. Must be
a loose end link. I'll deal with that once I swap out my springs.

Thats my input on all this. And I've been dealing with Steeda since I first had my springs installed.

 

[thump_rrr]

I pulled mine out this spring and you could see where the 2 top coils were hitting each other. My dealer replaced them for me and no more noises.

 

[SVTFreak]

I have the steeda ultralight springs with no noises (just an FYI post).

 

[96stangred]

The upper spring coils are meant to touch each other,
because it is a variable rate spring. Things to look for to cure your clunk:

1. Tighten Stay bar end links and use locktight stud and bearing compound,
or the end links will come loose again and cause the clunk noise. Common problem.

2. Don't use heims joint stay bar end links - they are very noisy and do make clunking noises.

3. Don't use camber bolts in the lower strut attachment point to steering knuckel, they come loose all the time and cause a clunking noise - that's why Steeda makes camber adjusters.

4. Make sure you have Steeda springs,sometimes a dealer will bait and switch
and say they are Steeda springs. Happened to a friend of mine.

5. Always torque the front end assembly to factory specifications,must do.

6. I got this info directly from Fred Mills at Steeda when I had the same problem. He sure knows what he's talking about. My cure was the lock tight on the stay bar end links.

 

[thump_rrr]

The upper spring coils are meant to touch each other,
because it is a variable rate spring. Things to look for to cure your clunk:

1. Tighten Stay bar end links and use locktight stud and bearing compound,
or the end links will come loose again and cause the clunk noise. Common problem.

2. Don't use heims joint stay bar end links - they are very noisy and do make clunking noises.

3. Don't use camber bolts in the lower strut attachment point to steering knuckel, they come loose all the time and cause a clunking noise - that's why Steeda makes camber adjusters.

4. Make sure you have Steeda springs,sometimes a dealer will bait and switch
and say they are Steeda springs. Happened to a friend of mine.

5. Always torque the front end assembly to factory specifications,must do.

6. I got this info directly from Fred Mills at Steeda when I had the same problem. He sure knows what he's talking about. My cure was the lock tight on the stay bar end links.

I have the Steeda Competition Endlinks (Heim Joints) in my car and they do not make any noises whatsoever. Neither do the heim joints on the Steeda Bumpsteer Kit. I also have the Steeda Camber Kit along with every other suspension component made by Steeda for these cars.

I can't be 100% certain about the Steeda Ultralight Springs but my Steeda Sport Springs are linear and not progressively wound. You can see when a spring is progressively wound by the coils being of varying distances from one another. The coils start off wider up top and tighter down below. It is done that way because when they temper the springs they cannot make them softer in some spots and harder in others so they manufacture a softer spring but with more coils at the bottom of it's travel to progressively get firmer hence the name progressive.

I do only 1 modification at a time and I am certain that this was MY problem.

I was speaking to Gus at Steeda and we went through everything including the endlinks, clocking of the springs ect.

I work in the HVAC field and am a certified tech with 19 years experience in natural gas. We do a lot of work on hardening and tempering furnaces. It wouldn't take much for a batch to go through the heat tratment process all wrong due to a furnace or operator malfunction.

Steeda does not manufacture their own springs so anything can go wrong at any point in the process without them being aware of it.

I'm not trying to point fingers here but if it happened to me it can happen to to others. There were 2-3 of us that had similar problems last summer so there could have been a bad batch of them that had gone out.

In my case I simply replaced the coils with another pair again from Steeda and my problem went away.

 

[GTRacerX]

Thanks for the information !!!

I have the Steeda Competition Endlinks (Heim Joints) in my car and they do not make any noises whatsoever. Neither do the heim joints on the Steeda Bumpsteer Kit. I also have the Steeda Camber Kit along with every other suspension component made by Steeda for these cars.

I can't be 100% certain about the Steeda Ultralight Springs but my Steeda Sport Springs are linear and not progressively wound. You can see when a spring is progressively wound by the coils being of varying distances from one another. The coils start off wider up top and tighter down below. It is done that way because when they temper the springs they cannot make them softer in some spots and harder in others so they manufacture a softer spring but with more coils at the bottom of it's travel to progressively get firmer hence the name progressive.

I do only 1 modification at a time and I am certain that this was MY problem.

I was speaking to Gus at Steeda and we went through everything including the endlinks, clocking of the springs ect.

I work in the HVAC field and am a certified tech with 19 years experience in natural gas. We do a lot of work on hardening and tempering furnaces. It wouldn't take much for a batch to go through the heat tratment process all wrong due to a furnace or operator malfunction.

Steeda does not manufacture their own springs so anything can go wrong at any point in the process without them being aware of it.

I'm not trying to point fingers here but if it happened to me it can happen to to others. There were 2-3 of us that had similar problems last summer so there could have been a bad batch of them that had gone out.

In my case I simply replaced the coils with another pair again from Steeda and my problem went away.

As I mentioned before in my previous posts - Am just frustrated because this issue keeps popping up (no pun intended). It seems like Steeda fixes the problem with the front end clunking noises - then it comes back a few weeks latter. As for the popping sounds coming from front and rear - as I mentioned before I never had that with my stock springs or my H&R springs. I think Steeda makes great products and am sure they are not aware of this issue.
Even though the car handles great and ride comfort is not too bad - I feel its too bumpy of a ride for normal street use - esp. since the roads down here in SFLA seem to have imperfections all over the place. I might just try Steeda's ultra springs and see how well I fair with those springs. Thanks for the info on the clunking noise upo front (drivers side) !!

 

[thump_rrr]

As I mentioned before in my previous posts - Am just frustrated because this issue keeps popping up (no pun intended). It seems like Steeda fixes the problem with the front end clunking noises - then it comes back a few weeks latter. As for the popping sounds coming from front and rear - as I mentioned before I never had that with my stock springs or my H&R springs. I think Steeda makes great products and am sure they are not aware of this issue.
Even though the car handles great and ride comfort is not too bad - I feel its too bumpy of a ride for normal street use - esp. since the roads down here in SFLA seem to have imperfections all over the place. I might just try Steeda's ultra springs and see how well I fair with those springs. Thanks for the info on the clunking noise upo front (drivers side) !!

When you say bumpy ride you have no idea what it is to be in the ice belt with potholes and frost heaves.

Does it feel like a giant pogo stick?
Mine felt that way before I added the Tokico D-Spec shocks.
With the D-Specs you can either soften or harden the ride as much as you like.
I was at a track event in NJ a week ago and people were freaking out how much adjustability I had with the D-Specs.

Here is a picture with the shocks set at 6 turns out. 7 turns out is full soft.