Strut mount question.

I have a 2007 California Special with about 25K miles on it. I installed Vogtland lowering springs and have a very minor drop in the ride height .5" in front and 1.2" in the rear. This is fine with me because of the Cal Special front spoiler would be bashing into the ground all the time if it was much lower. Also, alignment without C/C plates is no problem at these heights.

I now have the infamous growl/groan coming from the strut mounts (I reused the originals thinking I might get away with 2 installs on a one time use part, LOL). I'm not racing the car and I want to avoid adding any more noise that is inheirant with high performance suspension parts.

Should I just get new strut mounts from Ford or do I need to get aftermarket strut mounts/CC plates?

Cool, I hadn't thought of the GT500 strut mounts. They're pretty reasonable if I remember right, true??

walter said:

I thought strut mount failure was a distinctive POP not a groan. Could something else be going wrong with your car?

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That's what I remembered too but, even when I'm not moving and just turning the wheels left and right, I can hear a slight groan coming from the right strut mount (at least that's what it sounds like from the driver's seat) This weekend I noticed a similar groan coming from the exact same location while driving over speed bump in a parking lot. I'm going to get a friend to turn the wheel while I isolate the noise with a stethescope this weekend. Regardless of what I find I'll be checking everything including torque values of all fasteners before I change the mounts out. The car has about 1500 miles on it since the change and it'll be good to do a second "once over" of the suspension anyway.

Also, does anyone know if Tokico makes a special wrench that holds the top of the struts/shocks for tightening or loosening the attachment nuts?? Hopefully I can get some input on this as well without having to start a new thread.

Thank you EVERYONE for your input. You guys/gals are the bomb.

Wind-Farmer said:

what about the steeda heavy duty strut mounts? I think they would be good to have, are they worth the $260?

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My concern about Steeda and other after market parts is NVH. I do not want to introduce any more noise into the cockpit if not necessary. Like I said, this car is not going to be raced so I don't need hi performance parts that, in general, sacrifice NVH for the gnat's ass of extra performance. Besides, $260.00 vs 66.00, Damn, LOL.