Oh No! I have the dreaded CC plate Clunk!!

BMurphy

New Member
Nov 2, 2004
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New Hampshire
Well my absolute happiness with my new suspension has a wrinkle in it. My front suspension now has a metal to metal clunk/thwack on extension that wasn't there prior to my upgrade to Steeda Sports/Tokico Illuminas/Steeda 4 bolt CC Plates. It took me by surprise when I first drove over a slight drop in the road at some road construction. Then when I crested a hill near my home it did it again. I'm like what the heck is this? So natuarlly I log into Stangnet when I got home and search on Steeda Clunk and whoa man, this is a big issue. Mine only does it on extension not on compression.

I emailed the installers Sat afternoon (TFES - Performance) and I got an email back Sat night stateing that they will work out any issue I have. I am confident that we will resolve it as they are good guys.

So, from the research, it looks like the spherical bearing is the culprit? I checked all the bolts and nuts and they are tight. I also tried a few different settings on the Illuminas to see it that would make a difference. It doesn't but I learned alot about the real time handling of the car with various settings.

Am I correct in thinking the 4 Bolt Steeda CC plates installed last week are defective? It seemed form the search that others had experienced this problem after some miles and also with other brands too. I'm thinking that with a drop of only 1.125 inches, I may not need the CC Plates and have them put the stock mounts back on.

Oppinions/Suggestions/Solutions are welcome.

Thanks as always.
 
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I had the same problem with Pro3i plates.....they sent me new spherical bearing plates. I never installed them. I just took the cc plates off, put the stockers on and it aligned just fine. Sold the pro3i's to another member on stangnet with the new bearing plates, and he never complained about noises.

I would try those first....
 
sounds like a 'bump steer' problem. when you lower the car this is a common problem. just get the bumpsteer kit
Definition of bumpsteer: Bump-steer is a change in toe* angle caused by the suspension moving up or down. Bump-steer is built into the geometry of the suspension and steering system, and has nothing to do with turning the steering wheel. The effect of bump-steer is for the wheel to toe-in or toe-out when the suspension moves up or down. This toe change or “steering” occurs any time the suspension moves, whether it is from body roll, brake-dive, or hitting a bump in the road. Bump steer is undesirable because the suspension is steering the car instead of the driver.

good luck.
 
It is the sperichal bearing like he said, bump steer would not make this noise. I had Pro3i plates and they had to send me a new bearing, mine was loose, they said that most of them were to tight and they would stick and then snap loose to make the noise. I have measured the effect of bumpsteer. At about 1.5" of drop in the front, the bumpsteer is at its limits (at least of the steeda bumpsteer kit). Beyond this, you will never get all of the bumpsteer out. You really only have to worry about bump steer under compression, when the load is taken off the tires, it has less effect to pull the car.
 
The mechanic wants to try to put the brass spacer that comes with the kit in to see if that takes care of the problem. Otherwise it's another CC plate or back to the stock mounts and hope there's enough adjustment. I'll post next Weds when I have my appointment as to what the solution turns out to be.

Thanks for your inputs!
 
BMurphy said:
The mechanic wants to try to put the brass spacer that comes with the kit in to see if that takes care of the problem. Otherwise it's another CC plate or back to the stock mounts and hope there's enough adjustment. I'll post next Weds when I have my appointment as to what the solution turns out to be.

Thanks for your inputs!

Have you called steeda yet????
 
i had same noise when I got my Pro3i. Turned out that I didn't tighten nut on top of strut tight enough. after tighten the piss out of it, it went away. No bump steer or nothing!
 
I called Steeda and the problem according to them is that all 3 spacers/washers must be / should have been installed. The order that they are used and the placement in the Strut/CC plate assembly is a function of the amount of drop from the springs.

I'll update after the re-work on Weds.