Honestly, without seeing it myself, I can't even tell you what the knocking is for sure. Your best bet is to take it to someone who knows mustangs and offer to pay him $50 or buy him a six pack to figure out what the noise is for sure. Once you know what it is exactly, then we can be a lot more helpful. Without knowing what it is, we can really only throw crap at the wall to see if it sticks. So that is what I would do first.

With regard to the strut tower nuts, they may seem tight but if they aren't far enough down the strut shaft, they can still allow the strut to pop up off the plate and pop back down. I had this problem myself, that's why I'm telling you to have that checked. An easy fix is to hit it with an impact wrench if you have one, or ask the shop guy to give it a quick rap with his impact gun.

If your cc plates did not come with spacers then that could very well be the issue. I'm sure you could use appropriate sized washers as spacers but what size they would need to be and how many you need is something I don't know. If I were you and my mechanic told me I needed spacers, I would just get the MM cc plates and be done with it. They are very well-engineered and do a great job. You could also try calling AJE and see what they say about it.

A bumpsteer kit will not help your problem. That is just adjustable tie rod end length which corrects bumpsteer. It basically makes it so your wheels will not pull either way when you hit bumps. Something else is wrong if you're getting a loud noise over bumps.

 

well i had an alignment done after they were installed so i know they hit the top nut with the impact and my mechanic did the install at the shop. he told me since i got rid of the rubber OEM spacers from the ford CC so I'm assuming that's why my strut is bottoming out. so your saying if i use Maximum Motor-sports CC i wont have this prob at all?..... Would fox body struts and shocks bolt right on or would i need to do some modifications?? I will call AJE in the morning and see what they suggest.

 

AJE told me that since I have the lowering springs for every inch I lowered the car I took an inch of compression from the struts....I either could go for the Maximum Motor-sports CC/plates or I want to know if I change to shocks from a fox body would that help and the main question is would they bolt right up or would I need to do some modifications

 

they would bolt right up but I don't know if they would fix your problem.


These two images show the stock bump stop and dust shield being re-used on a new set of struts. You would be able to see the black plastic of the dust shield on the shaft of your strut if you look in between the tire and wheel well. If it's not there then you need to ask your mechanic to put them in. Without the rubber bump stop you will DEFINITELY get a lot of racket when your struts are in use.

 

he did reuse the bump stops but not the plastic dust shield. but with the fox body struts arent they a little longer so wouldnt it bring my ride height up some..thats what it sounded like from some other people in this thread.

 

No they are shorter that's why a lot of people use them on lowered cars. Like I already said, my car was lowered more than most anybody on this site and I didn't use fox body struts and I didn't have any issues. I really think it's something else man.

 

well the only reason i think its my struts now is because now the CC/plate are mounted underneath the strut tower and not on top. I just got back from driving around town and soon as i hit a nice size bump or dip in the road it just sounds like a loud knock coming from the struts bottoming out. If i switched over to coil-over springs vs lowering springs....would that do me any good and what would the feeling of ride be like?