So I'm curious...

People say the rod end'ed LCAs are extremely loud. Are they THAT loud? Seriously now. I love the stiffness of my poly LCAs but I want more! Can anyone give a personal experience on rod/rod or maybe rod/poly LCAs?

Also... How much of an advantage is the watts linkover a panhard bar and panhard brace upgrade? I already bought a panahrd bar and brace but am willing to sell it if the watts link is truly that much more of a difference. I'm yet to find an independant review of one...

And since im starting stupid threads with annoying questions, I'll throw this out. I'm thinking of buying the cheap S-type $115 17x9 36mm-offset rims from americanmuscle with Nitto tires on them, and put these on strictly for autocrossing days. But, will they be that much of a difference over our stock tires or not worth the $1k.

You guys are teh cool.

 

OK, lets see, I'm talking with the experience on my old fox, I can't tell you if the rod LCA's are noisy cause mine had no interior in the back at all and had an all out road race suspension so it was obviously noisy. What I can tell you is that rod LCA's are great but not that much because of the strenght of the joint than the freedom it provides to the suspension (no bind). About the watts link, I understand the physics involved and it looks like a better design to keep the rear end centered than a panhard bar. Had never tested one.

On the tyres, if the nitto's you are talking about are R's I'll go for them, R's tires are apples to oranges compared to street tires, but beware they go away fast, so watch your budget.

 

wouldn't having all rod ends cause lots of vibration at high speeds, unless the road is super smooth of course.

 

Well I had that setup just in the back, never noticed nothing weird at high speeds, a friend of mine had a 4 link rod config (now one of the few fox IRS) in the back and the car all tig welded and never told me about that.

Harsh? yes, vibrations, no.

 

I currently have rod ends on both my pandhard bar and LCAs and, I hate to admit it, but I definitely should have gotten at the very least the combo ends. Yes, the car is extremely stiff and handles very, very nicely, but every time I hit a decently-sized bump in the road I get an obnoxiously loud thunking sound--almost like the suspension is loose (it isn't, though). So, as much as I love the way my car handles, when it goes in later this summer for some more performance upgrades, I may have to change things a little bit. The roads in Illinois just aren't very forgiving.

 

i have poly panhard and poly LCA and its noisy back there. like dom said. it sounds loose back there but isnt. I HOPE

 

I have combos, (see sig) it is only slightly louder road noise wise, but the squeaking poly bushings drive me crazy.

 

I thought my poly bushings were squeaking, but after tightening my relo brackets i'm not so sure. My brackets may have been causing my creaking sound. I'm going to look around for a shop to weld them in. Do they need to remove the control arms to weld the brackets? I'm assuming they would since it would get very hot.