I was looking into these lowering springs for my '07 V6 and saw that it had a combo deal for the camber plates. My question is can I do without these? Or are they highly recommended?

 

You can do with out the camber plates. They are not a must have but a nice to have item

 

With that being almost a 2" drop you will most likely need camber plates and an adjustable panhard bar. Who knows though, you could do without either and it might be ok.

 

Would these be better? The drop isn't as far.

 

I would go with the H&R, More people like the ride compared to the Eibach's. As far as the camber plates, you might be able to do without them and get the camber bolts instead. They only cost $20 from Summit.

I lowered my V6 Vert with some Roush Extreme springs. I replaced the shocks and struts at the same time with KONI STR-T Orange struts and shocks.
That combination lowered my car 1 inch in front and 2 inches in the rear. The camber bolts gave enough adjustment to get my car in alignlment. I didn't need the adjustable panhard bar. It had only shifted 1/8 of an inch.
I am very happy with my results.

 

I was actually looking into THIS KIT. Does anyone have any experience with it. It doesn't state the amout of drop though. I'll have to e-mail them.

 

For most cars and most drivers, you should plan on having to use some method of camber correction for more than about an inch of lowering. Camber that's up near the factory maximum negative value (-1.5°) is too aggressive for most folks' driving, even most Mustang owners.

Forget about using aftermarket camber bolts (aka crash bolts). Do it right with either camber plates or Steeda HD strut mounts. The steering and suspension on a fairly new car that you like well enough to be modding is not a smart place to suddenly cheap out on with the less glamorous parts.


Norm

 

Thanks for all the help guys. I'll invest in some camber plates as well then too.

 

Just for my information, what's so wrong with using camber bolts if they allow enough travel for correctly align the front end?

 

The most important thing that strut bolts do is keep the strut tabs and the steering knuckle tightly clamped together with no tendency to try to open up under hard braking or cornering. Any ability to provide angular adjustment is a convenience that is far, FAR less important than making sure that the suspension will stay together at least as well as with the OE pieces.

Your OE strut bolts are designed to provide at least 148 ft-lbs worth of clamping force (the coarse-thread bolts), while the aftermarket bolts are only good to something like 77 ft-lbs worth (about half). Insufficient clamping bolt tension was identified by Ford as a possible contributing factor in a few knuckle failures with the OE bolts, leading to a change in the OE bolts to fine-thread bolts (166 ft-lbs) and a related knuckle change somewhere in the 2008-ish time frame.

You probably aren't going to drive as hard as the people were when the knuckles failed, but why take the chance with bolts that you now know are only around half as good as the OE bolts that you'd be taking out? Can you absolutely guarantee that your driving won't exceed half of Ford's original design? Are you willing to sacrifice an unknown amount off the safety factors that exist for normal driving no matter how hard or not-hard that you drive? Are you driving the car "easier" now that you've lowered it than you did when it was stock-height? Or has the lowering encouraged you to drive it a little harder?

This is not the place to go cheap.


Norm