I confirm the part# 8R3Z-18183-B.
After I sent letters to the Ford Board of Directors, Ford Customer Service
and Bill Ford, Ford Engineer Ralph Arning sent my dealer the 8R3Z-18183-B.
Dealer replaced both struts also as they were both leaking.
Repair completed 6/5/07

I found this info in my THUNK file.
The new mount will look identical to your original except the mounting studs
a few mm's longer. The real change was to the compound of the rubber used
in the mount. The "chuckle" or "loose lumbar" was attributed to the radial
and axial rates on the mount. The new rubber compund corrects this issue
and thus corrects the loose lumbar noise from the front suspension. I've
compared the test graphs of the two mounts and there are drastic improvements
to both the static radial and the static axial rates for the new mount.

Edit: You may find this interesting. From my Thunk file.....
Also, although it's not necessary, adding the 4R3Z-5025-A X member brace will
help with the load put on the upper mount. This may explain why the convertibles
do not have this problem.

Hmmm...Soon after this the braces showed up on the hard tops.
I went with the CHE K brace.

 

Thanks for the added information. This just about wraps up the dreaded clunking issue common on the S197 Mustangs.

I also confirm that my 2008 GT has the cross brace bar from the factory. My car did NOT clunk with the strut mounts on my OEM setup. I wasted almost 400.00 trying to fix it when I should have kept the original updated mounts that came with my car.

 

Glad your thunk is gone. In the letter I wrote to Bill Ford, I told him my front end sounded like a 71 Pinto.
It was very frustrating. Brand new frickin car. I was amazed when Mr. Ford's secretary called me at work.
Then the Engineer called my dealer and fed ex'd the parts.

 

I'm glad too. After all my research, 9 times out of ten, people should avoid using any other strut mount on a S197 than the revised OEM part. Some say they have no clunks with the Steeda HD mount, but I did, and nothing I could do would make it stop.

 

I'm going to add to this conversation because I have done tons of searching and everywhere I looked it said the strut mount clunk did not apply to convertibles, even the TSB.

I have a vert and had the clunk, just replaced my strut mounts with the 8R3Z-18183-B and I can tell you it made a HUGE difference. No more clunking! I do have the cross brace and also had the clunk until I replaced the strut mounts.

 

Ford Racing now sells a M-18183-C version now ... from the 2011 SVT Performance Pack.

http://www.fordracingparts.com/parts...KeyField=12451

 

I'm curious what was changed in the -C part. The letter after the dash at the end of the part number is the easiest way to denote revision.

-A is the original part - don't use or clunks are imminent
-B is the 1st revision that cured front end clunk
-C is an upgrade to the -B revision and adds a higher durometer bushing.

I do believe this is a part that has SVT higher durometer bushings, and doesn't have the popping/clunking issues with the -A original part. The original SVT part was also a -A version.

 

Funny-I lowered my '05 same as yours, and now at 30k the thumping sounds like the front end is coming off-terrible(started at 10-15K). Everything is torqued. From all the research I have done-it is either the sway bar or the strut mounts. Got new end links, but haven't installed yet. Is the Racing "C" version better than the "B"? Does it also cure the clunk?

 

I recently switched from a Eibach Sport with stock to H&R Sport with Tokico D-Specs and it started about six months later. I'm willing to go $100 in the hole to give this a try.

 

Hey I am new to Mustangs so forgive me if I ask a stupid question. I see this thread is 208 pages long and I cant read all of it. Anyway, on this page I saw TSB so will Ford fix this for us? I have an 06 and have this noise everytime I hit a bump.