OK so maybe I'm an old fart but my car is noisier than the'69 Mustang I drove in high school and I'm tired of it. My car is a daily driver and I'm about ready to sell it and buy a C6 Corvette if I can't make it quieter. There seems to be at least 2 or 3 things going on and I'm curious if anyone has figured out how to fix it.

First, I get a ton of road noise from the rear suspension. It was fine after I had gears installed but once I lowered it and added the adj PB and LCAs I get either road noise or gear whine when coasting at speed. I'm thinking about taking the LCAs off to see if it fixes the noise.

Second, I get a load "thunk" every once in a while from the rear suspension when I'm coming to a stop...around 5 mph.

Third, at low speeds, there is a "thunk/rattle" from the front suspension at low speeds whenever I go over bumps. The Stealership said it was the springs rattling but that doesn't seem right.

Does anyone else have these problems? Has anyone figured out how to fix these problems?

I would appreciate any help! I don't want to leave the Ford family...

Jeff

 

How did you lower the car?? Did you install Struts and Shocks too?

Because the stock strut mounts in the front have a very big tendency to make noise when re-used. Popping and clunking noises all over the place.

As for your rear suspension, yes, the LCA are going to be noisier, becuase you have changed the bushings toa stiffer bushing. They now have less flex to absorb this shock, or noise, and it is transfered throughout the car.

 

I did put on the Tokico D-Specs when I lowered the car but I re-used the stock strut mounts. So new strut mounts would fix the front noise? Is there much benefit to the Steeda mounts or are factory mounts fine?

Jeff

 

The two most common choices for replacement front upper strut mounts seem to beeither the GT500 ones, if you can find them, or the Steeda, or similarversions.

After you lowered the car did you check your pinion angle? This link discusses how to do that - http://www.cherod.com/mustang/HowTo/LCA%20_adj.htm

Also did you reuse the fasteners or replace them - https://mustangforums.com/m_3886399/...tm.htm#4347979

 

I don't mean to sound like an *** but if you wanted lees road noise then why would you change out yourOE parts for stiffer ones. Also I had a thunking noise coming from my rear end a while back and it turned out being that my pinion angle was off soif your lowered I think its best to haveadj. lca's or uca because that would be my guess.I also heard that the Steeda strut mounts don't do a very good job, but when I lower mine im going with maximum motorsportsCaster Camber Plates (the use teflon coated sperical bearings have a limited lifetime warranty). And if your still not satisfied, it would be a bit pricey but you could always have sound deadening material applied through out the car, I'm sure that would help a lot, but like I said it would be pricey. Either way good luck!

 

I would venture to say if you modded a Vette it would have road noise also.

I have the J&M Camber plates, excellent, no thunking, very high quality.

 

That klunk coming to a stop around 5mph I wuold check your bolts on the LCA's
Are you getting the same klunk when you take off also?

 

Hi Jeff,

No, you are getting old and your memory has faded, the second generation Mustangs were hard riding due to the narrow bias ply tires in use at the time andvery loud from those samehard sidewall bias ply tires and much more free flowing exhaust,you just forgot about it over time as we all do. 8^)

Regarding your S197GT all those nice squishy rubber bushings you replaced with poly bushings for better axle location (hence control) have conspired to make your car a little bit noisier. If you used solid rod ends for the LCA's and Panhard bar you have it even worse than the poly bushed LCA's and PB cars!If you haveall-poly bushed LCA's and Panhard bar youcan improve your rear axle road noise without losing too much rear axle control by going to a pair of FRPP GT500 LCA's but you will still have other issues that you also need to address that have increased your rear-end noise levels. But the real problem is the use of conventional stiff 2-piece poly bushings which can significantly increase NVH into the cabin.

You loweredyour car using Eibach Pro-Kit springs which are very good springs buthave some unintended side effects (asdo all Sport springs that reduce ride height)due to thereductionin ride height you may or may not be aware of. By lowering the car this much at the rearyou have also changed the rear IC (instant center) reducing rear launch grip andcorner exit gripand moved the pinion angle to to an unfavorable angle which increasesthe angular load on theCV joints which can alsoincrease noise. Additionally there are other suspension geometry related issues not related to your noise question so I won't address them here.

We can't solve the NVH due to the use of stiff poly 2-piece bushings but we can address the other issues I mentioned. To solve these issues you can#1 raise the car back up to stock ride height restoring correct pinion angle#2find some way of adjusting the pinion angle usingadjustable UCA or LCA's #3 reduce NVH through your existing LCA's and or install a UCA with reduced NVH. Obviously you lowered the car looking for improved handling performance so option #1 of raising the ride height back up to stock is not a good option.This leaves you with option #2 or #3 which is to install some means of adjusting the pinion angle toa better more optimal angle decreasing noise and life of the driveshaftCV joints and knuckles and/or to find less noisey ways tomount the LCA's and UCA to the chassis while introducing less NVH. The problem is thatAFAIK there are no adjustable UCA or LCA's that use stock O.E. style vulcanizedrubber bushings sowhat you end up with is a slight reduction in driveshaft introduced noiseswhich are offset by increased axle noise being transmitted by theadjustable poly bushed UCA or LCA's. The net is a zero sum noise gain.

Youmay gain a slight NVH improvementand at the same time correct your pinion angleby installing one of Steeda's fixed length non-adjustable tubular UCA's using their three-piece bushings in conjunction with a pair of the FRPP GT500 LCA's. The Steeda tubular UCA is shorter to compensate for lowered cars so you don't need an adjustable LCA and they are using a new multi-durometer (hardness) 3-piece bushing. TheSteeda 3-piece poly bushings use ahard small inner donut of poly which retains excellent axle location and control witha pair oflower durometer (softer) outer bushings to constrain the stiff inner bushing which reduces NVH while retaining control over the axle under load and reducing bind in the UCA bushing over a conventional 2-piece hard poly bushing. There is still some bushing bind due to compression of the poly bushing as the UCA moves about the pivot bolt axis but much less so thanany of the2-piecehard poly bushing almost everybody uses.

Leave the Panhard bar and hopefully its matching PB brace in place. ThePanhard bar adds VERY little NVH to the cabin when simply cruising around on the straights and even incorners but add a lot of driving feedback and rear axle feel. Most of the NVHcomes into the cabin from LCA's UCA and anti-roll bars and rear damper mounts anyway.One other thing to check, are the rear damper mounts over compressed? If so this is a major NVH path into the cabin! Check to see if the rubber bushings in the trunk are not over-compressed. Theyshould only be very slightly squeezed when the top dampers nut istorqued down.

If the thunking is coming from the rear after the install you have an installation issue and/or a pinion angle issue. Get a 1/2" torque wrench and check your LCA fasteners and make absolutle certain that they ALL have achived full factory torque specs. If not torque them down and if they just keep turning without achiveing full torque stop turning them and go to the Ford dealer and order new bolts AND the flag nuts for those that keep turning without achiving full torque specs! Your fasteners are worn out! Do the same for the lower damper bolts on the axle brackets as they are easy to forget to torque to spec. If you still have the noise issues after torquing all the fasteners to factory specs you likely have an issue with pinion angle you need to address.

Your dealership is full of crap and or is ignorant, lazy and looking to not solve your problem. D-Specs and Eibach springs when installedproperly with new strut mounts and torqued to full factoryspecs are just as quiet as the stock strut assembly and they ride and handle a heck of a lot better to boot.

The noise in your front end is most likely the anti-roll bar end links at the strut tabs. You need to use blue Loctite on the studs and torque the nutsto proper factory specs toget them to work right and even then the noise can come back! You can also replace them with Steeda adjustable street endlinks or Powergrid endlinks both of which are much higher quality ball joints and have flats on the ball studs to allow easy torque to spec.

Theothersources of noise in the front end are the stock strut bearing mounts which use unsealed plastic bearings which break and get flatspots making the klunking and popping noises and the failure of the installer to achive full factory torque specs on the strut to upright bolts, strutmount to body and the strut rod to strut mount nut. Each of these has a specific torque value which must be maintained or noise will be an issue! The GT500 strut mounts work fine but appear to be nothing more than regular GT strut mounts with stiffer rubber bushings. A better option that may initially sound expensive (but are cheap if youconsider what labor costs areto swap them outa second or maybe even athird time the stockparts fail) are the Steedaadjustable heavy duty strut bearing mounts. These mountswill never break on you because they use a properly designed caged roller bearing for the spring seats and because they are fully rubber isolated theyintroduce no additional NVH over a stocktype GT or GT500bearing. Unlike the simple spherical bearings welded toplatestrut mounts on the market like J&M, GMS or GOK (god only knows)what other Chinese made junk is out there these are quiet and reliable due to proper design.You will have pay a bit more up front for the good stuff butyou willnot have to keep replacing them like OE mountsand you get no additio

 

Get the z06 if u can afford it lol.

 

All,

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm going to order the Steeda strut mounts and have them installed. The prior installer (me) probably caused most of the issues.

Jeff