MM caster camber noise

[StangPhD]

The majority of the posts about front end clunking is in regards to GT500 or OEM strut mounts. Burm me if you must but I am at my witts end. I have MM caster camber plates paired with Koni Yellows and BMR springs. I just recently started clunking on slow turns and bumps. WTF......Has anyone had an MM plate fail or am I indicting the wrong piece of hardware? Swaybar is gone, BMR K member, GT500 A arms and Whiteline Bumpsteer installed.

 

[Fullboogie]

Look to see if your springs are making coil-to-coil contact.

 

[StangPhD]

I will. What could cause that?

 

[BMR Tech]

I will. What could cause that?

The springs you have, are likely our dual rate design.

There will be several dead coils, that "stack" at ride height.

Occasionally, they can make noise. On a GT....the area that may make the noise is where the Linear rate portion meets the dead coils. On a GT500, the upper coils will sometimes compress far enough to rub the inside of the coil below it.

To give you an idea of what I am talking about, this shows how BMR springs work.

On that moving coil...the area between the compressed coils....and the action coils, is the transition point which can hit and make noise.

If that is the source of your noise, you can add an isolator to remedy it. The flaw with our spring is, we do not provide an isolator. Some companies do, some do not.

So anyways, it is not super common....but this can cause noise issues.

Call me if you have any questions. Good luck!

 

[speedfreak1000]

have you went back and tightened ALL the bolts. I know that may sound stupid but after installing all my suspension a few months later I had a few sounds. I went back over every bolt of everything I had installed and all the noises stopped. one was a swaybar endlink which you don't have but it would be worth the time if it stops the clunking

 

[2011/5.0]

Make sure u check the motor mount bolts. Mine loosened up after k install and redid them with blue loctite the nyloc bolts werent holding

 

[StangPhD]

All good suggestions. I appreciate all input. It has been raining here so I will take a look when sunshine returns......Thank you for explaining how the BMR spring works.

 

[Fullboogie]

I was hoping Kelly would chime in - and that was a very good explanation with visuals. On the other hand, it is very common for the sway bar end links to go bad and cause the exact same symptoms. Check those too.

 

[StangPhD]

My sway bar is deleted. I am hoping it is as simple as installing a spring isolator. If my plates have busted, I am gonna be pissed.

 

[VectorPat]

I had the same issue. My front end had never made any noise, even with the POS stock GT strut mounts with Eibach Pro springs and camber bolts. I put new on new yellow Konis, BMR sway bar and M&M CC plates. The first drive out the right side would pop on every turn and bump. Pulled it all back apart and found the top M&M plate had a small bend in it, possibly happened during installation. I flattened it back out and reinstalled it very carefully making sure everything stayed in place. I took it out and drove and now the left side was popping when going over a speed bump on the drive side. I pulled it apart and checked it and everything looked fine and put it back together and tried again, it still popped. This morning I pulled it apart again and was going to put the stock mounts back in because I just couldnt take it anymore. After i got it apart I decided I would give it one last shot and put the M&M plates back in. I just got back from a test drive and it sounds fine now. I have no idea what I could have changed, everything looked fine and was in place and tight. Something had to be off but it seems to be ok now and hopefully it will stay that way.

 

[Fabman]

The springs you have, are likely our dual rate design.

There will be several dead coils, that "stack" at ride height.

Occasionally, they can make noise. On a GT....the area that may make the noise is where the Linear rate portion meets the dead coils. On a GT500, the upper coils will sometimes compress far enough to rub the inside of the coil below it.

To give you an idea of what I am talking about, this shows how BMR springs work.

On that moving coil...the area between the compressed coils....and the action coils, is the transition point which can hit and make noise.

If that is the source of your noise, you can add an isolator to remedy it. The flaw with our spring is, we do not provide an isolator. Some companies do, some do not.

So anyways, it is not super common....but this can cause noise issues.

Call me if you have any questions. Good luck!

Help me out here....I understand the point of a variable rate spring, but what is the point of having the coils collapsed at ride height? What you have there is coil bind so basically the collapsed coils are no spring at all and only the linear part is functioning. What am I missing here?

 

[Whiskey11]

Help me out here....I understand the point of a variable rate spring, but what is the point of having the coils collapsed at ride height? What you have there is coil bind so basically the collapsed coils are no spring at all and only the linear part is functioning. What am I missing here?

It is done that way to keep the spring compressed and in the spring perches during suspension droop. About the same concept as a helper spring on coilovers just with one spring rather than two.

 

[Fabman]

It is done that way to keep the spring compressed and in the spring perches during suspension droop. About the same concept as a helper spring on coilovers just with one spring rather than two.

Ah, so it is done to keep the spring from falling out of the pocket.....that makes sense.

 

[BMR Tech]

Whiskey is on point, as usual.

Glad he could help.

 

[StangPhD]

I have been playing with the front suspension with regard to firmness of the Koni yellows. I had them full soft....clunk, clunk, clunk.....full still.....clunk, clunk, clunk.......settled on 1 full turn and now very little clunk. I guess the BMR springs I use are somewhat fickle about strut settings.

Then........every time I turn the steering wheel left at low speed, I hear a creaking noise now. It never ends.....

 

[eighty6gt]

Koni's seem like a common theme among clunkers. They are hated by the suspension engineers I know. For them it's OEM or Bilstein.

 

[VectorPat]

Its been over 2 weeks for mine and the pop seems to be gone. Mine are set full soft.

 

[Fabman]

So, is it the camber plate or the shock?
I'm getting ready to buy plates and shocks so I'd love to know before I plunk my hard earned pennies down.

 

[VectorPat]

I think it was something in the plate on mine.

 

[StangPhD]

Seems to be more strut setting/spring combo for my car. All I can tell you is that it is a lot quieter on the current settings.