Strut Mount question

[rocky61201]

I've had a set of J&M Caster/Camber plates on my car for about 10 months and they are starting to squeak something fierce when turning during slow speeds around parking lots or pulling into driveways, ect.... Probably squeaks at high speeds as well but road noise cancels it out. I think I might have trashed a bearing or two or three.

To be fair my daily commute round trip is about 80 miles so I've put at least 15,000 hard miles on these strut mounts. Is wearing out aftermarket strut mounts after 10 months/15k miles reasonable???

I can't go back to stock or GT500 strut mounts because I need the adjustability. There are only 4 manufacturers I know of: J&M, Maximum Motorsports, Steeda, and BBK. All are priced similar so money isn't an issue. Anybody have long term/high mileage success and which brand did you go with????

 

[46addict]

Are you sure the noise is coming from the camber plates and not something else like ball joints or tie rods?

I had the Steeda mounts on my 08 for 25k trouble free miles before I ended up selling the car. Before that I had the GT500 mounts which failed (started clunking over bumps) in a few thousand miles, so I would advise against those even if you didn't need adjustability.

 

[rocky61201]

90% sure the squeaking is coming from the strut mount. With car in garage, hood up, and not running so I had no engine noise to deal with - I had my son sit in the car and turn the wheel lock to lock a few times and stuck my ear everywhere I could high and low to isolate the noise.

There is a slight chance it could be ball joints or tie rods but I jacked the car up so I could stick head underneath to listen down below. Now the suspension wasn't loaded so the squeaking went away.

With the car jacked up I checked and I have no free play in the ball joints, tie rods, or anywhere else. Everything felt solid, plus the car still handles/turns great at any speed. Note: I replaced the controls arms/ball joints, inner/outer tie rods, shocks/struts/mounts all at the same time 10 months ago.

 

[TerlinguaS197]

Can you take the mounts apart/ and rebuild them? I know some coilovers have that same issue, but that is due to the coil binding and not the strut mount. Maybe regreasing the bearings will give them new life?

 

[Pentalab]

I used the steeda HD strut mounts. They allow for camber adjustment only
(no caster adjustment). So far so good. Both fronts set to -1.5 deg of camber.
The Vorshlag caster / camber mounts are more expensive, but built like a tank.

 

[rocky61201]

Thanks for the info guys. What sucks is it's my daily driver so whenever I tear it apart I've got to have it up and running for the next day. The vorshlag's look good. I'll probably order a set and tear everything down and inspect for the issue. If I can rebuild what I have or it's something else I'll deal with it and return the vorshlag's or put them on.

I have SR performance 1.5 lowering springs and koni struts with moog replacement control arms w/ball joints. There isn't a lot of space between the bottom couple spring coils so I thought maybe coil bind as well. But at rest the spring isn't being compressed at all and the coil moves as one with the strut mount, spindle, ball joint, and strut when turning the steering wheel. So I ruled out coil bind. It's gotta be the strut mount or ball joint. It's the only thing really turning when turning the steering wheel and it squeaks really loud like an old door hinge in your house that needs a shot of wd-40.