I had Elephant monoballs installed in the stock top plates this past week. I had been hearing a bit of a clunk from the driver's front side and when I looked at the mount it was TOAST. As suspected the passenger side was not far behind. Cost was $900 for the install Picking it up I was told that the mounts were shot and that I had picked up a little NVH and there was still a "clunk". The shop doesn't seem to be a big fan of aftermarket stuff it seems.

I don't know what NVH I picked up honestly but the original clunk is not only still here it's WAY worse! Only seems to be the front left and anything but high speed smooth pavement is nothing but a telegraph of clunks but the wheel is steady. I have not yet lifted that wheel to give it a shake but would love some ideas on WTF is going on. I'm a touch miffed the shop did zero investigation into what in the world was making noise. Sway bar? Wheel bearing? If it's wheel bearing I'm going to be pretty irked they didn't notice as that can be dangerous. How hard to replace if that's the case? Somehow I have also picked up a screech on the passenger side too - sounds like some thin metal rubbing somewhere, it's not brake related and occasionally stops. I suspect this will be easy to find as it's gawdawful Brake shield maybe? Careless if they bent up one of those enough to hit something rotating and worse that a test drive didn't notice it but I'll wait and see before getting too upset.

Shop couldn't get the car aligned as they wanted. In addition to the monoballs up front I swapped out the stock rear LCA for what I believe are GT3 arms I got from John with monoballs and an adjustable solid center thrust puck. Rear toe links were swapped to monoball, locking plates were installed on the toe adjustment. They said they couldn't reduce the camber on the passenger side and as a result aligned the other side to that number - they had no issue reducing camber on the driver's side however which seems odd. They say the car isn't too low. No shims installed on the LCA. Up front they wanted more camber but with stock rubber pucks that wasn't happening. Here's the numbers they ended up with, note I'm no guru and didn't give them marching orders other than to tell them how I drive:




Sorry for the truly ugly image but it was printed so light I literally couldn't read it without a flashlight and I expect it will fade to blank in a day or three if I'm not careful so I snapped a pic and "enhanced" it. It's not clear why camber on the passenger rear side can't be made closer to -1%, -2&39 was the best they could get so they centered the rear with that. I didn't think these LCA were longer than stock turbo and had expected them to need shims! It drives fine and straight, no wandering, not exactly hanging any offramps or corners until the source of this banging up front is found though I can't judge added NVH with the noises going on but nothing has jumped out at me as obvious so far.

P.S. Ignore the "before" numbers as the car was eyeballed after parts install and I have no true "before" alignment numbers. I was hoping to get better tire wear, with this much camber I'm betting not

 

You have some issue going on here. In the front your caster is 8+40' on the left and 7+48' on the right. Not good. Has your car ever been hit? I'm not familiar with the Elephant stuff but I wonder if it's throwing the caster off? Unless you're tracking the car on slicks or semi slicks (which you're not), for a street car a new set of OEM uppers are the way to go in my opinion. You can correct the caster by installing the solid adjustable pucks in the LCAs, the same ones you have on the GT3 arms you got from me.

In the rear you should have no issues getting less camber than 2+39', easily 2 degrees or less depending on ride height. Something is not right there. Take a look at the camber eccentrics to see where they are set. By simply looking at them you can tell how much adjustment you have left. The GT3 arms you have are the same length as the OEM arms so you should have plenty of adjustment. Check the LCAs and make sure the shop tightened the inner ball joint properly to the LCA. They're 13mm nuts, 2 on each side. You should have a spacer under each nut.

Hope you get it sorted...

 

I'll take a look John when I can get a jack under it. The shop told me the GT3 arms were longer and they recommended removing them lol. I've never seen evidence of my car having been hit and the VIN comes up clean so it's pretty weird. They thought maybe something was bent in the passenger rear but that doesn't make sense and they didn't pursue figuring it out either. I'll try to look at the eccentrics and see what's up, I may also look for another shop to look it over. My last set of rear tires wore the inner edges badly but it was at least even side to side. Fronts have never worn weird.

First order of business is to find the clunking and the screeching. Really wanted to drive it tomorrow too

 

Sorry to hear you having these issues. I think you should try and find an alignment shop that works with track cars. Sounds like the guys you are using are used to aligning stock cars to stock specs? All the parts you have added should make it easier NOT harder for a good alignment shop to get the car aligned DEAD accurate. I was lucky that the alignment shop I used was amazing. All they do is alignments ( I say "they" but the owner is the one that does all the work himself and he is a track junkie), by appointment only and before starting he took the time to discuss my wants/needs. About 2.5 hours later I had the exact alignment specs I was after and the car felt incredible!

I went with John's advice early on and just bit the bullet and got brand new oem upper front top bushings (as much as it killed me to pay $400 for the stock parts!), even if they only last me 5 years I'll be happy with the total silence! That being said the mono ***** in the top plate are probably not causing any of the issues.

Good luck and I hope you get it all sorted quickly!

 

That's the weird thing, these guys had track cars IN the shop! I'm putting out feelers for shops in the NOVA area but I want to figure out the clunk and screech first (sigh)

 

Jacked up the corner, grabbed the wheel, pulled, solid! No wiggle, no clunk, nothing. Don't think this is wheel bearing so that's a relief? This weekend I'll look further and also find the silly screech, not too much drive time left I fear!

 

Jack both front and check sway links. If you only jack one side you will load the sway and may not see the issue.

 

I had a similar issue and it turned out to be the adjustable drop links were "adjusted" with the wheels off the ground.

 

Worked on this today, tl;dr clunk is fixed!

First Irish100p and looked for the screech, found nothing but we did pull a heat shield back on the passenger side rear although it wasn't real close. Took the car for a drive after swapping in my cats (quieter!) and the screech refused to appear. The clunk however was in full force! Driving by on the street nothing audible or visible, frunk up driving over a 2x4 a clunk was heard! Removed panels at ABS, battery, and the strut but found nothing obvious. Driving over the board again Irish had his head damn near in the frunk and his hand on the strut, movement!

I then climbed IN the frunk and had him go over the 2x4 with my hand on the strut top and monoball shell, strut top moved but not the shell - WTF?! We had a hard time getting a tool in the top of the struts rod and noted it was rusted with no tool marks. Other side was the same but top of the strut rod had an even larger hole. Managed to get an Allen in there and turned the nut on the strut rod about 2-3 turns :-O Test drive and it's smooth as glass!

I will be calling the shop to speak to them about this Monday. The alignment guy knew I'd had a clunk, told me it was still there, offered no ideas on what it was - he didn't turn the wrenches on the monoball insert though. This from a shop that actually asked me how much I wrenched on my car, did I want things perfect cost be damned, or was I budget sensitive? The monoball install bill itself was $900!

I checked the eccentrics, indeed it's pretty much max on the passenger side and close on the driver's side so I'm puzzled about the trouble with camber. They say it's not too low, but they also told me these GT3 lca were "longer than stock" and the source of my issues (sigh)

Very happy to have solved this, flabbergasted it was a strut not fully tightened! Felt nothing through the wheel... NVH with the new parts seems fine but not much driving YET!

 

I was going to suggest drop links (like VAG) for the clunk - because I would have thought that a shop would be capable of successfully replacing upper strut mounts. ​

As for aftermarket parts: many shops are not very positive in this regard because aftermarket parts often do not fit well, are of low quality, and break sooner. So, as a shop owner you have to deal with customers who do not like the idea of having to pay more for an install (despite the fact that it took much more time) and/or come back because the part is crap or broken. I was the same way when I managed a shop - tough we did do a lot of aftermarket parts. But unless I was familiar with the part and the application, it was always with the disclaimer of "if it takes more time, you pay...".

I would have been able to give you a recommendation for a shop a while back. One of my very first summer jobs while I was still in high school was delivering parts for what was then HBL Mercedes Porsche Audi in Tysons Corner. I knew nearly every shop that worked on Porsches in all of NoVa. But even if I could remember, that was 30 years ago...

Glad you got it worked out.

 

GT3 lower control arms are longer than the fixed. But you can remove the threaded studs and mill off 4mm and reinstall. This will get you stock length. Share pictures of the control arms, if you have some. The other thing to consider is make sure you are not running 997 gt3 control arms. Those are even longer. I am running the late 996 cup rear control arms and monoball.

 

Hmm, John said they were the same length and I bought them from him. I'll look for pics but a longer arm could explain it. When these guys *****ed a little I mentioned milling them some and they seem horrified at the thought lol. These have a monoball on one end that can be replaced or shimmed to extend the arm, 2 studs with nuts, and the other end is monoball as well. Looking I don't think I took pics before install so I'll have to get under the car one evening - d'oh!

 

It is not a big deal to mill them. Some people have two left hands when it comes to working on their cars, lol. What rear camber are you trying to get? Because if you are lowered and trying to maintain stock turbo camber, that my be tough anyways. And honestly GT3 control arms without adjustable toe links are a bad idea on a lowered car IMHO. When negative camber is increased on our cars, toe moves outwards. This means you have to extend the length of the toe rod using the eccentric to get toe back where it needs to be. Depending in your ride height getting less than -1.8-2.0 deg of camber may not happen unless you modify the control arm ends.

 

Adjustable toe links and locking plates are onboard,those went in with the lca. I don't have specific alignment specs I'm trying to achieve but was told this is too much camber. They could get into the range they wanted on the driver's side but not the passenger side so they squared it to the passenger side. Drives fine but was clunking so I troubleshot that and seem to have solved it. May have another shop check it out, my confidence in these guys is a bit shaken

I told them they could raise the car if necessary. They told me it wasn't that low,and that their cars were lower...

 

Yeah, i would take it elsewhere. They are likely missing an adjustment that will get an alignment in spec on both sides. However, i would advise against letting most shops decide alignment specs and what is acceptable and what is not. Especially if they are missing things like tightening bolts. I would have to really trust that shop. And many shops that do alignments, as I have been finding out, do not really understand alignment any more than what bolts to turn to get the car's alignment to match what the manual says. And unless you are at turbo or GT2 ride height, the manuals won't be much help. I know John and a few guys here are really knowledgable when it comes to that. Might be worth getting an alignment plan as for as a target camber and toe based on your ride height and driving style. Just my .02