Get on aim joe i need my spoonfeeding of info

 

Cool, what's the word on the larger upper plates and bigger holes?

 

That eye shaped part that rests on the steel plate should have larger area to support more of a load.

The holes in the steel plate will be 10 mm so there should not be any slop with those 6 bolts when adjusting caster.

 

Oh FYI to anyone that had those Traux fender braces. Mark would be willing to make a similar set powder coated black braces for around $2xx shipped. I emailed him the pictures from the fender brace threads.

It would be easy if someone sent him a brace for him to copy and could have a prototype set made in a few days.

 

So is anyone other than me getting a set of these plates? Or will the Org **** off yet another vendor?

I would like to keep OEM around as they are willing to make suspension parts for us.

 

... Now you know why BlehmCo quit bothering with new development....

 

I might buy a set of coilover mounts for the future. But I would have to wait at least a month. I need to talk to you bout the different sized springs(the 60mm and 2.5in) and some brands I have found.

 

Wait, you're only getting 3.6deg caster with both the plates AND the SuperPro offset bushings?

 

Yeah I am starting to think the lower control arms in my car are not good. Car was in an accident years ago before I owned it and think the arms and/or front subframe are screwed up.

 

im trying my best to save up to get these..

 

I will, I promise, just have to get paid. They were also about 50% more than originally thought, so that might have turned some people off.

EDIT: They are offering 15% off everything this week so now is the time to buy some of these mounts.

 

Enter 15off at checkout, very nice!!!

 

I'm sorry, I just want to make sure the design is finalized before I buy them. Did OEM make the changes Matt recommended in post 110?

How are yours doing in terms of noise/harshness?

 

Plates are ok for noise for a spherical bearing plate.

They started to rattle a little but I removed the strut rod nut, used some locktite on the strut rod threads, and tightened them with my impact gun. The noise went away and has not come back, I recall my Stillen plates did this as well every few months.

Other than that they seem ok. I didn't goto Watkins this week because of some injuries I had from falling a few weeks ago. However I will be going to Calabogie on the last weekend of this month for a ton of road course driving.

 

I emailed Mark (from OEM) yesterday and he assured me that the "slides" (eye shaped piece) "will be a larger diameter", as per recommendation #3. I can't speak to Matt's recommendation #1 because I have Eibachs so I didn't ask, but the OEM website has an option for "slim style to hats" if you want coilovers. And recommendation #2 does not apply in this case because OEM only has bottom mounts for sale right now.

 

Ordered!

 

The new plates got done today. They are cut like the ones I did myself, so they should goto max caster without any interference from the stock sheet metal on the strut towers.

Users should see around 3.0~4.0 degrees positive caster when getting an alignment. Try to get the most positive caster you can with both sides being equal regardless of what kind of driving you do. With the camber, -1 ~ -2 degrees for road course/auto-x and 0 degrees camber for 1/4 mile/high speed stuff. Toe should be 0 for stability or slightly towed out for handling, like 1/16" ~ 1/8" total toe out.

Also as an added bonus the plates I have now weighed two ounces less than the Stillens, so that's a plus. These being cut more will take off even more weight.

 

I ordered a set today myself. I'm looking forward to getting these in my hands.

 

Yeah 1 & 3 should be taken care of. He says the new plates are in production and will have pictures of the revised designs soon.

If we ever design the top mount plates I will try to have Mark make the bottom mount coilover option upgradable to the top mount plates. All it consists of is an aluminum top mount "hat" that sits over the strut towers. The eye shaped part that housings the bearing is the same along with the cone shaped spring hat. We will see what the future holds but I won't make any promises.

As far as the plates go everything seems fine and its been about 400 miles of driving. They came lose after about 100 miles of driving but I tightened the strut nuts with the impact gun with the car on the driveway.

I am really liking the rotational needle bearings I am using on the struts. Car corners so easily and smoothly now even under hard corners, where they binded with the Stillen plates/stock strut bearings. It feels like the steering could use a couple of more degrees positive caster but that should be addressed with the ALCAs if they ever get done.

They are no worse than the Stillen plates in regards to noise or harshness. But don't excpect these to be quiet like the stock style strut mounts.

"Durability testing" will be conducted when I get this car on the track with the R-compounds. If everything holds up then I will be happy with this product. Being coaxial the new design should work alot better than the binding the old Stillen plates caused. Under very hard cornering the Stillen plates clanked and binded causing some weird handling and steering feedback. I thought my Koni struts were dying it was those old plates causing issues. I feel with all the street driving I've done there hasn't been a moment under cornering where these new plates binded or caused weird feedback. Just the urge to take the same corner faster next time.

 

Just got back from Calabogie this afternoon after 1600 miles of driving and of that 120 miles of on track driving that these plates have held up pretty good.

Remember to use blue locktite on the strut nuts when you thread them onto the struts or they will come loose after a few hundred miles. I acutally removed the strut nuts when the suspension was installed and the car was on the ground. I was able to get some locktite on the nut and tighten back down with a couple of blasts from my impact gun.

Mark told me has 3 sets completed and they should be sent out for shipment by now. Any feedback would be greatly apprciated. Also if you have an impact gun to install these plates it makes things much easier.

 

So to the three that bought these plates any problems? compliments? concerns? angry threats?

Mark was wondering how they worked and if you are happy with them tell others to get the word out.

 

Well we're in the process of installing these right now before a race tomorrow with regular Eibachs/Konis and have some problems. I'm missing this nut:


So I can't do the install.

 

Did you ask for them when ordering?

There is a thing to select the strut nuts when ordering online. I do not know why Mark just doesn't include them. I think he wants people to make sure they have the correct thread and pitch when ordering I guess.

The strut nuts will only work with his plates and without them people can't do the install. He was charging $25 extra for these strut nuts at one point and I told him not to because it was BS IMO. He then changed his mind and included the strut nuts in the pricing but you still have to select them when ordering.

Email OEM and he will send you out a set of these nuts.

 

I must have missed it when ordering....d'oh! I thought they were included.

What's the thread and pitch for Konis, 12x1.25?

 

Yes. All the struts that I checked that replace the front factory struts are M12 x 1.25, including the Koni yellow inserts. What I have checked so far Stock, KYB AGXs, Tokico blues, Koni yellows.

However for example the Progress coilovers are M12 x 1.5. So people with coilover setups need to double check before ordering.

 

I just checked and I am missing this nut as well. I haven't had a chance to do the install yet, but I looks like I'll have to be contacting OEM also. The website lists that part as "Nuts" which is kinda vague. You'd figure that for a part that was integral to the use of the mounts, it would be a little more clear that you need these.

Maxrider, did you contact OEM yet? Was Mark understanding?

 

Mark has been helpful, but they cost $10 apparently. Oh well, money sent. They shouldn't send out an order without the nuts in it. That just doesn't make sense.

 

Yeah, I agree completely. The mounts are paperweights without the nuts. Somewhere along the line I wish some thoughtful person had looked at my order and said, "These can't be installed. I should contact the buyer."

 

I told Mark several times to include them in every order and not to charge $25 for the strut nuts. These plates are useless unless you machine your own or modify some generic ones to work.

 

I installed my mounts this weekend and everything went pretty good. The only real hang up was that the slots for the three bolts that secure the mount to the tower needed to be filed a bit to fit M10 bolts.

I attempted to use a star washer on the underside to keep the bolt head from moving so I could tighten the nuts up top, but it didn't work as well as expected. The bolts seem to be staying tight, but I'd really like to get a wrench on the heads. Unfortunately I can't due to the tight quarters. Any suggestions?

The increase in positive caster really seems to make a difference.

 

Impact gun those bishes from the top.

I have M10 bolts I used a washer in between the bolt head and on top of the strut towers I used flange nuts to hold everything together. Once I got the caster adjusted I hand tightened the nuts and TQed them down with my impact gun. This was a design problem from the get go because there is little room in between the stock style springs and the bolts underneath the strut towers. If we used fixed studs there would be no way to change caster without making an even more complicated design.

Again Mark was supposed to tighten up the slop for those 3 M10 bolt sliders, I wonder if he actually did at all. I would have to compare the plates in person or get accurate measurements to tell properly.

 

I broke the passenger side mount headed home from work today. I was on a back road and my phone rang. I shifted my weight and reached my hand in my pocket. Along the side of the road was a storm drain that was about 6 inches below road level. I didn't have a chance to avoid it because my left hand was in my pocket instead of on the wheel.





Joe,

what do you think the chances are that Mark would sell me only one mount?

 

Did your wheel/tire/strut survive that impact?

I think he would sell you one plate no problem, he may even send one for free. This accident makes me wonder if this design is solid enough for our cars. The eye shaped part that holds the bearing may have to be made out of steel, not aluminum. Along with thicker steel plates. Granted not having any rubber there like the stock mounts have make these impacts 2~3x worse than with stock upper mounts.

I am surprised the eye part didn't crack, it looks like the steel plate bent and it cracked around the strut nut housing. Not the places I would of thought these would break at.

Slightly off topic but this is one reason why rally cars have heavy duty strut mounts that are not adjustable, those rally jumps do a number on the strut mounts. The suspension bits are made to be adjustable for camber/caster/toe.

 

The tire is still holding air and there are no obvious problem with it. The wheel is not bent, from what I can see with the naked eye, but maybe tomorrow I'll take some measurements. The Koni's seem really good at dropping compression damping to almost zero on hard impacts. There are a lot of bad roads here in PA and I've been worried about them in the past, but they have always held up. This was the hardest impact I've every felt though, so we will see about the damper.

I completely agree with everything you said there and reached the same conclusions earlier. I decided that this was in effect a trade off of a solid mount over a rubber one.

Looking at it, it broke exactly where I thought it would. The relatively tight radius on the aluminium makes the stress in the area highest. In the front of the mount, you can see where it cracked right at the point where the barrel that holds the spherical bearing starts. That radius is damn near zero.

That would make my day.

 

Ouch... sucks to see it happen, but that's what happens when you put "race" parts on the street. That stuff would hold up fine at the track and in 'normal' driving situations. But as soon as you throw in a 6" deep pothole, you'll snap those high $$$ racing parts into bits. they're not made for high shock impacts. Race cars don't hit potholes or go airborne. when they do, you wind up replacing lots of stuff.

anyway, I would think these guys would definitely want to take a look at the part from a failure analysis standpoint. warranty? not if they knew what happened, but you might get lucky and they'll handle it. I would defiinitely tell them what happened and send them the broken bits to analyze for possible future design changes.

 

I do agree with your first point. I am not surprised it broke really, just bummed. I've been around the SCCA for years and I know what happens when a formula car goes off course.

I already sent emails to OEM and let them know what happened. I don't really think lying to them about how the mount failed is what I would call responsible or classy, both things I like to consider myself.

Mark told me he can sell me replacement mounts and slides at a discount rate, but did not elaborate on what the cost would be. I am waiting to hear back from him.

 

When I still had my Maxima, I had Tein Basic coilovers with Stillen Adj Pillowball mounts up front and Tein Sentra B14 Pillowball mounts in the rear. I had my Maxima set up for AutoX which was fairly popular in Southern California at the time. I lived in the Mojave Desert and I drove 70 miles one way to work. If you've ever driven desert backroads in this area (CA-18, 138, 58, El Mirage Rd) you would know that they are typically in horrible condition. I would do everything I could to avoid potholes on a daily basis, but every once in a while, the roads would get the best of me. I never once had any mount failures of any kind. However, I did bend a 17" wheel that was wrapped in a 245/45 series tire.

This can only mean one of two things. The quality of the Stillen and Tein upper mounts are just far superior products and you get what you pay for, or these custom parts have a long way to go before they can be considered a quality part suitable for the harshness of daily driving. I'm not trying to bash these guys as I can appreciate any new vendors willing to expand the small aftermarket support that we have available for our vehicles. I just want to make sure that fellow org members are aware that these kinds of mechanical failures are not common, nor should they be considered acceptable, even for a daily driven vehicle. Just my opinion.

 

That says alot for Koni too surviving an impact like that. Who knows, maybe it absorbed enough to keep the mount from breaking off entirely? I used to blow struts every time before my steel stillen plates.

 

I would go through spherical bearings on the Stillen plates about once a year or so. They would not crack it was just wear and tear which made them get noisy over bumps. The plates themselves held up to a bit of abuse, though I never hit any major potholes. Just alot of small potholes and crap pavement that is common up in this state. Along with bumping some occasional track curbing. However its only a matter of time before I hit something big and kill these OEM plates.

The Stillen plates are similar design except the part that houses the bearing is steel and not aluminum. But the plate is aluminum but IIRC it is thicker than these steel plates. The guy I got them off had the Stillens on his car for almost ten years and I only hade to replace the sphericals before I put them on my car.

The only advantage is that these OEM plates are coaxial and have some adjustable caster. Also I can talk to Mark and make design changes without much arrguement. I am pretty sure if you show him those pictures Im sure he can make us steel parts to hold the bearings with a radius machined at the base to reduce that stress riser (I am an idiot for not seeing it on the prototype ). It is unusual that a vendor is willing to make new parts and not complain about the low volume. Then again we have to do some of the engineering and real world testing.

 

Well after I removed the strut assembly from the car, I noticed that corner had no compression damping any more. So it really didn't survive, but it doesn't leak either.

I sent him pictures with my email and he said he was going to forward them to his machinist.