I have installed Tanabe GF210 springs a few months ago and recently installed a set of Tokico HP shocks. All was fine. The day after installing the shocks, I installed a set of SPL front upper A-arms to get some camber adjustability. Now when I hit a big bump or pothole I get a big banging noise from the front end. It only happens on these occasions and not on normal bumps or on the highway.

I have tried a few thing. First I put a little more negative camber up front incase the SPL arms were longer than stock with the posite camber adjustment to make sure they fit in the pocket during suspension travel. Today I also took out the fender liners thinking maybe it was hitting that and that is what I heard, although I thought it sounded much louder than just hitting plastic. I cleaned out the wheel well and noticed a small indent in the metal running right above the arm on bot the passanger and drivers side. I was going to try to grind a little of this away to see if that would fix the problem (pic attached of the metal I am talking about on a pic from the install instructions).

Not sure what else it could be as it was fine with just the shocks the day before and all I removed to install the arms were the 2 bolts connecting the upper arm to the body as well as the upper ball joint. I also had to morve the struts out of the way to get the bolt out so I unbolted the sway bar and the top and bottom of the strut.

Any thoughts or others that have had the same issue?

 

what version of the arm did you buy?

how much camber are you running?

how far is your drop?

fwiw i had some spl arms--street version and had no noise whatsoever.

 

They are the street version, they aren't hitting where the ball joint is so the profile of the street vs race isn't the issue. They seem like they might be hitting somewhere between where they attach to the car and where the 2 arms join into one. Again not sure if that is what I am hearing or feeling but there is a small indentation on the metal strip above the arm. No marks or dents on the arms that I can feel though.

Car is only dropped 1" in the front and am running -1.5 camber. I was running stock camber in front right when I put them on which was more like -.07 but wanted a little better cornering and to make sure the increase in arm length was not the issue. With the drop before the camber kit my fronts were -1.6 and -2.2.

 

yeah man, i got nothin.

kuah is on here so maybe he will chime in with something to check. i had no issues with mine so i can't give you any more advice on what to check. i think its physically impossible to install them on the wrong sides.

 

PM replied!

 

I sent him a pm the same time as the thread with the link to see if he had any suggestions.
Just gotta say your service is second to none, wish all companies treated customers as good as you guys do. Hopefully we can figure out if it is the arm that is hitting and it we need to modify it at all like you suggested.

 

i had the same problem mike, but it seems they are redesigning them. so ill wait and see what they come up with. i want to slam my car lower than it is now but i need the adjustments the spl's offer.

 

Would I run into this problem when I install the *race* version?

~Robert

 

With the race version, the ball joint has a little less clearance, but in my case it wasn't the ball joint that was the problem. The top of the arm was hitting on the strut tower when fully compressed. Here is a pic from SPL showing what they are doing to fix the problem. I haven't got them back yet so I can't say how it worked but will update when done.

 

Good deal. Can't wait to see how it works. Im ready.

 

With the race version, clearance for the larger ball joint will be the limitation, so it would not have the same problem.

 

I remember when I did my research on them but I haven't has any question at the time. A shop I know mentioned that they can hammer somewhere in the fender to give it more clearance due to the beefy ball joint. Is that true?

~Robert

 

Here are some pics of my actual arms that I just got back. They did a great job cleaning them up and replacing all worn parts under warranty.

 

Cool... My race version hasn't had any issues yet but my drop might not be as extreme as yours. Other than the occasional squeekies these things are great.

 

Just to update even with the arms ground down, the arm still bottoms out before the ball joint does. It is still making the banging noise although it only seems to be on the right side now and only on the worst of bumps when the suspension fully compresses. I decided to just live with it as is as I don't want to have to deal with installing these yet again.

SPL was top notch in supporting their product so I have no issues or complaints with them. May just be due to the spring/shock combo I am running, maybe it compresses a little more that the stock shocks? I am running GF210's with Tanabe HP Blue's for reference.

 

I think you mean Tokico right?

~Robert

 

Yup sorry Tanabe springs Tokico shocks

 

damn i don't mind beating or even plasma cutting into the fender well to make these work, but im dropped a lot lower than those tanabe's.