So after my 45minute enduro race last Saturday I noticed a .... "creaking" ....in the car, specifically when turning or when the car was shifting weight.

I assumed it was bushings, or my springs, I didn't think too much of it, then I ran another 1hr Enduro on Sunday.

The issue remains obviously.

Last night I finally get a chance to look at the car, checked all my bushings which seemed fine, sway bar bushings could use some grease, end links look OK.

The sound is coming from the spring/shock area, I can replicate it by moving the suspension up and down with a jack.

After tinkering around I came to the conclusion that it was the spherical bearings in the SPL Camber Arms (V2). So I loosened up the bolts holding the A-Arm, hit the bearings with some white grease, worked the suspension up and down and it eventually went away, so I did it to the bearing that holds the spindle too, sound is gone.

Can I expect them to be noisy like that or is it un-common?

 

noisy - it will come back - I cant stand it sometimes but I deal with it..

Its common - I have friends that have SPL's and I have them too - all the same

Im always checking on them to make sure everything is good after drifting and auto-x

I dont mind lubing them up - just tedious..

 

Dang...Ok. I guess that's the downside to Spherical bearings...

 

ya - its that little movement that makes all that racket...

I knew something was up when I had my front in the air with wheels off and I could move the UCA (doesnt take much at all to duplicate)

 

How often do you find yourself needing to lube the bearings?

 

meh - mine comes back weekly...so I just do it after events or heavy driving in the rain.

 

There should be no movement in a spherical bearing other then the designed monoball articulation. If you can feel any looseness on the spherical bearing, replace it. It only gets worse. The best you can buy are made by NHBB: http://www.nhbb.com/

Also, on most racing teams, spherical bearings are replaced on a regular schedule. They are considered a wear item.

 

There is a recall on the V2 bearings. The V2 bearing is undersized and SPL has revised to V3, which is larger.

I'm not sure if the larger V3 bearings will help or maybe they need to change the design to incorporate a sealed unit with grease (like OEM) to keep the bearings well lubed.

The bearings make noise because they are worn and their is 'play'.

I'm still waiting on mine. The noise is getting louder and louder. So trust me, it won't 'get better' until you replace them.

 

Yes I think thats where it is coming from, the ball articulation. There is no looseness or play at all, it just makes a creaking noise, I assume the "metal on metal".

I've only had them on for maybe a week or so (bought used though), and only after my events on the weekend I heard this sound.

I've only greased them once so far, I'll see if it returns with daily driving, or only after hard driving.

 

Try using a long-life lubricant such as AMSOIL's MPHD metal protector. It's designed to cling to the metal longer than a standard spray lubricant, it also repels dust which can help prolong the life of exposed spherical bearings. When I used to race dirt late models all of our suspension parts used spherical bearing heim joints on them and we had clean and lubricate those weekly....obviously, racing on dirt.

 

Good info..

Mine had play when they were new.. thought it was just the way it was.

 

It is the spherical bearing that is making the noise. It is happening to me right now. If I remeber correctly they are doing the V3 replacement (but I don't know if they started the recall yet) Hope this fixes the problem. Love the arm but hate the sqeaks.

 

That would be sweet if they did -

 

If these are self-lubricating bearings then the grease will only be a temporary fix and may only help to accelerate the bearing wear. The reason is because it flushes out the teflon from the bearing liner system that is supposed to adhere to the ball.

There are a few factors that come to mind as far as what could be going on:
- the teflon liner system wasn't laid/set up correctly
- the surface finish of the ball isn't correct (should be Ra 8)
- poor swage of the race over the ball
- low teflon content in the liner system (particularly in the adhesive used which should contain a good amount of chopped teflon fibers).

Edit:
Looked up the bearing system in use - QA1 injection molded teflon/kevlar spherical bearings.
What's probably going on here is that the injection molding method doesn't allow for the teflon fibers to squeeze through the injection hole very well and you get primarily kevlar for a bearing surface which could come close to a metal-to-metal squeak. Additionally, it does not allow for even distribution of teflon around the ball (no garauntee that the teflon is uniformly spread around the bearing).

NHBB would be a good choice considering their liner system is a 3D woven fabric - especially if they'll sell to an automotive/racing application. I wouldn't necessarily call them the best because their technology was 'borrowed' from RBC Transport Dynamics.

 

Wow, some serious info. Thanks!

 

i'll have to watch for any recall information...

 

more info directly from SPL
https://my350z.com/forum/brakes-and-...50z-g35-2.html

 

just called them. They do not have an ETA on the V2 - V3 replacement. If you want to be notified as soon as the replacement (fix) is ready you must email them @ sales@splparts.com to get on the replacement list

 

Thanks dude.

 

This is to clarify the noise issues on our v2 a-arms...

I have received complaints about the noise but it has been difficult for me to replicate the noise issue in a controlled manner. I have no noise issues on our prototype arms that has been on our 350Z since 2008. This car sees constant track duty, with aero and slicks it has pulled 1.8g cornering, and has gone off track a number of times. So it has seen its share of abuse, however admittedly it does not see any street use and is garaged when not in use.

I did have 2 issues in the beginning. On the very first batch of arms, on some bearings that are "tight", there may be insufficient friction between the ball joint adapter and the spherical bearing, which can cause the adapter to spin against the bearing instead of transferring that motion to the bearing itself. We sent out a service pack to all affected customers, providing a bearing glue to attach the adapter to the bearing properly. We applied the bearing glue to all v2 arms shipped out from then on.

A second batch of arms had a slightly mis-machined adapter, it was not a problem unless the bearing glue fails. However that may happen if you bottom out the suspension or if the ball joint gets exposed to excessive heat. If that happens you should get a clicking sound indicating that the bearing is loose against the adapter. I can fix this, please contact me if you think you have that issue.

As for the squeeking noise, I am not 100% sure what the cause is. Some customers reported that happening after it rained, and some reported that it went away after cleaning the a-arms. So the most likely explanation I have is that it is due to residue sitting on the bearing ball causing noise when it rubs against the bearing liner.

The squeeking noise does not affect the function of the arm, the bearings are all still working properly. Cleaning and lightly lubricating the ball (and working it into the whole bearing by articulating it) seems to solve the issue.

To address the overall noise problem, I re-designed the arm (v3) to use larger bearings, generally that should reduce wear and friction, the trade-off is increased weight. I am also looking into the bearing quality, if is an issue I may have to switch to a different manufacturer of bearings. Whatever the fix is, I have decided to offer it free to current v2 arm owners. But because the noise is hard to replicate in a controlled fashion, it is taking a little longer to figure out the best approach.

Just to clarify, this is not a safety recall, there is nothing mechanically wrong with the v2 arms, but I do understand nobody wants a product that is noisy. So I am trying to fix it. If you wish to be updated on the progress on this, please email us at sales@splparts.com and I will put you on an email list and notify you as soon as we have the fix ready.