I have noticed some areas of the front coilover brackets cracking. (the brackets are bent. You can see it in the pic) I got those welded but i found new cracks after like 2~3 weeks of getting the old cracked welded.
i believe this is caused by the Energy Suspension bushings.
Should i just get the cracks welded, have the fabricator make new brackets, or have the fabricator weld 90 degree metal piece on top of the brackets?

 

Sounds more like the crappy quality of the coils is to blame. What are they anyway?

 

Stance Gr+. I never heard of anyone having this issue..

 

How much suspension travel do you have before you bottom out and put the full load on the coilover mounts?

 

it rarely bottoms out

 

I wouldn't trust that mount. I suppose you could add a plate on the side and weld it all around; seems there is enough bolt length to cover that.

 

i did a quick drawing of where to weld the plates. Would this be strong enough?
What kind of metal and thickness should i use?

 

From your current ride height, how much up travel does your suspension have?

 

does the energy suspension bushing have the steel sleave in it? it looks as if you are pinching the u shaped bracket closed....

-J

 

i don't know. I hit somewhat big bumps on the freeway but it doesn't bottom out.
what does this have to do with the topic?

Yes. IIRC, the steel sleeve wasn't as long as the length of the bushing.
The very first time i installed the coilover, i believe i had the stock bushings on.

 

^ then maybe they sent you the wrong sleeve with your bushing..ive seen it happen...

pinching the bracket, preloaded and cracked them...u need to loosen, inquire on the sleeve length and reinstall..

-J

 

If it cracked there once and you weld the cracks it will likely crack again.
Why not cut off the U shaped partbon bottom and put on a thicker one? If not I would add a gusset to strengthen it.

 

This & maybe have the welder do a second pass over the weld to strengthen it up some? would be all I could add.

 

being that you have true coilovers and the car is designed with the bumps top in a different location and your car is dumped to the ground. I would say your car is hitting the bump stops all the time , that part that should it be load bearing is taking a beating. The beating leaks to bending and cracks.

 

as a reference i have another person that checked his Energy suspension bushings at the Shock to translink location and he measured his to be 1.67 inch, where whiteline bushing sleeve measures 1.77 inch. (45mm = 1.77 inch).

That's enough to preload and crack....

Here is whiteline W52992 for reference:



I'm not in favor of ES bushings for these locations....these bushings should be one piece press install bushings, not two split in to pieces like ES....

-J

 

ES kindly sent me new bushings with new sleeves.
He sent me the original sleeves that come with the bushings, and sent me new sleeves that are .1" longer than the original sleeves to see if this can work out.

Should i use a flat head screw driver to try to pull out the old ES bushings while the control arm is still on the car? or just keep the old one..


Left one is the .1" longer sleeve. Right one is the original sleeve



If the new sleeve, .1" longer, sticks out of the bushings when it's installed in the control arm, would this be ok?

 

Yup,

My new koni yellows got pinched enough to crack the paint. I've installed energy suspension bushings on 3 cars and it def seems they did their least R&D on the z.

I just swapped the ES shock bushing in question with whitelines. Issue i see with the new wider steel sleeve they gave you is your shock is no longer pinched but can float for and aft 0.100".

 

i installed the new sleeve with .100" longer than original. The shock is floating lol.. You can see the gap in the pic.

The right coilover bracket is cracked and sh** but the left side shows just little paint crack haha.

i think it's either the bushing is not made "thick enough" or the shock bracket is not made narrow enough to sit perfectly.
looks like my only choice is to go back to original sleeve and weld reinforcement places.

 

It's the width of the ES rubber. I would suggest the white lines, they require pressing the new bushing in.

 

Can somebody explain to me...a suspension dummy...where the float is happening?

I know welding though. And the weld material is likely a ER70S, which has a tensile strength of about 70, 000psi. If its breaking the weld I would be more concerned about where those kinds of forces are coming from than just trying to reinforce it. Just me...but that weld isnt the prettiest but unless it has some defect I cant see, its taking a lot of beating. Reinforcing that bracket will transfer those forces elsewhere, not get rid of them. Im no suspension guru so there may be factors involved Im not aware of.