Mustang Club of Maryland

I have the thunking/clunking reported on most of the major mustang forums. The long and short of it is, aside from a miracle, I believe that Ford is going to do anything it can to save money and not fix these cars. Therefore, I'm bracing myself for a rebuild of the front suspension of my 07 GT. I've looked at AirRide and Griggs [EXPENSIVE] and Steeda, BMR, Granatelli, etc. I'd like to think I'll do some of the High Speed Driver's Ed courses and get into Auto Cross, but realistically most of my driving is in DC which has some of the worst roads in history. . . Any ideas and mostly a realistic estimate of cost are much appreciated. I'd like to do as much of the work myself as possible, and I'd like to include struts, strut mounts, springs, a-arms, bushings, sway bar, possibly a Kmember and that's about it.

Ok, well here's what I've come up with. Would somebody please weigh in on this? Thanks!

210 Steeda Endlinks
230 Steeda Springs (4)
230 Steeda ProAction struts (2)
300 Steeda HD Strut Mounts (2) [already have them if they're not shot to hell]
400 BMR non adjustable AArms w/bushings
60 BMR A Arm Brace
100 BMR Tower Brace
$1530

Not cheap, but not the end of the world. And if you really want to get crazy, get the BMR tubular Kmember for another 400 and there will be nary a Ford OEM suspension piece left to worry about, warranty or no warranty!

If you were planning on tossing the OEM set up anyway, I'd say go for it.

If your only doing this because of the clunk, wait and see what for does. If it becomes a safty issue, Ford will have to make it right.

BTW, what are your plans for the car? Do you want to take it on the road courses / autocrosses? If so, this set up will help meet those goals. If it is because the clunk, I'd wait.

My $.02

Thanks for the response. . . Honestly, the first thing I want is a NORMAL, QUIET, 2007 NEW CAR that rides SMOOTHLY like every other car I've owned, new or very used. Secondly, I'm not confident that the dealership can do much of anything other than piss me off, waste my time, take my money, treat me like sh!t, and not fix my car. . . and this is based on PERSONAL EXPERIENCE not just emotions or hunches.

However, at the same time I do intend to try out Autocrosses and road courses. Having this car and only driving to and from work is absolutely unacceptable!

Defyant, know of any good shops that could install this type of setup?

I don't have any experience in Autocross/road racing, but I'm assuming that this car has too much body roll and needs some stiffening.

Blah blah blah.

I have a 2006 GT and have never experienced any "clunking" or "thunking" noises. I had the car about a year and started hearing a loud "click" noise from the right front when I applied the brakes. It would only make this click noise once when the brakes were applied. I made an appointment with my selling dealership (Norris ford in Dundalk) to have it looked at but the appointment was about a week in advance, and in the meantime, the noise stopped. I haven't heard it in 5 months.

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Wayne

thanks hare, nice cali special! i really like the front and rear fascias much more than the stock ones.

i had the suspension replaced and finally got rid of the suspension noises. BMR tubular Aarms; steeda shocks, struts, ball joints, endlinks, gtrac brace; adjustable swaybar from calistang; edelbrock strut tower brace, and more recently BMR relocation brackets and spohn poly/rod adjustable lower control arms. . . and would you believe i'm still not done!!!!!

this thing handles very well now. i like feeling the road and the tight suspension. i autocrossed twice now and this car is FUN!!!!!

are those the MAC mufflers on your car? and when you said three settings, do you mean the sway bar?

HI, the exhaust is Borla exhaust from the Ford Racing catalog that the dealer installed and it is the front sway bar that is adjustable. How you like your suspension now?..is it stiffer than the stock? Adjustable? I am not finished with mine either, but pretty broke now after all the FR parts I just had installed. Later, I plan on upgrading the motor with at least a more radical cam and tune...not sure about turbo or supercharging but as I visit more car club site, like the one in OC(Ocean City Cruise) over the weekend, which was awesome by the way, I like seeing what others have had success with. I found "Boss281" there, and his stage 3 cams sounded really nice, but he said he was still working the bugs out of the tune that the shop did. Where do you run the autocross? I would like to try that.

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Wayne

well, it's over 2 hours from you, but i highly recommend trying out autocross with the National Road Autosports guys. they run all the time at an airport and it is a blast! AC cobras, daytona race cars, formula fords, Cavaliers, stangs, z28s, and everything in between! it's only about 30 bucks and very friendly to new folks. very welcoming and willing to show you how it's done. http://www.nationalroadrally.com/index.html and just surf around. there are some local ones but i can't vouch for them. one's at ripken stadium with autocrossersinc.org.

my suspension is much tighter than stock, but it's not uncomfortable. much more precise, very little body roll. i'm very happy with what i have now. adjustable panhard is next on the suspension list and then there's not much left to do under there.

john [boss281] was very unhappy with the results he got from the stage III compcams. i hope he gets that worked out cause he spent some serious coin on that whole ordeal. my VERY inexperienced opinion is, from reading the forums, that the superchargers is the most bang per horsepower for your buck. basically i will have done all i can do for the most part once i get my tune and then i'll have to decide if i want to stay n/a or go forced induction.