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1,119
1,110
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Lenoir City TN
206
171
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Columbia, TN
Well, I'm tired of the front end popping and creaking, and last time I took apart the drivers side I found the strut mount had collapsed. So I though for sure I can go with the FP M-18183-C upper strut mount (basically the GT500 version, but I think slightly harder duro meter rubber) just to find out that very easy fix only works on 2005-10 struts. So now I'm looking at Steeda and Vorschlag's very cool solutions. Does anyone have any feedback on these? I read what Billy Johnson did and there is some info, but not really in depth. Both say 1 or 1.5 deg of additional camber adjustment, but I imagine if it do the holesaw trick to my strut tower opening I can get more negative camber... ? Any daily driver or track use feedback would be appreciated.


 
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536
Well, I'm tired of the front end popping and creaking, and last time I took apart the drivers side I found the strut mount had collapsed. So I though for sure I can go with the FP M-18183-C upper strut mount (basically the GT500 version, but I think slightly harder duro meter rubber) just to find out that very easy fix only works on 2005-10 struts. So now I'm looking at Steeda and Vorschlag's very cool solutions. Does anyone have any feedback on these? I read what Billy Johnson did and there is some info, but not really in depth. Both say 1 or 1.5 deg of additional camber adjustment, but I imagine if it do the holesaw trick to my strut tower opening I can get more negative camber... ? Any daily driver or track use feedback would be appreciated.


Spend the extra money and get Vorshlag plates. Well worth the the price, the support is good if you need to upgrade or change parts. IMHO.
 
1,119
1,110
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Lenoir City TN
Well, I'm tired of the front end popping and creaking, and last time I took apart the drivers side I found the strut mount had collapsed. So I though for sure I can go with the FP M-18183-C upper strut mount (basically the GT500 version, but I think slightly harder duro meter rubber) just to find out that very easy fix only works on 2005-10 struts. So now I'm looking at Steeda and Vorschlag's very cool solutions. Does anyone have any feedback on these? I read what Billy Johnson did and there is some info, but not really in depth. Both say 1 or 1.5 deg of additional camber adjustment, but I imagine if it do the holesaw trick to my strut tower opening I can get more negative camber... ? Any daily driver or track use feedback would be appreciated.


I have run both the Steeda plates and the Vorshlag on my 2011. I started with the Steeda plates, sport sprints, and Koni oranges. Set up was a lot better than stock. I ran them for 5-6 years until the Koni oranges needed replacing. The Steeda camber plates were still fine and are in my garage somewhere. I switched to Vorshlag plates, Steeda competition springs, and Koni Yellows. I have had the current set up for a couple of years.

Both camber plates work and have held up to street and track. The advantage to the Vorshlag plate is that it allows you to adjust castor and its modular design. The Vorshlag plates can be configured to most any suspension you may go to in the future without having to replace the whole plate. Also, the machining and quality is first rate.

The Steeda plates do their job very well in my experience and the quality is excellent. They do not allow castor adjustment and they are not upgradeable in the future.

I ended up getting about the same camber adjustment out of each of them even after cutting the strut towers and installing the Vorshlag plates. The Steeda plate and Koni oranges were not limited in adjustment by the hole in the strut tower. Nothing protruded through the hole so they moved under the hole. The Vorshlag Koni yellow combination protruded through the hole(adjuster on the strut), so I cut the towers to get more adjustment. The final limiting factor wasn't the amount of adjustment in the plate. The diameter of the strut/spring contacts the strut tower limiting the amount of adjustability. I need to move to coil overs with smaller diameter springs/shock bodies to get more adjustment with the Vorshlag plates.
 
206
171
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Columbia, TN
Wow, super helpful! Thank you. I do see the Vorshlag plates don't have any rubber between the spring and the plate, did you notice any issues with that? Or is there a rubber cover you can put over the spring to keep from metal to metal contact... steel spring to aluminum plate? Or I'm over thinking it and the steel spring on the aluminum plate runs just fine?
 
1,119
1,110
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Lenoir City TN
Used spring isolators on both set ups on the strut end with nothing between the springs and the top mount. No problems with either set up. I can’t say whether one will outlast the other. The Steeda mounts out lived the koni oranges. The Vorshlag mounts have been on the car half as long as the Steeda mounts were at this point.
 
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352
No experience with the Steeda but the Vorshlag cc plates are excellent. I installed them at 40K miles and my car now has 180K miles, it's a year round daily driver/weekend track car here in New England and they've worked great the whole way. I had them rebuilt once with new bearings and converted to fit coilovers. Durable, quiet, and easy to adjust from street to track settings in minutes. Customer service is good, quality is excellent, and it's easy and affordable to have them rebuilt or modified. Two thumbs up, well worth the extra initial cost imo.
 
206
171
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Columbia, TN
Great feedback! Thank you as my car is a year round daily as well. I'm just working through the final things I know need to be addressed before I feel comfortable pushing it on track.
 
206
171
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Columbia, TN
I've been dealing with random and odd issues happening during "spirited" driving where the Air/Fuel Ratio goes all wacky lean, the check engine light flashes, the engine misfires and is low on power, but will still pull, and then it settles down returning to normal 14/1ish A/R and drives great. It doesn't leave the check engine light on or store codes. So without codes I guessed and replaced all 4 O2 sensors hoping this would help. It didn't. While we were in the Smokies it happened again! Dang! Then after it settled down and drove normal during spirited driving the check engine light came on and I was able to check for codes which were: P0300, P0303, & P0305. Later on when I was getting into the car, I put the key in and turned on the ignition while my driver door was still open and heard the fuel pump as it normally does, but it did a weird hesitation/dip before stopping once it reached pressure. I started the car and drove like normal, but this is making me think that after 128,000 miles the fuel pump and the "lifetime" in take fuel filter are giving up the ghost. So I am going to replace it with a Deatschwerks higher flow rate pump and new filter so in the future I can run E85 without issue when I upgrade the injectors ... and port the heads with bigger valves ... and install bigger cams.

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206
171
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Columbia, TN
That same day I decided to install the Steeda Xtended lower ball joints, the Maximum Motorsports Bump Steer kit, and adjust the front anti-roll bar so it's as close to parallel as possible to the lower control arm pivot. 3 changes at once, oh boy. I had the car professionally aligned and it drives so nice. The front sticks now, where before it'd start to push as it loaded, so mild over steer, but near 50/50 balance which is what I was always aiming for during kart racing. I have to imagine this is a mostly the geometry change in the Xtended lower ball joints and getting the anti-roll bar as close to ideal as possible. I really need links that are about 3/4" longer as I was at the limit of the threads and had to thread back in a few rotations.

The steering is way better. I want to double check the Bump Steer spacers though as I didn't do it on a perfectly flat surface. Still it's way way way better than before. It used to really steer in and just go on it's own as you would enter a corner and you'd have to steer out slightly. In sweeping fast turns it would do this odd steer itself in and I'd then steer out and then back in and it would become a completely unsettling bob in and out thing you were trying to wrestle and find this faint neutral zone, weirdest thing ever! Glad that's gone. It's faintly toe'd in to factory spec, so eventually I'd like to toe it out a titch, but honestly adding some more negative camber might just do the trick for a track day.

The rental ball joint press tools are a joke. These things are so clapped out, it's ridiculous, but the second one got the job done after monkeying with it on each side.

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