The 2013 5th Gen delivers with a revised strut mount. The upper portion of the mount appears to be unchanged, but the lower mount and bearing have changed.
The redesign has nothing to do with any strut noises in our opinion. It is possible the driver was cost reduction. The revision to the steel and urethane insulator (the steel plate is wider and flatter) distributes load without the need of an additional plastic seat (the gray plastic on the older style mount).
The dimensional change required an adjustment by Pedders to our billet aluminum coil to OEM mount adapter plate. The 2013 plate has a larger I.D. center hole and is a bit taller. The 2010 - 2012 billet plate mounts directly to the OEM bearing / mount. The 2013 uses the OEM steel and urethane insulator.
Here is the Xa and Supercar coilover stack assembly process. It starts with the coilover, bumpstop, boot and washer.
Slide them on in that order.
Add the coilover spring.
Next we add the OEM mount. The gold tone washer is supplied by Pedders and replaces the OEM washer. We have already added it to the assembly stack, but show it here to make the process more clear. The black plastic coil insulator goes to the spring side of the billet aluminum adapter plate and directly to the OEM mount for 5th Gens made between 2010 and 2012. On the top side of the OEM mount we re-use the OEM black conical washer and 24mm jam nut.
The completed assembly looks like this.
The ONLY difference for a 2013 is that we re-use the OEM urethane and steel insulator. The complete assembly looks like this.
The top view for all years looks just like the OEM assembly.
The coilover stack is a bit different when using our new Dual Bearing Camber Plates. Discard the gold tone washer supplied with your Pedders coilovers. All you'll use in the assembly stack are the bumpstop, boot, plastic coil insulator, lower spring perch with banded thurst bearing, the camber plate and special nut supplied with the camber plate.
The assembled coilover with dual bearing camber plate looks like this from the side.
And this from the top.
How easy is that? Our next challenge is to make setting coil pre-compresion and ride height before installing the coilovers on your 5th Gen as easy as the assembly.
Setting the pre-compression on the coils is mission critical. Too many installers fail to read the directions because they 'know' how to adjust a coilover. When you lower a car by lowering the spring perch you lose suspension travel and compromise ride quality and handling. Bouncing off the bumpstops is not good in a high speed turn on a track. Let's get it right. Anyone care to watch the video?
Caution: This is a purely technical How-To. Grab an Double espresso before watching.
When you know how to do it right, it really is easy. When we did an install on Glen's 1LE at BlackJack Speed Shop we scaled the car before and after.
First, how great are the straight from the factory weights at each corner of the 1LE!?! Kudos and well done TEAM Chevrolet.
With Glen in the 1LE and a 1/2 tank of fuel the 1LE is track ready at 4131 stock. After adding Pedders 1LE 32mm rear balance bar, radius bushes, sub-frame bushes, front adjustable length endlinks and Pedders Supercar coilovers the 1LE is 5 pounds lighter. The ride height deviation side to side total on the stock coils is 12mm. Setting the coil pre-compresion and ride height as shown in the video the Supercar equipped 1LE has a total ride height deviation of only 3mm.
The front side to side difference in weight is reduced from 34 pounds factory to 21 pounds Pedderised. In the rear the OE difference is 50 pounds and the Pedderised difference is 56 pounds. There is a difference between scaling a car to identify the weight load at each wheel and corner-weighting when we adjust ride heights to balance out the weight at each wheel. We did not have time to corner weight Glen's 1LE.
We did have time to align Glen's 1LE with his dual bearing camber plates. Glen has a conservative daily driver alignment and an aggressive AC / Road Course alignment built in. By loosening four set screws at each of his front camber plates we can drop into street or track mode in a matter of 15 minutes. We added to additional holes to make the plate adjustment easier.
Glen will get them painted so the install looks super clean. Next take a look at the differences between Glen's drive to the track and don't wear out my tires street alignment and his ready to race alignment.
Trackside was add Negative Front Camber and Tow Out. We can add a LOT and then pull it back to the conservative street specs. The next time we work on Glen's 1LE we'll add caster bolts front and camber bolts rear. This will give us a greater range of adjustment to dial his already great handling 1LE in even more.
We hope this post makes you Pedders Coilover and / or Camber Plate Installation easier and more accurate.