Pfadt Lowering Springs: A-OK, no noise!

[PfadtRacing]

So, as C5 members have read, there have been about 6 or so people on the forums that have a faint squeak noise coming from their front struts after installing our Pfadt 1.25" lowing springs. Almost every single customer on the forums has not experienced this noise and these extremely few examples out of the thousands of springs have been rare at best.

However, as we demonstrated on these threads, it was extremely important to us to get to the bottom of the customers with these small noises. After having some springs sent back to us and installing them without any discernible noise present, we decided that in order to truly get to the bottom of this, we would need to fly some Pfadt employees to a Camaro5 member's hometown shop, Loud Pedal Motorsports, and experience and diagnose this faint noise ourselves. Loud Pedal is a phenomenal shop, and they have done everything in their power to help the customer. But it was time for us to lend a helping hand to a fellow C5'er (RedRocketSS) and see what we could come up with.

So the result of our visit yesterday to Loud Pedal, is that it looks like although the noise is very faint and happens only at low speed high-steering angle (like turning the wheel back and forth in your driveway), it was extremely repeatable. It was hard to hear at first but once we put a stethoscope on the struts we immediately could tell when it was happening.

The GREAT NEWS is that it was easily solved with repositioning the spring isolator material on the front coils themselves. RedRocketSS' Camaro had isolators installed (as they were shipped to him) on the top portion of the coil and one right below it, as in PIC2 below. Some members will only have one isolator, in the top position only, like in PIC1. The result, no matter what you have is that the isolator just needs to be in the lower position as in PIC3. That is all! To do this adjustment you do not have to remove the strut from the car, all you have to do is jack the car up and take the weight off of the strut assembly. As RedRocketSS has mentioned on the forums, the noise is no longer present and he is ready to truly enjoy his new Pfadt Lowering Springs.

Even better, if ANY MEMBER NEEDS MORE ISOLATOR MATERIAL to install, we have them in stock, ready to ship to you for free. It will be the recommended method for anyone with the faint squeak/pop noise, as it is a super-quick and easy adjustment.

Any questions, please just let us know. Glad we could get to the bottom of it and with this simple, easy adjustment, anyone can have a noise-free install of their 1.25" Lowering Springs!

And a special thanks to RedRocketSS for letting us check out his Camaro, and Loud Pedal Motorsports for the hospitality and superior customer service!

PIC1


PIC2


PIC3

[PQ]

Is this the fix for all of the recent mentions?

Reason I ask is so that we can refer any questions on the forums to this thread and feel confident that it's the main issue.

[SSSoon]

Originally Posted by PfadtRacing

The GREAT NEWS is that it was easily solved with repositioning the spring isolator material on the front coils themselves. RedRocketSS' Camaro had isolators installed (as they were shipped to him) on the top portion of the coil and one right below it, as in PIC2 below. Some members will only have one isolator, in the top position only, like in PIC1. The result, no matter what you have is that the isolator just needs to be in the lower position as in PIC3. That is all! To do this adjustment you do not have to remove the strut from the car, all you have to do is jack the car up and take the weight off of the strut assembly. As RedRocketSS has mentioned on the forums, the noise is no longer present and he is ready to truly enjoy his new Pfadt Lowering Springs.

Even better, if ANY MEMBER NEEDS MORE ISOLATOR MATERIAL to install, we have them in stock, ready to ship to you for free. It will be the recommended method for anyone with the faint squeak/pop noise, as it is a super-quick and easy adjustment.

Congrats on getting to the bottom of this guys. Sounds like a great solution! I remember asking many times if perhaps the isolator was in the right spot but we never thought of longer isolators...

I wonder whether it would have helped on my issue, which was solved when you took the springs I was having trouble with on my car and installed them on your car and they made no popping noises at all. Did you add these longer isolators when you moved them or did they just work find without any additional changes on your car?

[RedRocketSS]

Prior to this Pfadt also overnighted new springs to Loud Pedal the day before I was scheduled to go in for a dyno tune to see if maybe I just had bad springs.

Thanks PFADT and Loud Pedal for letting me be the guinea pig and getting rid of the noise! Glad it is a simple solution. Too bad I didnt get to meet you guys.

Here she is:

[phdjent]

I had the lowering springs installed on my vert about 6 months ago and had the clunking sound since day one. Slow speed turning like when backing up or moving forward. I've followed the few threads about it just to gain information. I've lived with it because I love the car so much and it just wasn't that big of a deal. I thought maybe having a convertible with some extra weight could have been an issue. I'm going to now look into this repositioning of the isolator. Seems like an easy thing to check. Can't do it for another week though. I'm away, but I'll keep you all posted. Pfadt, thanks for this info.

[RedRocketSS]

Originally Posted by phdjent

I had the lowering springs installed on my vert about 6 months ago and had the clunking sound since day one. Slow speed turning like when backing up or moving forward. I've followed the few threads about it just to gain information. I've lived with it because I love the car so much and it just wasn't that big of a deal. I thought maybe having a convertible with some extra weight could have been an issue. I'm going to now look into this repositioning of the isolator. Seems like an easy thing to check. Can't do it for another week though. I'm away, but I'll keep you all posted. Pfadt, thanks for this info.

sounds like the same situation i had. every morning when backing out of my driveway, turning into a parking spot and backing out with sharp turns it was there.

[Buffnshine]

WOW talk about dedication to customer service! This has constently been my expierence with the Pfadt team. Great solution and thanks for the info

[Apex Motorsports]

I had a feeling it was going to be something simple like this. Glad to see that the mystery has been solved.

[SSTG]

Originally Posted by phdjent

I had the lowering springs installed on my vert about 6 months ago and had the clunking sound since day one. Slow speed turning like when backing up or moving forward. I've followed the few threads about it just to gain information. I've lived with it because I love the car so much and it just wasn't that big of a deal. I thought maybe having a convertible with some extra weight could have been an issue. I'm going to now look into this repositioning of the isolator. Seems like an easy thing to check. Can't do it for another week though. I'm away, but I'll keep you all posted. Pfadt, thanks for this info.

Sounds like an echo in my head!
I will try it myself, thanks Pfadt!!!

[11SynergyGr&Bl]

Im in need of more isolator material. Ohh boy if this fixes the issue, ill be running up and down the street ^.^

[Xedes]

Dedication to their customers is a beautiful thing to see. Congrats on finding the fix!!

[Transfusion]

[davidcroft]

"So the result of our visit yesterday to Loud Pedal, is that it looks like although the noise is very faint and happens only at low speed high-steering angle (like turning the wheel back and forth in your driveway), it was extremely repeatable."


My noise was not very faint but I hope this is a FINAL solution and that clunk/pop is gone forever. Still have nightmares about that sound.

[RedRocketSS]

I wouldnt call it faint... Its a very audible popping noise. I was able to capture it from my iphone video camera from inside the car. I wouldnt consider it loud either but definitely noticeable.