Control arms: lowering the car, and stress and strain

[Shpyder]

My car has been lowered about 2.5" using Nex SS coilovers (1 piece type) and the car has a Revo Teknica camber kit. My suspension "click clacks" loudly when I make a slow turn that involves some bumps. I'm concerned on how the control arms and related suspension components are taking the load of the car's altered center of gravity. Would anyone like to comment on the stress levels the control arms and other suspension parts can endure, considering I don't drive it like I stole it?

[crunchymilk55]

of course it's going to cause more stress/less lifetime on your other suspension pieces. You should have gone with an adjustable setup so you could change the ride height depending on the situation.

[gthompson97]

Originally Posted by crunchymilk55

of course it's going to cause more stress/less lifetime on your other suspension pieces. You should have gone with an adjustable setup so you could change the ride height depending on the situation.

they are adjustable. what would adjusting the height have anything to do with it? the only adjustment you could make to not put anymore strain on them was back to stock which if that's what he wanted, he wouldn't have bought them.

shpyder: i think your suspension components are gonna under-go stress whether it's lowered or not. lowering it probably put a little more stress on them, but i've never heard of peoples control arms or anything breaking on them because of lowering their car. if your asking because of those upgraded upper control arms that you were looking at, i'd say go for them. it's not like they could hurt anything, just improve.

[Gsx_hooptie]

Lowering the car puts stress on the suspension, but as long as it's done right, there shouldn't be a problem for many miles. I'm worried about the noise you're making. Any idea where that's from?

[SilvrEclipse]

My car does the same thing Shpyder's does. When turning slow sometimes it will make a clanking noise, like something is loose.

[saturnspeed_12]

the only things ive ever known that it would put extra strain on is the ball joints, tie rod ends, and some bushings. oh yeah and the cv halfshafts tend to extend out, like if you were making a corner on stock suspension, just sitting still and straight. the car is riding as if it were with the stock suspension compressed. sure it wasnt made in that manner, but all the parts should be fine. i would look into a possible wheel bearing that is bad or tie rod ends/ball joints. have you had it aligned? if you havent and still cant find the problem, get it aligned and if its a problem with the suspension/steering components they normally will find it and cant continue till the problem is fixed.

actually the more i think about it id almost bet its a wheel bearing, if the problem was noted after the suspension was dropped. your camber angle would put extra strain on the wheel bearing if it wasnt aligned. your wheel bearing could have been on the verge of bad, but once the car was dropped the noise became present. i would look into wheel bearings and then too get it aligned.

[defiancy]

Change your control arms. I know control arms are pretty inexpensive for aftermarket ones and they don't take that long to change out.

I'm about to change the ones on my Cobra to eliminate the wheel hop.

[saturnspeed_12]

all i want to say is if its aftermarket it doesnt make it good. i can buy some special made, great quality materials used, stainless dog bone mounts for my car. yet the mounts from any company crack. my best choice is to buy new stock stamped steel mounts for a newer vehicle put in some urethane bushings and its way better.

i still say look into wheel bearings. i thought back to when i was working in a shop and remember a car someone bought used. they had new front suspension installed and noticed a popping/clicking noise. well we took it into the parking lot drove it real slow making turns. the noise seemed to happen alot more when turning the wheel while moving. i noticed the wheel kinda move and when he stopped i also noticed the brake lock up and the wheel kept moving a bit farther then stopped. well after being told by the woman what she wanted done, which we did, the noise was there so we did all of that and found that both wheel bearings had gone bad. woman was kinda mad since she was told by another mechanic what he found the problem was.

[HPNOTIQracing]

sounds like and ive seen before the spring is moving funny. its hard to explain the top of the spring moves when you turn the wheel but the bottom doesnt turn with it after a few inches the bottom starts to move, now under stress it clicks back into place. that might be it.

also did you think of the cv's? is it that type of clicking