Quote:
Originally Posted by rcleme05
Lousy luck with GC parts. First delivery had wrong camber plates installed .
Second delivery was wrong specs, partly my fault. Rattled as if broken.
Third delivery had out-of-box failure @ strut tower stud.
Three strikes. Lots of money, time and labor wasted. Immense frustration.
Their phone support was good but the product just failed hard.
FYI Broken strut tower stud, broke before vendor spec of 18 lb-ft. Other side was halfway gone in same location. The horseshoe piece flexes too much during install and the bolt separates from the head. IMO the allen-head recess weakens the bolt at the base.
--correction, the "weld" didn't break. The stud twisted off the welded head. ---
Fix involves dropping the suspension, fix/replace part, realign front end.
Attachment 363301 |
Did you use power-tools? Did you do the alignment yourself?
I bought a set of GC coil-overs used. Prior to the installation I knew there's potential for trouble, it had appeared to me that while the prior coil-over installation was correct (in fact I knew the mechanic who installed it), the subsequent alignment, since the shop that did the original install did not have alignment rack, the guys doing the alignment had over-torqued the nut(s). So of course when I went to install the used GC kit on my car, the weld on the stud broke off. I sort of had an inkling that this was going to happen, because when I received the used kit it had appeared that one of the studs had some damaged threads.
When I get the new plates in and installed, I'm going to have to leave a note with the alignment shop to make sure they PROPERLY TORQUE the strut nuts and do not use power/air tools. Sometimes inexperienced shops will use a power tool or an air tool and even an air ratchet can deliver enough torque to do some serious damage.
Otherwise the GC kit was by a very far and wide margin one of the easiest suspension installs I've done. Took me about 4 leisurely hours spread over 5 days at work, including about half an hour modifying the trunk trim with a Dremel to allow access to the rear shock adjustment.