Bill Black
New Member
Hi Everybody,
I just installed the steeda stop the hop kit (vertical links, toe links, alignment spacers, subframe braces, subframe bushings) also I installed the steeda diff bushings (black ones) front and rear sway bars, k member brace, steeda camber plates, cj pony parts raked springs, and 25mm wheel spacers. All installed on a 2016 GT PP with 3k miles on jack stands.
The wheel hop is gone... The car hooks up really good now, and handling is much improved. The car has less body roll, and has much improved lateral grip. I'm very happy with the results in that department.
I just want to say that I've been a steeda customer for 10 years and I think they are an amazing company with great products and great staff. I had all four stages of their gtrac kit on my 2004 GT with great results.
But..... that said I have some issues this time around and here they are:
1st Issue: NVH (gear whine) coming from the dif. I did install the black bushing and not the softer red ones but steeda claimed in bold type on their website that both these bushings "adds ZERO increase in NVH". Then in the next paragraph they said: "Both bushing options will increase performance with no increase in NVH" - This unfortunately isn't true. Don't take my word for it just read the reviews on the same page on their website and multiple people are getting gear whine/nvh with the red or black bushings. Now how bad is the NVH? Its not terrible but its not good either. Its very noticeable...I think I might try the red softer bushings and see if it gets better.
2nd Issue: A lot of squeaking and creaking coming from the rear. These sounds are much more annoying than the gear whine stated above. I'm not sure what's causing this. Could be the diff bushings, or maybe the sway bar bushings? vertical links? Thoughts?? I greased the hell out of everything so I'm shocked it's squeaking this much. I hear it mostly at low parking lot speeds going over slightly uneven pavement. I did ask around and a couple people asked if I torqued everything to spec at "ride height". I did this install on jack stands and I torqued everything to spec except the diff bushings as my torque wrench didn't have clearance to do so, so I tighten them as tight as I could with 2 crescent wrenches linked together. Everything was torqued with the car on jack stands with no weight on the tires. Anybody know how I could have torqued everything at ride height without it being on a lift sitting on the tires? And if it was on the tires at ride height how would I do that? Put all the bolts in snug and drop the car's weight down on the tires and then torque them down?? That sounds sketchy at best to my novice mechanic mind....Thoughts anyone? I'm not a great mechanic but I got common sense (most of the time) and I managed to get everything on the car and drive it to the alignment shop where my top notch mechanic thought everything looked good. btw the spring isolaters are lined up correct.
3rd Issue: I have a quarter turn of play in my driveshaft. My mechanic pointed it out to me. He thought that it was weird but he's never worked on a S550 before. Is this normal?? Could this have been created when I lowered the subframe and diff to put in the diff bushings? I hear the dreaded S550 clunk/thud much louder now too. Maybe thats because with all the stiffer parts the sound is translating louder? Or maybe its because that quarter turn of play is not right and now its louder because of it?
Has anybody else done similar mods out there? Are you having the NVH and Squeaking, driveshaft play I'm having? did u fix it? If so how?
thank you all so much!
-Bill
I just installed the steeda stop the hop kit (vertical links, toe links, alignment spacers, subframe braces, subframe bushings) also I installed the steeda diff bushings (black ones) front and rear sway bars, k member brace, steeda camber plates, cj pony parts raked springs, and 25mm wheel spacers. All installed on a 2016 GT PP with 3k miles on jack stands.
The wheel hop is gone... The car hooks up really good now, and handling is much improved. The car has less body roll, and has much improved lateral grip. I'm very happy with the results in that department.
I just want to say that I've been a steeda customer for 10 years and I think they are an amazing company with great products and great staff. I had all four stages of their gtrac kit on my 2004 GT with great results.
But..... that said I have some issues this time around and here they are:
1st Issue: NVH (gear whine) coming from the dif. I did install the black bushing and not the softer red ones but steeda claimed in bold type on their website that both these bushings "adds ZERO increase in NVH". Then in the next paragraph they said: "Both bushing options will increase performance with no increase in NVH" - This unfortunately isn't true. Don't take my word for it just read the reviews on the same page on their website and multiple people are getting gear whine/nvh with the red or black bushings. Now how bad is the NVH? Its not terrible but its not good either. Its very noticeable...I think I might try the red softer bushings and see if it gets better.
2nd Issue: A lot of squeaking and creaking coming from the rear. These sounds are much more annoying than the gear whine stated above. I'm not sure what's causing this. Could be the diff bushings, or maybe the sway bar bushings? vertical links? Thoughts?? I greased the hell out of everything so I'm shocked it's squeaking this much. I hear it mostly at low parking lot speeds going over slightly uneven pavement. I did ask around and a couple people asked if I torqued everything to spec at "ride height". I did this install on jack stands and I torqued everything to spec except the diff bushings as my torque wrench didn't have clearance to do so, so I tighten them as tight as I could with 2 crescent wrenches linked together. Everything was torqued with the car on jack stands with no weight on the tires. Anybody know how I could have torqued everything at ride height without it being on a lift sitting on the tires? And if it was on the tires at ride height how would I do that? Put all the bolts in snug and drop the car's weight down on the tires and then torque them down?? That sounds sketchy at best to my novice mechanic mind....Thoughts anyone? I'm not a great mechanic but I got common sense (most of the time) and I managed to get everything on the car and drive it to the alignment shop where my top notch mechanic thought everything looked good. btw the spring isolaters are lined up correct.
3rd Issue: I have a quarter turn of play in my driveshaft. My mechanic pointed it out to me. He thought that it was weird but he's never worked on a S550 before. Is this normal?? Could this have been created when I lowered the subframe and diff to put in the diff bushings? I hear the dreaded S550 clunk/thud much louder now too. Maybe thats because with all the stiffer parts the sound is translating louder? Or maybe its because that quarter turn of play is not right and now its louder because of it?
Has anybody else done similar mods out there? Are you having the NVH and Squeaking, driveshaft play I'm having? did u fix it? If so how?
thank you all so much!
-Bill
