I have also been told that with stiffer springs in the rear you get a clunk because the Focus setup in the rear allows for about a 1/4" of travel for the top of the shock. The clunk comes from the washer hitting the rubber stop on the top of the shock. A guy on FocalJet makes a shim to stop this. His name is P-51 I believe. They are cheap (20 bucks or so) I've been thinking about getting them for my car also.
What do you mean by stiffer springs? Just meaning about anything aftermarket? I mean... i wasnt aware of this before hand.. and im sure as hell not taking anything out of the car... does your car clunk also joe?
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It's not about what you have under the hood, it's about who you have behind the wheel...
I mean stiffer shocks actually, sorry. Either way to answer that question, with a stiffer shock, when the car hits a bump the shock actually will resist compression much more than the stock shock, the stock rear suspension is designed to give easier, and also has a bit of room to float in order to make the ride smoother. That amount of "floating" room is about a 1/4" or so. When the shock is compressed the top of the shock can actually move upwards about a 1/4 of an inch, and then when the shock is allowed to settle back to rest, it takes up that 1/4" of space. With a stiffer shock, when the shock is trying to be compressed, the whole shock actually moves upwards, and then when the shock can move down again freely, it will do so rapidly and the thunk you hear is the top washer on the shock actually hitting the black rubber thing on the top of the shock mount. The shims that P-51 sell actually take up that space which do two things. Get rid of the thunk, and give the ride a bit more stiffness in the rear by eliminating that extra motion. Mine also thunks and I've only got the SVT stuff on mine, but I think mine does it because I also have the rear sway bar on there which is hella enormous. The shims are cheap like I said about 20 bucks. Installing them is easy really, you would remove the nut on top of the shock and put the shim in, and then reattach the nut, you don't have to actually take anything out of the car to do it. I've been thinking about doing this for about 2 weeks now.
Last edited on Mon May 16th, 2005 06:45 pm by RPIJG
03, i get the same clunk from the rear end as your describing. my drops a eibach sport line 2.0 front 2.6 rear? with the eibach dampners. on the front end, i had to go with the camber kit, even maxed out im still at 1.5 degrees off, but its suffecient enough for me. thing that sucks about that camber kit, when you turn the wheel, it clunks and makes a slight pop, i guess its the bearing spinning. but it works !!! tell your boys great job on the car and congrats.
FocalJet makes a shim to stop this. His name is P-51 I believe. They are cheap (20 bucks or so) I've been thinking about getting them for my car also.
