I installed eibach springs, the kit that drops 1" front and 1.5" rear, and now I hear a clunking noise from the front area around the strut mounts. Hoping for some guidance as how to go about fixing this. Thanks for any help
You only "need" caster/camber plates if you lowered your car more than approx 1" moving you outside of factory spec, and then only if you didn't use camber bolts, such as these:
While your problem likely is the factory strut mount, it's not because they're bad, or at least they weren't when you started the process.
What I've found to almost always be the case is that if you are not careful when letting the spring decompress while putting the strut assembly (strut/spring/mount/strut nut) together, then the lower half of the strut mount will pop-off/separate and one or two things happen:
1. upper/lower half of strut mount are no longer snapped together and aligned and are not riding on the ball bearings/races between the two halves
2. one or more ball bearing popped just outside of the bearing race, and is jammed between the upper and lower halves of the mount, causing the actual strut mount halves to grind on a estranged ball bearing.
Either condition will cause the noise, and the only way to fix is to remove the struts, disassemble, inspect, and then reassemble after correcting. If you lost the bearings between the upper/lower half, you will need to replace the strut mount.
If you re-used the 2011+ Ford OEM strut mount and strut, then you cannot use a GT500 mount as suggested, only a OE Replacement from Ford or an aftermarket set of caster camber plates such as these:
Guy who did my work said the factory mounts are crap and come apart easy when going to install, not even sealed so bearings and plastic plate can shift around and throws everything off. He just installed new with them. I still get squeaks from the rear but going to grease them and hope that helps little. I will gladly trade the squeak for the amazing handling I now have though!
The factory plates are not plastic everywhere, just the piece that allows them to be snapped together, which does nothing once installed and has the spring and strut nut pressing the two halves together.
I'm not saying the factory isn't crap, but they work fine if handled with care when reassembling. Eventually the do wear over time and can contribute to some thumping noises in the front, but the noise the OP is experiencing is from not being aware that these things try to come apart on assembly, even brand new units come apart just as easy, same with the GT500 mounts, they just take a little finger pressure to pry the halves apart.
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