If you get ford racing springs it comes with dust boots

 

Gabriel Strut Mount, 143059 also branded as duralast. They work perfect, but $14 each.

 

I already have the Koni struts/shocks and Steeda springs ...


Thanks Ross !!!

 

Thanks again Ross for the Gabriel part number ... I picked up the Gabriel 143059 strut bellow/bumper kits at the local Autozone for $11.99 each even though they are listed at $14.99 each, and ordered 2 new coil spring "sleeves" (Ford part # 6R3Z-5L302-A) for about $8.24 each from the local Ford dealer, should have them tomorrow

 

Only way to do it. I still needed to have a spring compresor for the new springs. The steeda 2010 hd mounts are silent, btw. I used a wretcheting box wrench(set for $10 bucks at harbor freight) and a 9mm socket(iirc) to hold the shaft from spinning. Vise grips on the top nub, to take of the stockers in the rear. Alignment only took 15 min, so I gave the guy $30 and told him to set the Boss LS settings.
Btw, those gabriel bumpstops wont work. You need the frpp kit.

 

Does anyone run just the gt500 strut mounts on a 1inch drop? Is your alignment in spec? I'm trying to save money and not buy the steeda mounts.

 

You should be ok w/ 1" drop, it should give you a bit of negative camber.

 

WTF? Why ? I thought these would "work perfect" ... maybe just a small trim?

 

Trim at your own risk. You would have to make the hole larger. The frpp bumpstops are softer than stock and the gabriel ones seem harder. Whats another $30 in the grand scheme of things.

 

If I knew about them I would've ordered them.
Now the stuff is due to be installed in 2 days and I won't have time to get them ...

I test-fit the gabriel dust boots with the bumpers pre-installed in them and they fit over the strut rod just fine.
If anything, the bottom of the dust boot is too wide ... I thought I'd be able to zip-tie the boot to the strut body but I couldn't ... am I supposed to leave it loose ?

 

I think the stock ones are loose on the bottom....
If the bumpstops fit, you will be fine. Especially if the drop isnt too big.
Its pretty basic to do the install yourself, if you try.

 

Effin Koni ... they include dust boots for the shocks in the rear but not for the front struts ... WTF is up with that? For as much as they charge for these things they should come with new boots and trimmable bumpers.

And yeah, the shock boots are open at the bottom so it would make sense that the strut boots be loose too, but I'd love to be able to seal them up and not let DUST in there since they're DUST boots ... lol

 

You may not even see any camber increase. On mine after going to get it aligned the camber measured the same as stock.

 

Well, since I didn't get to install the struts/springs today, I just went ahead and ordered the FRPP M-5570-A bump stop kit ... seems they are about the same size as stock but softer so if you do bottom out it will be a softer hit

 

Update, Koni STR's with SVE Springs, GT500 Mounts and dust boots for the front by Gabriel, I also used Ford Racing Bump Stops.

Excellent, my total setback is about $625 my original struts are as is, reduced the install time by a few hours. I assembled the new system before removing the old one. The assembly took about 20 minutes each and then another 45 mins to remove and install the system, so about 2.5 hours total roughly working alone at a leisurely pace. I could have saved about $60 by reusing the dust boots and bump stops, oh well.

















I love the handling, accelerating feels strong and car seems to be stickier. I downloaded the BMW M App that has a GPS performance meter that measures 0 to 60 and G forces. It recorded 0.8 G lateral, but that is no measure I was on a small errand run only and max speed was 50 only.

I love this set up.

 

That looks really good ... makes me look like a total slacker not having my stuff installed yet ... lol

 

Gabe, you gotta get to it. I'll be doing mine this coming weekend.

To the OP, it does look good. What drop are the springs supposed to settle to?

 

Yep. especially since it shouldn't take more than 1 1/2 hours tops per corner

 

I know guys, I know, but I live in a condo complex where they frown on people working on their cars, so I need to set-up a time to do it somewhere else.
I have a friend with a closed garage but even though I can get the car in there, I doubt I can get the car out of there since leaving there involves driving up a slight hill with a very steep breakover, so the newly-lowered car would scrape like hell, and there's no way I'm doing that.

 

By the way, go to Sears and get the Craftsman Max Axxess socket set, it has a hole in middle to allow up to a 10mm socket to run through while you hold on to the big 21mm (or larger) strut top nut, no need of impact wrench. Google it, the 12 point is what I got and I was able to use the standard size on metric heads as metric stops at 19 mm.