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I can guess what you are driving T5 NG or 9-3.
Would you describe the steering at 'darty'?
Did you redo the toe-in with all of these changes?
When the toe-in is wrong, things can feel and act wrong. I prefered very small amounts of toe-in or zero toe-in, but that can make the vehicle a bit darty, as there is no preload on the tire sidewalls.
What is your tire pressure. Higher than spec? Try lower for a while. With high pressure and new tires, the camber makes the tire work more on one edge until the tire wears down a bit. You can also feel similar effects when rotating tires front to back.
I have a toe-in guage. Quite difficult to use on these vehicles with so little ground clearance. I know from many tuning iterations that small changes in the toe-in can make a huge difference. So do not discount this. Changes to the control arm bushings can throw off the toe-in.
When you drive, toe-in creates forces in the suspension. This force 'winds up' the bushings and tire side walls. With stiffer bushings, those will not deflect. So in stock trim, the bushing deflections make some of the toe-in go away as the bushings move. With your mods, the stock toe-in spec can be too high. This might feel odd, but can also make tires unstable on slippery pavement or ice etc, as the tires are fighting for tracking control. High tire pressures will also magnify the effects of toe-n to some extent. Abbott used to recommend a higher toe-in. I concluded that this was silly and dangerous. Brad agreeded that it might create some dangers with a daily driver on wet roads and such.
Noise: What are you running for upper mounts and thrust bearings? Some aftermarket bearings seem to bind. When you turn the wheels, the bearing resists movement and that causes the spring to wind up a bit. When the bearing resistance is overcome, the force in the spring will release suddenly and it has a recognizable 'sprong' vibration that is characteristic of something with a still spring energy storage rate and heavy mass. So you can tell that it is not the 'creak' or 'click' of a sticking tie rod end or other such thing. Yes, check the rack - any movement of the rubber between the clamp and the rack?
I would double check the bushing clamp bolts and look at the SF for visual indications of movement or fretting wear against the body mount points. Also check the bushing and fastener that joins the two control arms. Nick has created an improved bushing design where the hardware is stronger.
Noise with the wheels in the air will be a different situation from the vehicle resting on its tires.
Are the rear tires overinflated? That might create some steering artifacts that are uncomfortable. Another steering artifact is roll steer. A SAS type rear sway bar will make most of that go away. Do you have a SAS type rear sway bar?
Where were you able to source the control are to SF bushing?
With these changes, you are developing higher steering induced reaction loads in the system. All the more reason to check to see if the rack, SF bolts or bushing bolts are not doing well.
posted by 69.149.14...
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