Ok, SPC has spent some serious time analyzing this situation. The first thought was there might have been a part change during one of the year transitions. They have compared the Nissan part numbers on all of the parts in question and state that all model years use the same part numbers.

They brought an 03 in and installed the kit and did not have any problems at all with the sensors. The engineers at SPC started to think about any possible installation error and came up with the possiblity of overtightening the sensor bracket. So they tried this and in doing so bent the bracket far enough to wear the sensor would not work.

Therefore, they think the issue may lay in tightening the sensor bracket. The next step is having one of the installed brackets mailed in for inspection. I am going to contact Aleok to ask him to mail them in. As soon as they receive them, they will compare them to the uninstalled brackets to see if they are bent enough to cause the sensor not to work.

I really appreciate everyones patience and will keep all of you updated on the progress.

How about the camber arms hitting the fender wall? Could this be fix or nah?

The fix for that is to raise the car.

awwwww man i loved the way my car looks. Guess i gotta buy some coils now

I'm dropped almost 1" and I'm having the issue with the arms hitting when I hit a bump. I don't feel a 1'" drop is that significant where I should be having this problem. You get a camber kit because you are dropped and what good is it to have tons of positive camber adjustment if your arms are going to hit the fender walls.

Sean, since you didn't install the spacers are you having any issues with the arms hitting the fender walls? My thought is to take out the spacers hoping that I can get it back into spec although I can see any reason why the spacers would cause this problem.

Hindsight, I should have gotten the SPL's but I just want to move forward. It's really irritating to hit a bump and the sound just resonates throughout the car. I hope SPC has a fix for this otherwise, I will be one unhappy camper. :mad:

I will talk to Peter asap and let him know of my displeasure and also call SPC as well.

Mark

boooked*

There was a thread i saw maybe a week or 2 ago, about having to mod the top of the fender because the SPC, and SPL arms would hit the top. i looked at the top of mine, and i see what they were talking about, but my arms cleared...

I'm dropped on 350Z S-Techs, which is over an inch. I don't hit or scrub or hear any noise and I'm running 20x9 and 20x10.5 with 255/30 and 285/30 tires. It's amazing to me that you guys are having issues. My install was easy and I have had no problems or noises.

For you guys that hit, Jack up the front and see if you can see where it is hitting the body. Post up, with pictures if possible, where you are hitting and what is hitting. There is a possibility that it isn't the A-arm, but something else hitting because of the drop. That will help diagnose any issues.

Richboy, I was half kidding with my last post. You could be so low that any a-arm (or another part because of the drop) will hit. Look under there and see where it is hitting.

LMAO. Easy for you to say when ur car has no problems. :rolleyes:

I feel u man...I dont really care when it hits but it gets annoying when like over bumps it just keeps on hitting the fender wall. I wonder if SPC tested over bumps and pot hole or anything when they released it.

i know its the camber kit cuz my installer looked at it and said..yeah its the camber kit thats hitting the fender wall. He told me the same thing that u told me only way to fix it is to raise up the car.

Do any of you guys think this is happening cuz u didnt get the car align yet im going to get my car align today so ill see whats up.

What part of the cobtrol arm is hitting? The arm, top nut, the end of the outer end?

Sounds more like the outer end.
The top nut is pretty flushed.
the more your dropped the more of that end is exposed causing clearance problems with the fender wall.

I got an alignment and I still hit so that won't solve the problem, sorry to say.

For me, it appears to be the top of the A arm that is hitting the underside of the engine bay wall. The metal of the engine bay is formed with a downward buldge above the firewall side of the A arm. This is where the hit occurs on my car. I honestly don't see a way around this. I think all camber kit manufacturers are using tubular metal contruction for their A arms which is taller than the OEM cast peices. Cast aftermarket kits would be cost prohibitive.

If a fix can be made for this, I'd love to have it, but it seems that firming up your shocks is the only quick fix at this time.

Kenetix camber kit I considered buying although I declined after my research because of all the squeaking issues. Correct me if I'm wrong but the Kenetix have 2-3 degrees of positive adjustability and I've never read where their arms hit but their issue was again squeaking from the bushings? I was just curious because their arms look very similiar to the SPC's and was wondering why they don't have the same issue.

I'm taking my car back where I had the camber kit installed and had the alignment. I spoke with him briefly to setup the appointment and he said that the amount of drop has nothing to with the arms hitting. He explained why but till I see it I didn't fully understand :confused: but I will post the results tomorrow.

keep us posted man

First let me say that in the Bay Area, Auto Innovations are first rate. They do many spring installs, alignments and come highly recommended by the members on this forum who has used their services.

I went back today to have Orlando take a look at the noise issue. There were no markings on the camber arm that we could see. The only little mark that was visible was at the top of the adjustment bolt and a small mark on the top of the fender. He thinks that is where my noise is coming from although because all cars are not created equal that there is a possibility that on some cars the arms could hit the inner fender lining. That would be a better case, has he says the lining can be trimmed away to give more clearance. We went for a ride and he could tell that it was metal against metal although in 2 instances it sounded like the arm did brush against the inner fender lining.

I asked him about the sensor because I had the same issue with the light and my brake pulsating. He said the bracket is pretty flimsy and it was fortunate that he didn't torque it down, so he was able to reposition the sensor and everything was fine. He said that being that the sensor arm is so flimsy that if it was over torqued that it could do damage to the sensor.

I believe we all need to put a complaint into SPC and to Peter. We all bought in good faith that their product was as stated but even if they correct the problem (in my case I don't see how) I'm going have to pay for another install and another alignment, which I think they should be liable for. :mad:

So now when you go in R u dont have the ABS lock up anymore?

Mine never did.

guys i just sent my brackets. hopefully SPC will test them and get back to me soon. i think (if that overtightening is the problem) they should make the brackets out of iron or something, lol. something stronger than thin aluminum.

I talked to Doug (one of the techs) at SPC today and he told me they have a revised bracket and a new lock down screw. He told me the old design screw was difficult to tighten and when you did torque it down it would skew the bracket possibly doing damage to the sensor. The other possibility is that the bracket got so skewed that the sensor could never be in the correct location to pickup the magnetic signal.

Are you having problems with your camber arms hitting? I'm only dropped 1" and the adjustment bolt is hitting the top of the inner fender, which I find totally unacceptable. I was told to talk to customer service concerning a return although I'm also want compensation for my cost of installation and alignment.

There will be a thread started tomorrow for a poll to see how many ppl are having issues with the SPC front camber kit. If we can get enough ppl with issues together and bring these issues up as a group, my hope is that something will get done. They would have to address these issues rather than hoping we just go away. We in good faith paid money for their camber kit and if their kit fails to accomplish what it was designed to do then I feel they are the ones who need to make it right whatever that is.

thats exactly what i noticed, and i wrote doug a little note about in with my package. ha.
about the camber arms kitting, i'm not sure i'm i'm having the problem or not. i've been driving very carefully lately, and i've hit like 2 or 3 potholes since summer. and every time it was a really HARD hit, because i'm dropped so low. i'm not having any knocking, that i can hear with nomal driving. but i'm sure when i hit those bumps the arms hit, but the hit was so hard that i can't say that it was the arms or not.

oh, and something else, i'm worried about is this chit chit chit noise. like my tire is lopsided and rubbing my fender. but i know it not. and when i take off the tire on the passanger side, the rotors are pretty hard to rotate, it seems like my rotor is warped but i don't know how it happen. maybe the spacer un-install messed something up. guys got any ideas?

so are we getting new brackets?

Since the spacer is located behind the hub, the spacer should have nothing to do with causing that sound. The only way the spacer could cause a problem is if before the install your wheel fender clearance was already tight and by adding the 5mm spacer it would push the wheel out causing a clearance issue. Your rotors being warped could cause this noise although I would also check your calibers and brake pads. Do you feel pulsating when you brake? If you do, I believe that would be caused by the sensor not picking up the magnetic signal activating the ABS. If this has been going on for a period of time I don't know if this could cause the warping of the rotors but it might be something to look into?

Let me know where and when you are going to start the poll.

I talked to Doug yesterday and he indicated that anyone that has problems with their sensors will get new brackets and new lock down screws.

SPC indicated to me to let forum members know who are having any issues to contact them directly.

SPC: 1-800-525-6505

ok i started a poll in a new thread below.

https://g35driver.com/forums/brakes-suspension/126054-spc-poll.html

"oh, and something else, i'm worried about is this chit chit chit noise. like my tire is lopsided and rubbing my fender. but i know it not. and when i take off the tire on the passanger side, the rotors are pretty hard to rotate, it seems like my rotor is warped but i don't know how it happen. maybe the spacer un-install messed something up. guys got any ideas?"

I was thinking that if your sensors are not working the VDC would activate which means it would show that your wheel or wheels are losing traction, which in turn would apply light braking to that wheel. Whether that light braking would be enough to cause the rotors to warp, it would be something to check into.

IMO, if you have issue with your sensors I would switch off the VDC.

if ur sensors are on, that means VDC is off, so i dont think there would be any braking there.
maybe ur bushings are making the noise?

well my shims and brackets are off the car right now. so it basically stock with the a-arms. i don't think i notice any pulsating when braking. how do i check my rotors and calipers? to see if there warped??

ok, i did some aggratative driving tonight. to stur up any car problems. i discovered that the chit chit noise is coming from both front sides, more on my passenger side, and is not very noticable when first starting to drive, but on the way home its pretty noticable. i am having no pulsating when braking, and braking is normal. i took a hard turn and experianced a "knock knock" from my passenger side (taking a left turn). i tried to replicate it, but i couldn't, so maybe it was a bump in the road. and i can see my steering wheel isn't straight, because i havn't gotten aligned yet.

i circled the area where the bracket screws on to the hub.
i have a washer that goes on the hub, and then the bracket, followed by the nut with a locking washer screwing on the bracket.
is that right, or shud that first washer not be there? seems like removing that washer before the bracket would move the abs sensor closer to the hub.

one more thing, do you guys have a hard time screwing down the abs sensor to the bracket?
not the screw that i circled, but the sensor that screws to the bracket itself.
even tho the abs sensor is loose, it's as if the nut isn't the right size or something. it takes quite bit of torque to get the nut off till the very end.

^ where'd you get the washer that goes between the hub and bracket? i never had one. removing that would make it closer. and yea the nut holding down the sensor to the bracket is very hard to tighten down, i think thats the problem, which causes the bracket to bend.

oooooook so i just drove off with the wheel lock key on my wheel so i'm stuck for a week till i get a replacement.
sigh**

^HAHA! i just did that last week! suck yea.

If you have the OEM locks, a Nissan or Infiniti dealer can take it off for you.

So yah, I have an '05 with non brembo, I had the triple light problem: reversed the sensors = same problem --> bent the ABS spacers straight"er" = lights went off for a while, then it was every once in a while or whatever...

so I removed the spacers

shipped to SPC

As far as clunking, yup!...

Also went to ATL this weekend and had to soften up the front suspension.... lol BAD IDEA with hard braking! I'll be stiffening them up again today. Wohoo!

Adrian

good to kno the bracket is the problem. hopefully it'll resolve mine.
did you vote on the SPC POLL?

I just off the phone with Charley the lead engineer at SPC about the clunking problem and this is the first he has heard about this issue. I talked to Doug, (one of the techs) last week and he was going to forward this issue on to engineering. I was just following up to see what progress was made but obviously none. Charley said that he would look into this matter, so we'll see if there will be a fix for this problem.

I talked to Peter and he knows about the clunking issue. I'll wait to see if they can come up with a fix otherwise I'll get a refund. The refund will be for only the kit only although I'll be out $200 for the install and another $150 for the alignment. Even if they come up with a fix I'll have to spend another $350. :mad:

SF shops get a killing for an alignment. I paid $69 after the kit was installed.

i paid 100 for my alignment front and rear. freakin sears don't touch non-oem parts.
agree with wat mark4x4 said. labor costs add up....

Wait...how come this write-up doesn't say anything about installing brake/ABS brackets?

I'm installing it right now...please help...lol

JJ

ok, im on the bandwagon.... my front left clunks :(

The ball joints on my OEM arms will move easy and smooth by pushing with one finger. The SPCs seem like there is just a straight bolt in there... I can't move it at all. Did anyone else notice this? Is the assy. bolted up to tight? Will the joint losen up with a little break in time?

i'm bumping this old thread to see if you guys are still having problems with the spacers.

I think my kit only came with one bracket. I have the revised arms so i'm assuming the revised bracket is also included. i took it over to West Covina Nissan for an install, but the tech recommended against it because of the issuue with the ABS lights and such. I'm still way out of alignment in the front and barely in, in the rear after installing the spc front and rear camber kits dropped on tein basics. how much is a typical install for the spacers?

I updated the post to include the Nissan PN for the lower ball joint seat, which is the cone shaped bushing. The PN is 40173-AL500.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...t/IMG_1557.jpg
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...t/IMG_1561.jpg
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...t/IMG_1562.jpg

Iz, I'm surprised your camber is still off so much. I'm also on Tein Basics with the revised SPC's and my alignment was perfect up front. To install the SPC spacers you need to pull your hubs. You should have two spacers per side, one hub spacer and one caliper spacer. Remember to bring the longer bolts for the top of the hub spacer. If a shop is familiar with this install it should take about an hour.

Thanks Sean for posting up this great DIY.

I went to my Nissan dealer (without the part number) and we had no trouble IDing the part from the front suspension diagram in the PARTS Computer.

A pair of the lower ball joint seats set me back $19.75 with tax. It was that or pair about $11 for a Ball Joint Separator. This way, I can still put the old A-Arms back on the car......when that time comes. :(

Once these ball joint seats come in, I get started on the install (probably next weekend.)

Good job, Andrew.