What did you do to your S550 Mustang today?!

[WD Pro]

You may already know that there is a long thread about the diff bolts breaking. There is some shear stress across the threaded area in the OEM design. It is more likely to happen from drag racing launches.

In my car, I added aluminum sleeves to take up the 2mm gap, plus Steeda black support inserts. This leverages the strength of the solid shank area of the OEM bolt. I did not want to go full monty with drilled bosses and a through-bolt solution.

Sorry for your loss.

Wow, I've never seen someone break one on a stock car before. Must have been a faulty bolt. The crappy design doesn't help either. It's a lot of work to replace it with a "through bolt" kit but it's probably worth doing, since the dealer will probably take 200 years to repair that under warranty.

Thanks both

I already have the bolt sleeves and the Steeda inserts, I just hadn’t fitted them yet …

It might actually be a blessing in disguise that I had delayed fitment. I’m pretty sure that bolt was loose from new, probably already weakened and probably would have broken trying to remove it - then I would have been left with the issue rather than ford.

I’ve already spoken to the master tech and the service team and I have a date to take the car in.

They are pretty good and will work with me so I’m trying to make the best out of a bad situation :

• Whilst the exhaust is off - chop it for the H pipe.
• Strip the exhaust back to stainless (rather than the black crap we get on the euros).
• Whilst the cradle is dropped - Steeda red bushes.
• Stainless bolt sleeves.
• Steeda subframe supports.
• Steeda subframe alignment.

I have all the above bits, but I plan to swap the Steeda bolts for 12.9’s

I don’t think I can swing it to drill for though bolts, but I don’t know if I want to and I suspect I won’t need them anyway.

I’m suspecting an alignment will be needed afterwards so depending on who they use, maybe I could pay an upgrade to get a fancy (rather than basic) job done.

I’m just going to have to see how this all pans out and keep my fingers crossed …

WD

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[GT Pony]

Strip the exhaust back to stainless (rather than the black crap we get on the euros)

What's the reason that Ford paintings everything black underneath like your photo showed?

 

[WD Pro]

What's the deal with Ford painting everything black underneath like your photo showed?

Euro cars - corrosion protection (if they bothered to get it where it’s actually needed) and I heard a rumour it’s part of a tax dodge as it’s done in Europe and therefore the car is finished in Europe.

Don’t quote me on that last bit though - could be pure internet rumour and I haven’t been bothered enough to check it out.

Oh yeah, they like to get black overspray on the bodywork and wheels too …

WD

 

[Nodster]

What's the reason that Ford paintings everything black underneath like your photo showed?

My 2018 isn't black underneath.

 

[WD Pro]

My 2018 isn't black underneath.

It should be - they must have missed it !

WD

 

[Nodster]

It should be - they must have missed it !

WD

I'll grab a pic tomorrow. It's raining. And dark atm. I could get attacked by scary UK night wildlife. Like a moth. Or a snail. Lol.

 

[WD Pro]

Note that they don’t spray it everywhere, mostly starting central near the resonator and then in a triangle shape heading towards the back wheels.

The front underside, the front suspension and the sills / rockers (even right at the back) are clear

Front :

Back :

The back suspension is also clear looking from the outside in - they must spray from the inside out and only from under the car.

Here’s the back of my back wheels (before I sorted them) :

WD

 

[shogun32]

Whiteline diff bushing inserts. Trust me.

 

[Homebrw]

Installed Cali Special grille (thanks @Kuma !!!). I think it looks killer. Wife's reaction was priceless.

Wife comes out to my new car in pieces..."What happened? You just got this...why is it in pieces?" Me: "I guess they don't build them like they used to. Good thing I had this cool offset tribar grille sitting around!"

 

[StigyAus]

Went for a short drive and crossed the 100km mark on the odometer.

 

[_zOmbIE_]

Went for a short drive and crossed the 100km mark on the odometer.

100km? And here I thought I was barely driving my car that I bought in April! Just over 2,000km on mine lol

 

[Bobn57]

Changed out the fuel door to MMD billet aluminum. Took all of 1 minute and that’s with taking a coffee break
I wanted a simple look. I’m liking it.

 

[The_Don_72]

Having a Steeda H Pipe installed as I type this. Can't wait to hear it!

Then installing accelerator pedal raised spacers so I can start learning to manually heal-toe. While auto rev matching is cool, I want to learn to do this myself

 

[TrackMustang]

Sulked a little …

Can you spot anything missing ?

Well, it’s only half missing - but I think that’s worse … :

WD

Now’s the perfect opportunity to install bushing inserts. I’ve been waiting for my suspension kit to show up to install mine…

 

[ice445]

I second the inserts, it helps cut down on the diff noise while still improving the rear end. None of the actual aftermarket bushing replacements control noise as well as the OEM ones.

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