So i've had my 2" autospring kit for about 6 months now. Started getting weird noise in the front end every once in a while. So i took it to ford. apparently the bearings in my pass side half shaft exploded or whatever they do. so while they were changing that. they showed me my completely destroyed upper ball joints. cause by what. oh yeah the leveling kit. morral of the story. warranty voided. thought these things were supposed to be so great. anyone have any insight on why this happened?

 

and thats the reason I will remove the rear blocks before a leveling kit

 

you completely changed the susupension geometry as designed by the manufacturer and the stock parts were moved from their normal position which caused added stress on the parts.

 

sure did. they did the half shafts for free but I will have to either pay for the UCA's or for about the same price find a 4" lift. well with any luck. they said the pass half shaft was so messed up it had no grease in it and he was not able to even spin the wheel when the truck was off the ground. haha. Ya live and ya learn I guess. anyone know of any good 4" lifts?

 

man- i'm reaaaaallly not liking all this leveling kit problem talk- i've got the 2.5" and to be honest, my truck takes a beating- BUT everytime i take it in for a rotation and oil change, i ask them to take a look at the suspension components- and the only thing they see is that my aluminum bump stops on the lower control arm are worn off due to the changed angles... theres a window into the shop, so i know they are doing it- as for a 4" lift check the skyjacker 3.5" or the Rancho 4" kit good luck!

 

isnt the skyjacker lift pretty much the same thing as a leveling kit but with taller struts? I looked for it and all it showed was the new struts and the new rear leafs.

 

I too installed a set on my 4x2 and worried like hell when driving it. Just think if the damn thing breaks at highway speed and your family is traveling with you. Personally, not worth it.

I ended up putting a a set of 4x4 coilovers on the truck and got 3" of lift, firmer ride and the balljoints and upper arm was not under any stress.

These companies that are making them are pretty small and could never survive a lawsuit if one of them did some damage.

My 2 cents.

 

Yamon, please tell more about the coilovers and the lift? I really want to lift my front end but am extremely concerned about the potential damage from the spacers. I have looked at some of the shocks like the bilstein 5100 preload adjustables for my 2006 F150 4X4. However, it appears that the bilsteins do the exact same thing as the spacers with the only difference being that the bilsteins add the extra length at the bottom of the coil and the spacers add the extra length at the top of the coil. It appears that either way (spacers or shocks) the end result is that the coils are preloaded or lengthened and the suspension geometry is changed and stressed. It appears to me that the only real way to raise the front end without altering the geometry would be to also relocate the upper and lower control arms or to obtain a spindle lift. Am I missing something, is there a different way of doing it? I am really interested because I want to level the front on my 4X4 but do it safely without messing up the engineering of the front end suspension.

 

man oh man i don,t like reading about this because i own a pair of 2" levelers from autospring but did not install yet and now i don,t know if i want to sell them or install them need some help here

 

Because what I was referring to was changing the coilovers from the 4x2 to the 4x4. This had a great effect on my truck. It now sits 1" higher than a stock 4x4. You are basically correct when you put in the spacer or the shock, it does put more stress on the angles. The problem is since you only want to increase by 2-3 inches, most suspension companies do not go throught the touble of building kits, guess it is a question of effort and results......

Wish I could be of more help.

 

Wow I'm going thru the same thing. My new FX4 4x4 SuperCrew has never been the same after putting on the 2.00" spacers. I got more like 2.50" of lift. The ride was changed. The upper A-ARMS dug marks in to my coils. I got grinding/clicking noises when going it 4 wheel drive. After a few hundred miles I had clunking noises that got worse and worse. I took it to Ford and I have a bunch of bad ball joints, bad antisway bar links and it VOIDED THE WARRANTY! Now I'm out $90 for the AutoSpring lift, $200 labor for installing and removing the lift; all said and done I've spent around $1,000 to screw up the front end of my brand new truck in 1 months time. This is a street only truck with factory tires. After all of AutoSprings' restocking fee fine print, they offered me around $58.00 (restocking fee, shipping, paypal fee etc) to return the spacers. Great company! Not once did they ever show any interest or concern for the issues, or care to express any resolve.

Stay away from these cheap products. If you want to lift your truck use a quality suspesion lift or body lift from a company you actually heard of. I've never had any problems with a lift before and every truck I've owned has been lifted (5 trucks in 15 years). 2 Rangers, SuperDuty, Sport Trac, and FX4

 

Wow!
I didnt realize people were having these type problems. I have had my AS 2.5s on for 8 months and no rubbing, to touching no anything except smooth ride. Im still worried now that everyone is experiencing problems. I want to hear from someone who has had them for 4 years with no problems....

Anyone

 

Were there any other circumstances that facilitated the problem? i.e torn half shaft boot etc. Do you go wheeling alot? I am by no means suggesting that you did anything wrong and it SUCKS about your truck. Hope it all worked out. Just trying to figure out what you did or didnt do differently from me or any other member that facilitates this ridiculous damage that seems to be occuring more often. There are still plenty of us that have not or not yet had problems. I have a 2" AS in my 06 Screw (this is temporary, probably until February....Waiting to buy the Rancho 4" kit) so that I could run 35's. I drive 6 miles on the highway to work and 6 miles on the highway home. No off roading (got a jeep for that) I dont think i'll have problems until then but? I get no rub on the coils from UCA or grinding noises. I guess my point from above is that there never seems to be an absolute cause and effect from these spacers, I mean even the amount of net lift achieved from this kits seems to vary. I think that lends itself to the fact that not all of these trucks seem to be built identically, if so we would all experience the same exact problems....I mean is damage inevitable or is it on a truck by truck basis. I have a 2" AS that I drive 12 mi. a day on the highway as opposed to BalogUK who has the 2.5" AS and uses his truck much harder than I do by a long shot. Yet he has no appreciable damage...does that mean that I wont ever or at least until I put the actual lift kit on (i hope so) because I dont want to go backwards here...taking off the AS and the 35's. I think long term usage will still not be a viable means to determine whether or not these are a good idea. Some trucks are going to last and some arent. Rolling the dice to figure out whether or not yours, mine or anyone elses will be alright seems like a waste of money. I wont lie the uncertainty of these products has made me change my mind about whether or not I was going to lift my truck. When I bought it I NO intention of doing a lift but I like my truck on 35's and a little bigger so there is not turning back now. So i'm saving up and am going to pony up for the lift. Good luck

 

If there's so many people having problems with AS spacers, where are they? All don't have problems. Some do. Most don't. That goes for any mod.

You'll find it hard to locate threads of praise. The complainer threads are more visible, but for the most part the people without any problems don't post.

 

Stealth I couldnt agree more, however I must admit that when I read these it does make me hope that I dont have these problems. There are far more than anything else but no clear guidelines as to what causes problems. If I didnt get bit by this @#$%ing F150 bug I would have left well enough alone (2"AS that is) But I cant keep looking at all these lifted trucks and continue to resist. So i'm not getting rid of the AS because these types of post just going bigger.