As I said, I would provide my results and here they are.
As reported previously I had been experiencing noise I believed was being induced by the camber plates. The noise was a low frequency rattle/pop generally described by others I've read with the same plates.
In order to eliminate the majority of the possibilities I first did another visual inspection of the front suspension components. By this I was able to confirm nothing was leaking (bushings or dampers) and I didn't see any visible wear of the parts.
I then moved to the sway bar by checking the bushings for play but none was present. I had recently replaced the links with Meyle HD but removed and inspected anyway for a piece of mind. The links were in perfect condition so I then took the vehicle for a drive with the sway bar disconnected to be certain that wasn't contributing to the noise. As I suspected it had no effect.
Before I removed the dampers I wanted to once more check the control arms for any play. Again there was no sign of wear.
Next I moved on by first removing the driver's damper assembly making sure to accurately mark the camber alignment for reassembly. While that was out of the vehicle I did a once over of the remaining parts to make sure everything looked good. No issues.
While the damper was out I made sure to measure the install spring length before complete disassembly. Once that was complete I disassembled the damper but first checked the camber plate top nut for proper torque and confirmed it was completely net to the bushing insert as it should be.
Before I disassembled the camber plate I wanted to first cycle the damper 20-30 times to ensure bind-free movement without noise or issues. Everything proved good based on this bench test so I decided to move on to the camber plates.
I'm reusing the image to demonstrate how I cycled the damper. I set the damper to full soft and fully compressed the tube and watched how it moved back into position.
I disassembled the plate, inspected all parts and thoroughly clean everything. I noticed all parts were void of any form of lubrication, so upon reassembly I used a bit of anti-seize on the bushings, inserts and in the cavities the parts seated into.
For extra piece of mind I also installed new steer bearings I had ordered when I purchased these plate. Here are some shots.
As you can see I was a bit liberal with the anti-seize but didn't feel is would have a negative effect.
I completed the process for both sides of the vehicle, reassembled everything paying close attention to torque specs. I paid especially close attention to how the top nut seated on the damper. As fe1rx mentioned you will feel when the nut engages positively. I added a little extra torque to ensure it was properly tight, as it's quite difficult to fully tighten with a torque wrench, special socket and allen wrench.
With everything back together and camber set to its original position I went out for a test drive.
Overall the noise it about 90% gone. I'm still getting a little bit of noise while going over small bumps at slow speeds. To really hear them I needed to have the windows up, radio off and the GF helping to listen. I've put about 50 miles on the car so far and the noise hasn't increased, so that make me happy. I feel much better and now feel it wasn't a real safety concern.
I have a track day on Friday so I'll report back with any issues.
Thank again to those that helped point me in the right direction, it's greatly appreciated.
