hi guys,.. need some help to resolve my coilovers. had Tein Flex coilovers installed in my ride. but there seems to be sound coming from the rear coils. sounds like knocking. but had it checked, mechanic claims that its coming from the spring knocking against the pillow mount( or the green plate) hence he added a rubber to the spring and it solved the problem.

after a few days, the sound came back. should there be a rubber ring that secure the spring allowing it to sit nicely n firmly to the "green plate"?

pls help.. this sound is irritating me. it makes the whole car feels loose n that everything's comin apart.. arrgh..

 

hmm...I have Zeal coilovers and makes a bit of a squeaking noise but no
knocking noises you decribed.
You might wanna make sure everything is on tight and torqued to specs.

BTW, slight squeaking noises are common on coilovers.
Another thing you might wanna check are the spring preload.

 

Let me know if you figure out the knocking noise. I have the same thing on my coilovers. I did EVERYTHING possible, even replaced the strut for a new one and the noise it still there. I'm begining to thing its something else and not the coilover...

 

yeah sure bro.. i'll take a pic of the coils and then post it here.. though wasnt really a good job done but at least it gets the sound away 80% of the time. when i first drove out of the workshop after it was done, the sound was 100% gone.. i wonder wat happen to the 20%...

 

My coilovers do this too in the rear. Check the pillowball mount itself. In my case, the machined pillowball rattles around within its mount. It is machined in, and there is no way to tigthten it down. I have not had much success in the manufacturer honoring their warranty and sending me out new mounts...

To check this, put your car on stands and leave the wheels on. Make a lever of sorts with a piece of wood and a brick or something. Put this under your rear tire so that you can compress the rear suspension. Have a helper do this, and watch the pillowball itself from the trunk. If you see it bouncing around in there ever so slightly, thats more than likely your problem. You should hear a similar sound too.

Lots of things can rattle in the back, but after tons of time trying to find my problem, that was it for me. Swapping struts from side to side and just about every other part is what helped me finally find it (at the time only one pillowball rattled like this, now both do ). Good luck!

Res

 

maybe its so obvious that you didnt check. but is the nut in the middle screwed all the way down? i didnt tighten the bolt on the front struts all the way down and there was a loud knocking sound when i hit a bump.

 

alright bros.. i'll probably get it done of these days..

 

Here is some information I got from Nukabe, the US Cusco distributor.

First of all, make sure everything is snugged down, spring preload, strut top bolts, strut top nut, and shock mounts.

A knocking sound often indicates a pillow-ball noise. If the sound is only coming from one side, you can swap sides to see if the sound follows. Pillow-ball mounts are notorious for knocking noises like you guys have described. For the Cusco suspension, there are hardened rubber mounts available for some vehicles that can replace the pillow-ball mounts. For others, I guess it just comes with the territory.

I'd like to add that my newly installed Cusco Zero 2E suspension has knocking on only one side and a NASTY bang under abrupt bumps. No sound on normal compression bumps. The sound is only present in the rear of the car; the front camber plates are dead quiet.

In my case, the suspension has removed all compliance between the wheel and the chassis. There are no rubber seats, no soft strut tops, nothing. Any sound, whether it be the pillow-ball to a wheel being improperly torqued, is going to be transmitted directly into the chassis and on into the passenger compartment. My car has no sound deadening so it comes right on it.

-Jon

 

i'm having the same problem with my HKS coilovers and theyre driving me nuts. I had set the height to ride right on the stock rims so it was pretty low. Come to find out, they were dropped so low that they were bottomed out. There was no room to compress since it was already hitting the top.

i'm still working on fixing this. i get all sorts of creaks and knocks from the fronts (both)

 

Bottomed struts can damage the inner valves. Have them checked out if they are clunking or binding . It is always best to follow the manufacturer's guidelines and keep the lowering within those. Measure from the ground to the fender directly over the axle centerline, if there are no instructions provided, measuring before and after the install to accurately gauge the lowering.

I personally would not go any lower than 1 inch in front and .75 inch in rear. Going too low also creates roll center problems in front and toe issues in the rear.

my .04c

milburn

 

Good advice Stimpy. As they describe, thats exactly how I finally determined it was my pillowball mounts (only had one making the noise at the time). Took the rear suspension and coilovers apart swapping things from side to side so many times I can almost do it in my sleep now. The makeshift lever and a buddy helps you actually see and verify it too.

Also, my front plates are totally quiet, no problems there.

Res

 

Did you ever fix it?

I know my buddies with STis had similar noises with stock suspension. The way they go rid of it is putting synthetic grease in there and that made the noise go away....

 

I have the JIC's. Rears clunk like hell when driven on ruff roads . Since the car is mostly for the track/autocross I live with it. Never makes noise on the track

 

I found out that one potential clunk is the spare tire not being tightly secured to the frame.

-Jon

 

I've noticed the clunking sound going over large bumps is related to the pillowball mounts. Everything is tight and shocks are relatively new (about 5K miles). They did not make the noise when new but are now making it. It is my 2nd set of coilovers and the same thing happened to the first set... I guess I'll just have to live with it.