Suspension Advice.

[Dkouki]

About 4 months ago i purchased a used set of coilovers (dumb i know but fairly good price) After i installed them i noticed a weird clunking kind of noise that randomly comes and goes. First thought would be that the dampers are blown but when i took them off they had no visible leaks and seemed to still hold pressure. The noise is coming from the Front Passenger side and is very annoying..I took my car to 3 people and neither of them know what it is. One says that it could be the Inner Tie Rod or the Coilovers but its just weird that the noise isnt consistent. What do you guys think?

[CantSTOP]

What kind of coilovers? Maybe the preloads being too tight/loose?

Mine clunked when I would turn right...most embarassing thing ever. I messed with the preload and it went away. And does it have dampening knob?

[Dkouki]

Mine are Apexi World Sport. and its full dampening

[Philipio]

I've had a pillowball nut come loose and a coilover be so blown it ceased to compress. Both caused major clunking.

Stupid question but have you jacked it up and checked for play in your components? Tightened things up?

[Dkouki]

I have. Everything is tight and this has been an ongoing nuisance =( NOBODY knows

[aznpoopy]

if you've checked all the usual suspects (wheel bearing, t/c rod ned, tie rod end, ball joint, lca bushings, pillowball etc.), then it could be shaft play in the coilover itself.

i had a clunk/looseness problem with silkroads and could not for the life of me figure out what the clunk was was until a local suggested it. get the wheel off, jack up the corner, grab the coilover in the middle (i did it on the threads) and then shake the living hell out of it. if its bad you will feel / hear the same clunk you hear / feel while you drive. we shook/banged the hell out of every other components. all were tight. coilovers were NOT blown.

sure enough, after installing another set of coilovers the problem was gone.

[Dkouki]

if you've checked all the usual suspects (wheel bearing, t/c rod ned, tie rod end, ball joint, lca bushings, pillowball etc.), then it could be shaft play in the coilover itself.

i had a clunk/looseness problem with silkroads and could not for the life of me figure out what the clunk was was until a local suggested it. get the wheel off, jack up the corner, grab the coilover in the middle (i did it on the threads) and then shake the living hell out of it. if its bad you will feel / hear the same clunk you hear / feel while you drive. we shook/banged the hell out of every other components. all were tight. coilovers were NOT blown.

sure enough, after installing another set of coilovers the problem was gone.


Thanks alot man. sounds very useful!!

[supreme_1]

your top hats/pillow balls are bad

[Dkouki]

your top hats/pillow balls are bad

They are brand new so i doubt that..

Maybe i just need to invest in a new suspension setup! I love how mines ride but i dont want to pay quite $1500. Can anyone vouch for D2 Coilovers?

[Dkouki]

BUMP. I wanna get this straight guys. its annoying as hell

[B-Random]

either have someone drive the car while you sit in back and try to pinpoint the area the noise is coming from and go from there, or buy a set of chassis ears and use that to diagnose the problem, noises can come from alot of places nobody here is going to have the magic answer for you. Even as mechanics we have to get in the back and ride around to pinpoint these noises stop being lazy and do what it takes to figure it out.

[SHINCHU]

how low is your car sitting? is anything binding? alignment good?
when does it thump? hitting bumps and/or turning?
just try to isolate when it happens, then think of what movement would cause that, visualize the components moving and what would make the sound.
i swear i have like mechanical x-ray vision or something. i can "see" suspension components in my head while i drive. its really strange...
anyway just imagine that while you drive. listen and feel.

also do you have any other aftermarket suspension parts like arms or anything? just trying to get a good "visualization" of your suspension.

[Dkouki]

how low is your car sitting? is anything binding? alignment good?
when does it thump? hitting bumps and/or turning?
just try to isolate when it happens, then think of what movement would cause that, visualize the components moving and what would make the sound.
i swear i have like mechanical x-ray vision or something. i can "see" suspension components in my head while i drive. its really strange...
anyway just imagine that while you drive. listen and feel.

also do you have any other aftermarket suspension parts like arms or anything? just trying to get a good "visualization" of your suspension.

my car is sitting pretty low..and believe me, i tried the isolating and its soo weird. If it makes any sense at all...during the winter when it would be super cold overnight and i went to class in the morning, no thump..once it started to heat up i would get random thumps throughout driving. I cant think of any movements that "trigger" the sound because its basically random.

[negrosx13]

dude..im having the same problem..I hear cluncking sound at random, I put the car on the lift and with spry bar i started shifting and forcing things to move and nothing of nothing moved. Only thing was in need of changing was tension rod bushing.

[emayearecee]

I have coilovers too where the clunking/popping noise wont go away... i lubed and tightened everything i could think of. I even took them to the apex office here in so cal and they tightened the tophat nut which did nothing.

Then one day I took my front wheels off and jacked up my car and got a prybar a started pushing and shaking the coilovers themselves and sure enough the noise came from shaft play just like aznpoopy mentioned