Noise from Coilovers

Jeffblue

haha i wish it was, i've checked all of that

370zFORme!!

Jeff make sure when you take your wheels off you don't apply too much pressure and scratch the lug hole area. I've done it on previous wheels and it's a horrible way to start an already frustrating job. You should ask if bc is willing to warranty them. Put on stock struts and springs and wait for new coils. If not, then see if the shop u installed them at will take them off and re-install them (they should warranty their work) to see if you can reproduce the noise. Also the installer said the preload was maxed out but people make mistakes, kindly ask him to double check.

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87' Honda Civic Hatchback: Kaput @ 288,000 miles, 90' Toyota Celica: Kaput @ 175,000 miles, 93' Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4: Kaput @ 138,000 miles, 06' Scion Tc: Traded in @ 64,000 miles, 10' Nissan 370z: Traded in @ 25,000 miles, 12' Subaru Impreza Sti: Current.

kenchan

i wrap my sockets with masking tape or use my griot's wheel lug socket. either way works just fine without scratching the lug bores.

im89

You could have bc replace...you have one year warranty with them tell them you had it check they will replace it. I had bc anything that could go wrong with it did I had one of my arms replace under my warranty because the nob wasn't working. It took less than a week for me to get my replacement.

takeshima

You should just jack up the rear end of the car and take a snap shot of the rear spring and shock unloaded. I dont know what it means when the mechanic said it is at max preload, because from what I hear it is a straight linear spring. Like is the mechanic saying that the spring is maxed out at the top portion of the threaded body of the perch??

370zFORme!!

I think he meant the strut was maxed out.. Correct me if I'm wrong.

__________________
87' Honda Civic Hatchback: Kaput @ 288,000 miles, 90' Toyota Celica: Kaput @ 175,000 miles, 93' Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4: Kaput @ 138,000 miles, 06' Scion Tc: Traded in @ 64,000 miles, 10' Nissan 370z: Traded in @ 25,000 miles, 12' Subaru Impreza Sti: Current.

Jeffblue

i asked them about everything several times. he said the thing with having the wrong preload, and not leaving the isolation ring there are all amateur mistakes. i checked everythingand everything is tight.
yea i'm very careful, thanks for the heads up!
good idea!
Not sure how i want to deal with it. if it is in fact a bad shock, i would expect a replacement, and money to cover the reinstallation cost. However, if a shock went bad in 2 weeks, not sure why i would really want to accept having replacments, and i'd want my money back to buy something else.

i did that and took pics and i'm gonna send them tomorrow. i'm rpetty sure the installation is all good. I checked EVERYTHING they said and any mistakes that could have been made during installation were not made
nah its basically the threads on top of the spring perch, if the rings are all the way at the bottom of the threads, then its maxed out, thats pretty much where they are.

Mt Tam I am

Jeff, 25 years ago I had an internally broken Koni strut. It made a similar noise but I can not say for sure that it was identical to your noise, but it sounds familiar. If you can isolate the sound by reinstalling the stock coil over. Perhaps you can just remove the right rear and jump up and down in the trunk, listening. The later may not be the correct method. I am putting on coil overs soon so I will be sure to keep my old ones, just in case I need to follow my own advice. Good luck.

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Jeffblue

^Thanks man, i'm hoping its not that, and trying to rule out everything else with some help from the guys at BC. I must say they are being really helpful.

Here is one of the pictures i took and sent to BC. They are saying that this gap between the nylon rings (Below the gold ring) shouldn't be there and that he is pretty sure that's causing the noise. i'm gonna have to compare it to the left side spring to see if its different. Any thoughts?

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kenchan

with preload of the car i dont think that gap is open... try putting a slit of rubber or plastic in there as a gasket, duct tape it temporarily and drive around if that eliminates the noise.

i dont think it will... you would have to be like em dukes of hazard making jumps to get that gap to open up while driving.

Jeffblue

thats what i said. I explained that when i jacked up the bucket under the spring (as if there were some load on the car) , the gap went away right away. but Mike from BC said that the gap shouldn't be there even when theres no load on the car.

kenchan

yah, well Mike from BC must know wat he's talking about then.

Jeffblue

not sure what you mean by that

if the left side looks different, then i would imagine that could be causing the sound. if it the same, and the sound is only from the right, then it obviously isn't.

kenchan

i would swap the springs left/right and see. are they oriented left/right differently?

Jeffblue

i'm swapping wheels for winter tonight. so i guess i will find out. the only thing bugging me is that if this were an install problem, the sound would have happened right away so i'm still