I replaced the entire suspension (down to each piece of hardware) back in Oct/Nov last year and over the past 6 weeks or so it's been getting progressivily louder. I will get a lot of loud squeaking and some clunks when driving over even very small bumps around town or on the highway. Initially i thought it may be due to the cold weather causing the dash to squeak but after i heard it driving through a parking deck w/ the window down i decided to look into the problem this weekend.

Everything appears to be fine near the wheel...all the ball joints are fine, everything is tight, etc.. So i open the hood and look at the strut towers. the 3 bolts that attach the strut to the tower are very tight and the nut w/ nylon thread holding the main rod is also tight (it does spin along w/ the top rubber piece that it contacts with, but i think it always did this....is this normal?)

I looked under the top rubber piece and there looks to be some rubber shavings on both sides of the fronts....maybe from the washer piece or spring seat i'm guessing. I want to have some spring compressors on hand before i take out the strut so need to borrow some this week.

Another strange thing is that I can push one of the front corners down and there seems to be some vertical play with the strut assembly which i'm guessing is causing the lound clunks on the deeper bumps i hit.


I have Bilstien HD's and IPD/TME Sport Springs....not sure if the fact that they're lowering springs would cause any problems. I definitely didn't notice the noise at all for the first month or 2 after changing, so i'm guessing something is just worn down. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks

 

When you replaced them all did you do the spring seats?

If the big nut spins then most likely the spring seats are bad.
Also check the sway bar links for play.

 

yea, i did new spring seats, and strut mounts also. The strut mounts from what i remember had the center piece in it that did have some spin to it. I thought that there were bearings in there that allowed for that.

Sway bar links didn't have any play that i could tell, but i didnt' put a ton of effort into movint it.

 

There is 2 parts to the top mounting of the struts.
There is the mount with the studs which is usually the bearing part.
Then the rubber spring seat which is solid.

I have inserted a pic of a spring seat that is broke. You might not be able to see it broke. But the middle sleeve is broke out.

[IMG]local://upfiles/853/C63EE4B56CE9465685E6057A9BF86FD9.jpg[/IMG]

 

Finally got around to pulling the front struts out this weekend.. and you were right. Spring seats were completely shot...the metal piece was not attached at all to the main rubber body. Same case for both sides:








When we changed the springs/struts before we didnt' measure 30cm on the springs. We just compresed them as much as possible and tightened the strut mount fittng to the bottom of the threads on the strut...The same was done for both sides so the car was level left to right. Maybe they were overcompressed??? Would overcompressed springs cause the spring seat to wear out this quickly?

I had the old spring seats that were originaly on the car so i'm going to put those back on today. One of them just had a small rip starting and the other one looked pretty new. I'm wondering how long these will last...

My sway bar links looked a little rough too. I also replaced these w/ new ones when i did the job 3-4 months ago. I couldn't see any grease or anything leaking from the boot, it just looked like it wasn't really attached that well to the metal.






Thx

 

If one of the plates look bad, you said a small tare, don't use it. If there is one thing I learned about cars over this past year is that if it isn't in normal condition before using, just don't use it. It's not worth it, besides if it goes bad you'll just have to take it back apart and replace it again. Just replace it now, maybe even the other one to be sure.

 

I put the old ones back on because they are at least attached. Wanted to drive the car to see if that fixed all the clunking i heard before, and it pretty much did. I'll be ordering a new set of spring seats to throw back in in a week or so. After pulling the fronts 4 times now, i'm getting it down to a science. So the extra time i'll spend doing it 1 more time, won't be too bad (hopefully).

I'm still very curious as to how they got so bad, so damn quickly. I've heard that Bilstiend HD's are very rough and can cause the spring seats to wear quickly...but 4-5ooo miles? That's just WAY too quickly imo which is why i was wondeiing if the overcompressed springs could have contributed to this.

Another interesting thing...i used to have some vibration around 40-55mph which i thought was an unbalanced wheelat first...got it balanced after i had the new suspension put on and it didnt' help. I then rotated the wheels and it did help a lot. However, now that i have the new'ish spring seats on, the vibration is back just like it always was. I'm thinking 1 or more of the crappy rims on this car are bent. I wonder if vibration from this would also contribute to killing a spring seat quickly.

What do you guys think?

 

Vibration could certainly speed up the wear on spring seats. It would cause a cyclic stress which would cause the seat to fatigue.

 

The Vibrations could make them wear out a little faster.
What brand are the ones you installed?
You might have gotten a bad set or something.

You CANT overcompress the spring. It will go to its limit when the nut is tightened anyway. That is how it is supposed to be.

If you can have the rims put on a balancer and look at what they are doing that will tell you if the rims is bent or if you have bad tires.

 

Anybody know where to get rims straightened? These 17" rims bend to easily. I put the 15" wheels back on my R, and it rides much smoother. I notice some handling difference, but it's worth it for the smoother ride.

 

Jim, are you noticing vibration too?

@ludeless
What about your rotors? How old are they and do you brake heavy or anything? Reason I ask is because that can't can cause vibration too. Could be that they have high miles and just got to the point where the parralellism is out of wack. Quick and easy way to tell is take the tire off when the car is jacked up on both front tires and put the car in drive so the rotors start spinning, then simply look at them and if you see that they aren't straight then there is a good chance that is causing the vibration. Something that you may just want to check to eliminate ya know.

 

I know my wheels are bent. I had them balanced and saw it with my own two eyes. Not real bad, but just enough to make it run real rough at higher speeds, like above 65. Had the same problem with my 94 Turbo when I had the Columba wheels on it. I bought 15 inch wheels for it and never had a problem.

 

Rotors are about 5-6 months old... I replaced the rotors and pads when i first got the car so i'm guessing this probably isn't the problem here.

The spring seats I installed last year were new from FCP groton...it didn't list a specific brand that i can think of. The seats i put back on this weekend were the old seats i took off 5 months ago.

I'm somewhat confused about being able to overcompress the spring. Most the places that i've read about changing springs on these cars say to compress the spring to a 30cm height before installing back on the strut. I think the haynes manual states this also. I wonder if this 30cm is the distance to the bottom of the threads on the strut? If not, why would the directions all mention the compressed height?

 

They say that to make sure it is compressed enough to get everything back together.
The struts will only go up so much. If you put a taller spring on it will still stop at the same place. It will look taller because of the harder coil.

 

eh, does your brake pedal viberate at all? We have to narrow this down some how. Check what Jim was talking about, check to see if the brake pedal viberates, just try and eliminate as much as you can.