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View Full Version : Urgent help needed - clunk coming from inside of frame/body?



SJCoruja
09-11-2005, 09:42 PM
Ok, I have been hearing some crazy clunking after installing some coilovers over the weekend. I have checked the coilovers over and am fairly certain that the noise is not coming from them at all. What it sounds and feels like is that something is moving or flexing inside the body of the car or maybe under the driver's side rear of the car-but high up. Again, I have checked the coils over, and have checked to make certain there is nothing loose from the install on any related connections. I have also checked the swaybar for hitting or rubbing, and made sure that the springs on the coilovers are seated in correctly. My initial thought is that one of the points that the body attaches to the frame was weak and flexing and the much stiffer coilover on the rear is making the noise much more apparent now and/or has broken something loose. Does anybody have any idea what this could be, or can any of the local shops identify it/fix it? I have to get it done tomorrow because I will travelling for my work for the next couple days...

wilson1
09-11-2005, 11:14 PM
sounds liked it's from the coilovers, but what do i know.
Maybe Jamie or some other guru can chime in.

MarkSAE
09-11-2005, 11:59 PM
Which coilovers do you have? My Zeals have been clunking, clanking, and creaking for the past few thousand miles. I adjusted the preload on the springs and the noise went down a little bit. I've talked to a few people with Zeals and they say they get the same noises. I guess it's just the nature of having inverted monotube front struts.

ob4
09-12-2005, 12:14 AM
I had that problem b4 with my JIC coilovers. And my guess is that many has the same problem. My problem was that the JIC top hat in the rear is rocking. This is due to the fact that the rear top only has 2 bolts for mounting. If you check the bottom of the rear shock tower, you will notice that there are some imperfections, so the top hat rocks slightly even after you have tighten the rear top hat, and that's where the noise comes from. One thing you could try is to buy some dynamat (sp?), cut out a piece that can fit on the bottom of the shock tower, it will act as a gasket between the body and the top hat, and i bet it will fix the noise.

-Terry

vtluu
09-12-2005, 12:14 AM
I had some clunking initially when I installed the coilovers but it was because I hadn't sufficiently tightened the nut holding the shock to the upper mount.

earlyapex
09-12-2005, 12:29 AM
check the nut up top of the coilovers.

Also, what coilovers are they? Sometimes the inverted monotube ones can clunk.

MarkSAE
09-12-2005, 12:40 AM
I've tightened the top nut on mine. Noises were still there. I also sprayed down the bearing w/ WD40. Noises were still there. The dynamat gasket sounds like a good idea. I may try that.

SJCoruja
09-12-2005, 01:15 AM
Thanks all for the suggestions. It was really bugging me so I went out and removed the coilover from that corner. I checked everything over again and re-installed. The only thing I really noticed that was "different" from the passenger rear was that the (insert proper technical terms in place of my guesses :) ) lower bar assembly that the lower portion of the coilovers bolts to seemed lower on that side. Subsequently, I had to rock the rotor assembly down and out a bit in order for the outer hole to line up with where that attaches to it (did that make sense?). Could this additional pressure pushing the upper arm assembly down and out be causing some clunking further in? Sorry if that makes no sense at all...I can try to post pics if need be tomorrow. I will try the Dynomat idea also just in case.

Jamie@WORKS
09-12-2005, 12:07 PM
I had some clunking initially when I installed the coilovers but it was because I hadn't sufficiently tightened the nut holding the shock to the upper mount.

This is probably the most common cause of noise we've run across. Feel free to swing by at lunch today if you want us to take a look at it :)