[s-cars] Front Suspension clunking (still)

[Paul Gailus]

Before putting in Bilstein inserts the last time, first I
cleaned off and lubed the threads on the strut housing, and
then I tightened down and removed the collar nut a few times.
I did this to make sure that the collar could be tightened down
beyond the point where it was installed with the old strut insert.
Otherwise, it's possible that corrosion on the exposed threads
might interfere with snugging down the new insert properly,
especially if this insert was even slightly shorter than the old one.
I'm not sure this little procedure really helped any, but so far
there's no clunking.

Paul

----- Original Message -----
From: Rich Assarabowski
To: 'Serge Filanovsky'
Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Front Suspension clunking (still)


Serge:

I'm another victim of driving a "clunker" S4 with Bilsteins.  Mine were fine
for several months after installation, then the clunks started (both left
and right).  This despite the fact that just about every bushing and link in
my front-end is new and they car feels tight as a drum.  I tightened up the
strut collars (that secure the strut to the housing) and the clunk
disappeared for about a week and then reappeared.  Ray Tomlinson suggested
in an e-mail to me that it could be the strut clunking around in the
housing, in his case he shimmed the strut with some fender washers to solve
his problem.  Others (Neil Swanson et.al.) have found the struts themselves
to be defective.

The clunking most noticeable when the wheels drop into a pothole, speed
bumps are the worst.  In my case it's definitely up and down, no difference
on side-to-side.

I finally removed the top nuts securing the strut rod to the car (with the
weight of the car on the strut!!!) and let the rod extend fully out.  Moving
the rod side to side shows very noticeable play of the rod within the strut
and an accompanying clunk.  The strut itself appears to be secure within the
housing.  There's no question that the struts are  defective.  I didn't even
bother checking the other side.

The good news is that all this can be done without disassmbling the
struts/springs, so it's an easy check to make.  If the strut rods turn out
to be OK, you can now easily get at the collar to tighten it before
reassembling, if needed.  You might even consider Ray's suggestion of
shimmying up the struts within the housing if that's what you think the
problem might be.  The even better news is that Bilsteins have a lifetime
warranty so this should be taken care of by Bilstein.

Anyone have any experience with Bilstein warranty returns/repairs?

Since I have H&R V8 springs, it's a good opportunity to revalve the
replacement Bilstein struts which will better match the H&R spring rates.
For Eibachs the consensus seems to be that the stock valving is OK.

BTW, anyone have any experience with how to specify the revalved shocks (10%
increase in compression / 30% increase in rebound / low-speed vs. high-speed
compression/rebound, etc.)???

-- Rich A.