[s-cars] front suspension noise

[Aaron Ryba]

No I did not wrap the bottoms in duct tape. I did read about that as a solution however did not do it on my recent install. I forgot to mention that in the initial post. It sounded like that was a fix for only a few people who for some reason could not get the strut caps to tighten the strut insert properly and that it was not needed for all bilstien installs. Definitely worth trying though. Its just that the sound seems like something completely different that what I imaging that noise to be like.

The top nuts are tight but I will double check them.
For clarification, the noise is a 2-part clunk as I hear and feel it during compression and then during depression.

One other thought I had was that possible I hadn't torqued the strut pinch bolt properly at the bottom where the control arm ball joint connects up. The noise sounds like what I would imagine if there was some play there and the ball joint was pushing up into the pinch connection in the bottom of the strut them popping back out into place. I noticed when reinstalling this part that if the bolt is not in place the ball joint does have room to move further up into the pinch socket.

Aaron

----- Original Message ----
From: Stott Hare <stott at gwi.net>
To: Aaron Ryba <aaronryba at yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 10:19:12 PM
Subject: RE: [s-cars] front suspension noise

Front Bilstein top nuts tight?  Did you wrap the bottoms in duct tape?  They
shouldn't shift around when tightened as the bottoms are dished/domed and
the top nut is a taper fit, but odd noises have been tracked to rattling
front inserts before.

My .02
Stott
95 S6A
01 TTqRoadster

-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of Aaron Ryba
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 9:55 PM
To: s-car-list
Subject: [s-cars] front suspension noise

I just replaced entire suspension system with H&R sport and Bilstein sports,
Igor plates, all new bushings everywhere, etc. Everything dialed into spec
properly.

I am experiencing a strange knocking/bump noise when the front suspension
travels up. It only happens when going over speed bumps or other large bumps
faster than normal. I have been checking and rechecking that everything is
torqued properly and still no fix. 

The noise doesn't seem to happen on immediate compression but once the rear
wheels go up over the bump (and front is down). The noise definitely comes
from the front and I can feel it too.

The only thing I did non-Bentley style was to tighten the front sway bar
bushing clamps at the subframe before the car was on it's own weight. This
seemed impossible once the subframe was reinstalled as access to the bolt
heads looked non-existant. Also used flour instead of talc powder on those
new rubber bushings. I have no idea if this is the issue but it does sound
like the sway bar is making the noise. Maybe some part of the H&R coils is
catching?

Is this the internal bump stop in the Bilstiens? or the full compression of
the springs? It doesn't seem like I should be hitting that so soon.

I was very attentive to reassemble everything as required so I am perplexed
about the noise. Haven't had a helper to put some weight on the front end to
try to replicate the movement, also pretty hard to do with the stiffer
springs.

Anyone have an idea of what this is?

TIA
Aaron Ryba
95 S6 145k mi




 
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