Nuespeed Spring/Bilstein Shock Noise

[Sean Griffin <norcala4@yahoo.com>]

A few days ago I installed Neuspeed sport springs and Bilstein shocks
on my '97 A4 1.8Tqm.  I am now having the following problem:

When I make a turn into a driveway that has a slight rise so that the
car is twisting somewhat as it goes up the incline I hear a "sprong"
noise from the rear shock on the side of the turn. Right turn causes
the noise on the right rear shock. Left turn causes the noise on the
left rear shock. The parts were all installed by the great guys at
2Bennett Audimotive in Davis, CA and we put the car back up on the
lift to take a look. Everything is perfectly tight and aligned.
Nothing is out of place. The Bilsteins are adjustable using preset
grooves and the rear shock is set on the lowest of the four grooves.
The front shocks are set on the second groove from the top (out of
five grooves). The height looks perfect from front to back. We could
see nothing that might rub or catch the spring.

The springs are round coils from top to bottom. Not flat on either
end. The shocks come with a perch made to accomodate this type of
spring. The top of the spring fits into the stock perch in the same
fashion as the stock spring.  The top of the springs have a vinyl
tubing around the coil.

When we had the car back up on the lift with wheels "drooping" we
found that everything was very, very tight. No movement at all.
Everything was nice and snug. One theory we came up with is that where
the bottom of the spring sits on the lower perch it is catching on the
perch for a second then freeing itself. It is spring on metal on the
lower perch. No rubber bushing or anything. Just a guess. We lubed
that area with lithium grease but that did not eliminate the sound.

Even on the lift there is a LOT of tension on the springs. We couldn't
really figure out where it might be able to shift when unloaded.

Finally, over the last couple of days I have also found that the sound
occurs when going around a corner a little fast even when the corner
is flat. I guess as the car lifts on the inside of the turn and
compresses on the outside whatever geometry that causes the problem is
duplicated. Another place is while backing out of my driveway at the
house. The rear drops over the curb OK. As I ease the front left tire
off the curb very, very slowly the spring speaks up.

Something is just not right!  Has anyone else with this combo (or any
other for that matter) experienced such a problem or have any ideas as
to the cause/solution?  TIA.

Sean Griffin
97 1.8Tqm

Sean's A4 Page
http://www.ns.net/~seang

Mailto:seang@ns.net





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