Clunking after lowering springs

[HiI'mDustin]

I put H&R springs on my car and now it clunks in the front....

Is this normal....not good but normal

Also if it is what is the least expensive solution? I just want the lowered car and dont care for tracking and what not.

[HiI'mDustin]

Anyone?

What would you suggest for just lowering the car and keeping or increasing stock handling

Thanks

[jsmonet]

what did you leave loose?

[Pig Farmer]

Depending on how low you went, i wonder if it could be your sway bar tie rods. Since the car is sitting lower, the tie rods are technically too long. Being too long, they will preload the sway bar. This is just a thought. I'm running coilovers with approximately 1" of drop in the front and I will get an occasional clunk/pop when lowering the car off a jack, but I never hear a thing on the road. When do you hear the clunk? Always? When going over bumps? When turning?

[HiI'mDustin]

When going over a bump is mainly when i hear it. Nothing is loose and i think Im just going to get Kong fellows and go from there. Seems to be a proven combo....any comments?

[Pig Farmer]

You may want to reach out to Harold at HP Autowerks. He has a pretty extensive knowledge of the 1-series suspension and could probably diagnose the problem over the phone. Harold coached me through my suspension work and the car is phenomenal.

[Everfly]

Double check the strut nut. Other forum member had the same problem after installed lower springs and turned out to be the strut nut. You can check by just drop the strut mount no need to remove the whole strut out.

[HiI'mDustin]

I did order new strut mounts too. When i tighten the strut mount i noticed the top little plastic thing wouldnt go on

[kamilS]

I can bet a thousand bucks its your strut nut. The easiest way to tighten it would be with an impact gun or to be really sure its tight use a big spark plug socket and put a 6mm hex through the top to hold the strut and use an open end wrench to tighten the spark plug socket. Trust me works like a charm.

[Focusedintntions]

Originally Posted by Pig Farmer

Depending on how low you went, i wonder if it could be your sway bar tie rods. Since the car is sitting lower, the tie rods are technically too long. Being too long, they will preload the sway bar.

How will they pre-load the sway bar?? The sway bar only gets load when one side compresses and the other remains the same or extends. If both sides are lowered the same, then there is no load on it. Now incorrect lengths on the end links will change the angle at which the sway bar rests, which could cause it not to be in the operational angle it needs to do its job properly. But I don't see how the sway bar is pre-loaded..

[Mr Kleen]

I had a similar issue when I lowered my WRX. The problem I had was that the springs weren't seated on the perch correctly. I was able to jack up the car to take some weight off of the wheel that was clunking and then reach into the wheel well and rotate the spring to seat it better.

Not sure if this is applicable to the 135 or not.

[EFI Logics]

Are you certain everything is tight? In order to tackle your clunk noise issue I would double check the top strut nut and sway bar links to make sure they are properly torqued and correct.

The Koni Yellows are a solid damper choice paired with your springs.

-Josh

[chopper817]

How will they pre-load the sway bar?? The sway bar only gets load when one side compresses and the other remains the same or extends. If both sides are lowered the same, then there is no load on it. Now incorrect lengths on the end links will change the angle at which the sway bar rests, which could cause it not to be in the operational angle it needs to do its job properly. But I don't see how the sway bar is pre-loaded..[/QUOTE]


When your car is lowered both sides are kind of pre loaded because of the geometry has changed.
To fix this you need adjustable end links for the sway bar to make the end links longer, thus lowering the ends of the sway bar and putting them back in the "stock " position.

[Jeef Beef]

Did you install your sway bar the correct way? A lot of the time it's easy to get it wrong on the E82 since it 'looks' right when it's actually on backwards. CHECK THIS

[infinitekidM2C]

Originally Posted by Pig Farmer

Depending on how low you went, i wonder if it could be your sway bar tie rods. Since the car is sitting lower, the tie rods are technically too long. Being too long, they will preload the sway bar. This is just a thought. I'm running coilovers with approximately 1" of drop in the front and I will get an occasional clunk/pop when lowering the car off a jack, but I never hear a thing on the road. When do you hear the clunk? Always? When going over bumps? When turning?

This..tie end rods is likely problem..u need adjustable ones

[Forbes]

http://www.zpost.com/forums/showpost...0&postcount=13

[juld0zer]

To avoid confusing everyone else i think most folks here are referring to the swaybar endlinks, not the tie rods... To most of us, tie rods are the ones you adjust for toe during an alignment!