Clunk / thud with vorshlag camber platea

[e82n54]

I just had vorshlag camber plates installed today. (all suspension and wheels are stock) The suspension now makes a pretty loud clunk or thud sound over some bumps. It happens only when the road drops away slightly to a lower level (when the wheels fall and then hit the ground). It doesn\'t happen when there is a positive/raised bump. I heard there would be more road noise with solid metal race type camber plates, but this is way more noise than I expected. I can hear it clearly even when the music is turned up. I plan to take the car back to the shop and call vorshlag in the morning. I did find this on the vorshlag website: \"Vorshlag camber plates must include new upper spring perches with an integral radial bearing, for a perfect noise-free fit and extremely long service life.\" I did purchase the correct OEM fitment attachments that come with the plates.

Is this clunk normal? Thanks.

[xerox445]

Tighten the nut on the strut with a quick shot of an impact gun.

[3liter1]

I have the same sound under the same conditions (over a drop, not a hump). Your posts is very helpful to me, thank you ! as others indicated it was the koni struts that I had installed. Since you only changed the camber plates, that does narrow things down for me. i will be taking it back to the install shop.

[HP Autosport]

Check your top nut to make sure it is fully seated and tight. The other common issue is the anti roll bar endlink nuts, make sure those are tight as well and apply some loctite to make sure they don't come loose over time.

[bogart]

I agree with Harold. Check the big top nut on the strut. It has to be really tight! 3-4 short bursts from an impact gun should work. Make sure you use blue loctite on the top nut too. Make sure the 3 bolts that connect the camber plate to the top hat are tight and torqued as well to about 25 ft-lb. The endlink nuts should be torqued to about 60 ft-lb.

[e82n54]

Thanks for the ideas. Here's a picture of my front passenger side strut. I'm trying to figure out where the anti roll bar endlink nut is. Is it the yellow arrow? Also, at the orange arrow the rubber cover in not attached at the bottom. Should I try to repair this or is this normal? Thanks!!

[stevenc]

Yellow attached to the sway bar, so yes.

Rubber boot being up like that is normal.

[xerox445]

Thats the top of the end link. You can tighten that one with the car off the ground and the wheel off no problem. Usually the lower one is loose if its making all sots of sounds. FYI it should be tighened with the car on the ground, which is pretty hard to do.* I found that if you turn the wheel out to the left all the way while tightening the drivers side, then turn the wheel all the way to the right, and do the passennger side, working from the front is the easiest way to get at it. I used an offset 16mm and a open ened 17 on the stationary side to do it, going under the front lower control arm.

*Sidenote: If you want to argue that fact, that the endlinks don't need to be tightened with the car on the ground go head, I'm game. But PM me. I'm sick and tired of arguing with all these "experts" pubicly. Bunch of know it alls sans like 10 posters here.

[e82n54]

Originally Posted by AudiS4

I have the same sound under the same conditions (over a drop, not a hump). Your posts is very helpful to me, thank you ! as others indicated it was the koni struts that I had installed. Since you only changed the camber plates, that does narrow things down for me. i will be taking it back to the install shop.

Audi S4, were you able to get rid of the clunk sound?

[e82n54]

I attempted to tighten the antiroll bar end links, but they won't budge. They seem to be very tight.

[lavmugen]

im getting the same clunking noise.

Scuderia000 were you able to get it fixed? Was it by tightening the strut nut or the endlinks?

[3liter1]

I got used to it. I still think it is an inherent function of the metal to metal interface between the strut and the camber plate.

[e82n54]

All the nuts are tight, but the sound is still there. I'm still working with vorshlag trying to get this figured out.

[tracer bullet]

Here's an idea, I did this to myself installing coilovers on my last car:

Unscrew the nut from the top of the strut, and check where the threads bottom out. Compare that to what you're trying to tighten against.

If the bottom of the threading is below the plane that the nut is supposed to tighten against, then - you do have a mystery. If the bottom of the threading is above the plane, then you are simply bottoming out on the threads and not actually tightening it against anything.

My last car needed a spacer ring to take up that difference. I left it off one side and had the *exact* same symptoms as described here. Could be a totally different problem of course but - worth a shot?

[tracer bullet]

Also, any chance that the top of the strut is significantly smaller than the hole it's going through in the plate? Even if the nut is tight, the shaft may still tend to slip from side to side in there. In that case a sleeve of some sort might be needed to take up the gap.

Not familiar enough with our suspension to know, but I could "see" that being a possibility.

[xerox445]

Open the hood up, and the drivers side door. Stand on the door sill and jump up and down. If your still clunking you need to again, as stated before tighten the top nut further.