Knocking after lowering *Solved, swaybar endlink*
 

Just put on my Eibach Pro springs. The springs settled nicely in the seats, and I went over every bolt when putting them on. Everything seemed tight when I put it on, but going over bumps I get knocking in all four corners.

Any tips to where I can go looking?

Edit:
Turned out to be a loose swaybar endlink. I had loosened it to get better access, forgot to tighten it back up. :bonk:

You didn't tighten your top strut nut enough.

-alex

Yeah esp the middle nut

Hm... What torque should I use? I used the guide DarrenDriven made. Maybe my torueqrench is a little low...

I'll go over them again. Luckily they are easy to come by. :-)

Whatever you tighten them to, make sure you check it while the car is in the air and on the ground. It will make a difference.

ok, I will! Thanks!

Anyone know what torque the manual says to use? And when?

41 ft-lbs I believe is the torque required for the strut top nut.

You'll need to use a pass-through torque wrench (if you can get one) and an allen key to hold the strut body.

Check all your other fasteners to ensure they are still tight. One that got me worried was the sway bar endlink nut. I used an impact gun on the nut to get it tight, but it ended up backing out a week or so later causing a heinous noise. Went back with a pass-through socket wrench and allen key to tighten it up and all is well.

Check your tire clearances to the spring and perch. I get noises from my 245's rubbing against the spring when the wheel is turned. 45mm offset with 5mm spacer so effectively 40mm along with -2.6* camber.

could be your swaybar endlinks

Thanks for all the tips, guys!

I'll get some deep pass-through wrench and an allen key to check the strut top nut. That one I just used my impact gun until it seemed to be tight, but could be it just tightened up enough to turn the strut axle.

I'll also make sure to check the endlinks again.

You blew your struts.

How does fastening a nut to an axle blow the struts? I'm just curious.

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These struts are extremely sensitive to being spun. If you had looked at any of the DIY spring/strut install threads on this forum, you'd have known from the beginning that many users have reported using an impact gun on the strut top nut has caused their strut to make noise, leak, and ultimately need to be replaced.

You can start diagnosing by tightening the strut top nut the correct way, but if it's still making noise, look for tell tale signs of blown struts - hydraulic fluid leaking, struts compressible by hand, etc.

Will do!
I can't remember Darrendrivens how to mentioning that, but I may well have missed it

Edit: just checked, the guide I read specifically mention impact as a useful tool for the top nut

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So my rears have been knocking since day 1 of my drop on RSR Superdowns. The fronts are fine. Knocking automatically = blown strut? I had a shop do it and I wasn't there to watch.

I blew a rear strut using an impact. I thought I was going crazy when looking for where the noise was coming from until I read a few threads about the struts being trashed by spinning. Stupid but it's definitely happening.

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Yeah, you can use an impact gun, but you have to do real short bursts on a low setting to make sure it doesn't spin the shock shafts...

Just went over everything, loosened and retightened everything, and still the same knocking. Looks like I'm on the market for new struts....

Since I only needed one I just bought the factory strut. They aren't that expensive. But if I was to upgrade now I would definitely buy the Bilsteins.

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Well, to bring some closure to this thread, it was a loose endlink to the front swaybar. Got that torqued down and all is good again. I'll keep an extra eye on the dampers for leaks though.

Same thing happened to mine after installing Sportlines. Glad you got it fixed!

Going to bring mine to the shop again this weekend and if the rears are blown I'll just get coilovers instead of replacing the struts. No bad news coming my way lol.