Whiteline LCA's light clunking noise
 

So I've gotten my V3's, Whiteline LCA's and Whiteline Toe Arms all installed and I'm aligned. Only problem I have now is the slight clanking noise I get at very low speeds when the weight of the car shifts. I can make the noise happen when just turning the wheel left or right going about 5 mph. Same story when I go up a small hill.

I've tightened and torqued all LCA bolts, using stock locations for all components. I have checked the rear endlinks on the swaybar into the LCA and they seem alright as well. I know the next piece everyone is going to tell me is if I torqued the top hats properly in the rear and yes, they don't go much further.

Not sure if this noises are due to having the spherical bearings in the whiteline, but I figure they shouldn't clank at such low speeds when adjusting to bumps and weight shifting in the car. Even the cheap SPC's didn't do that. Any ideas where I may need to look? It's very hard to replicate while the car is still and is much easier at a very low speed.

Most likely it's the pillowballs. I tested out the Figs Mega arms and they would click every time the arm moved. It drove me nuts. I switched tothe SPC arms and no more noise. The SPC uses a higher durometer rubber than the stock piece and it's not a pillowball so that would explain why you didn't get the noise.

I was able to isolate the noise to the pillowball by bouncing the rear up and down while listening under the car and feeling with my hands for the noise.

I can push down on the trunk, right rear side and hear a light noise that sounds like metal tapping, but not the same clunk of the arms adjusting at low speed. Left side doesn't do it. I've loosened the inner parts of the arm and tightened the locking nuts then put it back and torqued. I really don't want to have to go back to SPC's.... I love these LCA's.

It's a process of elimination. You can disconnect the sway bar end links and see if the noise goes away as sometimes the noise comes from there. But if you had no noise before and now you do and the only thing you changed were the LCAs, then that's most likely the culprit.

I did both the V3 coils and LCA's at the same time. Any tighter on the top hats may risk damaging something. I had a small 1/4" socket over the valve with a open socket on the nut on top. Won't go any tighter.

Next thing I'll look at is the lowering collar to make sure it's tight and all endlink connections.

have you checked the tolerance on both sides of the coilover bushing at the lca? spacing on both sides should be even. if not, nylon washers from home depot might remedy your situation.

I have. I think I may have found the issue and it was the lock nuts not being tight enough.

Ah, that's why im such a huge fan of torquing everything to spec

These nuts don't have a torque spec even in Whiteline's instructions, lol. I'm assuming it's just get a wrench that fits around it and pull hard. I got the rest of the LCA torqued to spec which is 59 ft lbs on everything but the sway bar links, which is 28 ft lbs.

Bringing this back from the dead. Still haven't realy pinpointed where this clicking is, but from others talking about this, I believe its the endlinks. Now when people say endlinks, are they talking about the swaybar endlinks? Those are the only ones I'm familiar with. Even if that is the culprit, I'm not sure what I can even do with the endlinks on the stock swaybar. I really don't want to just get a rear swaybar because of the clicking noise.

Stock sway bar end links shouldn't make any noise. It's the adjustable links that can make noise.

Any picture as to where I should be looking?

I've got KW V3's, whiteline LCA's and whiteline toe arms. Wasn't doing the clicking noise over bumps when I had the SPC LCA's and stock toe arms. That's why I have been having a hard time deciding on what could be causing it.

Pretty positive it is not the top hats of the coils in the back. That has a very distinct clicking noise.

Well, through process of elimination, you had no noises before. You changed to Whiteline LCA's and toe arms and the noises showed up. The noises are coming from the new components. As I originally stated, it's most likely the pillowballs.

You can test this. Just get the rear up on ramps. Get under the car and have someone bounce the car while you listen and look around for the noise. When I had the Figs Mega arms, I isolated it to just the left side inboard pillowball.

That's the problem. I've done that and the noise doesn't replicate with force like that. Just that light click that happens when the suspension adjusts to going up a small hill and right down it quick.

I'm thinking it may be the pillowball as you stated. I need to get back under there and look at things again.

You have to remember that a light clicking will amplify itself inside the cabin. When I pulled my Mega Arms to install the SPC arms, I could feel there was the tiniest bit of movement in the pillowball by hand.

Check if your endlinks are torqued properly (on both ends).

- Andy

I had Voodoo13 rear LCA's on my car for about 2500 miles and had a click as well. Mine was at all slow speeds - anything under 25mph and they'd click. It got progressively worse, to the point that I thought I was going to drop an entire corner of the suspension, but I started daily driving the car: more usage seemed to make the suspension move easier and get rid of the noise. I stopped daily driving, noise came back.

My setup was: Megan Track coilovers and toe arms, Voodoo13 LCA, and an alignment. I'm a competent mechanic and torqued everything. Checked and rechecked everything multiple times before I started eliminating things.

I started by removing the end links, still a noise, then coilovers, yet the noise persisted. Then the toe links, still there. Finally the arms and reinstalled the coilovers, no more noise.

I have to agree with @cnk that it must be the heim joint. To me the clunking that came from the rear LCA's was too much NVH. I sold them, and if I get arms again it'll be with a bushing in them.

Good luck figuring it out, or dealing with the noise. :)

Yeah, I'm thinking it's the whiteline arms. I knew the risk would be more NVH for these awesome LCA's. The SPC LCA's worked fine and I probably should have kept them for my daily, but the whitelines are super durable and of course, they are nice eye candy from behind the car. I think I'll just live with it as its not the end of the world.

Appreciate the help guys. I know some others run into this and it's a pain to find the clicking noise. The first thought always is "check your tophats on the rear coils, you didn't tighten them enough". After two coilover installs now, I promise that has been checked, lol.

I am having the same problem with my car...except I have SPC LCAs... but they dont look like any SPC LCA I've seen on the forum. The adjustment is at the very end of the arm nearest the hub. Its an elliptical washer type thing (rotate it and it changes the length) instead of the sliding adjustments ive seen on other SPC LCAs.

So anyways same symptoms: low speed weight shifting clunking.

Where / what exactly is the "pillowball" ?

Its 25 deg today so I'm not gonna crawl under the car but I want to get this sorted out.

Note: I have ST coilovers, Whiteline Adj endlinks & 18mm sway bar. The LCA's got installed after a month of driving with everything else installed without any noise. I also had the whiteline subframe and diff bushings installed at the same time as the LCAs.

Mine makes noise too. Check your endlink tightness at the sway, and then check for slop where the coil bolts onto the LCA. I've had 2 sets of coils and they both float just a bit on the mounting bolt, when this happens it makes noise.

SPC had 2 versions out for their LCA's. The ones from the WRX that they originally sold as they worked for the BRZ/FRS and then the newer version which has an eccentric on the hub side. I have the newer version and don't have any sounds. The SPC arms don't have pillowballs. If you had no noise and then installed LCA's and bushings, then the noise is coming from any part that was taken apart and reassembled. If you had someone install the parts, go back to the shop and have them look at it. If you did the install, then I would double check your work.

Also, did you make sure to leave everything loose until you put a load on the suspension and then torque everything down to spec? That can cause issues as well if you don't do that. I left everything loose, lowered it onto ramps, bounced the car a few times to let the suspension settle and then torqued everything down.

Thanks for the input. I had a shop do the work but after they put it back together with the parking brake line on the wrong side of the bracket causing it to rub my tire i no longer trust them with my car.

I checked if anything was loose and everything seemed really tight. I may try loosening and retorquing everything because im 99% sure they just used an impact gun and didnt torque anything properly.