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Clunking in rear suspension

I've been chasing clunking from rear suspension. Discovered today that both rear shocks make contact with the lower control arms (SPC). Could this be loud enough to be heard inside the car?

http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/...ps40b201cb.jpg
http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6ad16f8e.jpg
http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0c47cada.jpg

Easy way to tell: sit in car, have someone lightly tap rear LCA with a hammer.

Or trust my word: yes you'll hear it. That's the cause of the noise.

-alex

Its like the manufacturer didn't even test fit...

Dr. Dremel would fix those LCA right up. :D

Did you have the control arms first or the coilovers? At first glance the bottom of the coilover seems very wide.

Quote:

Originally Posted by racerx1715 (Post 1557919)

Did you have the control arms first or the coilovers? At first glance the bottom of the coilover seems very wide.

I got the shocks and the arms at the same time. The bottom of the shock is big and of course the corner of that hex is exactly at the narrowest spot.

I was actually perusing your website yesterday, because I think the heim joint endlinks would keep the arm from twisting forward like that. Do you have the rear endlinks in stock?

Quote:

Originally Posted by toeout (Post 1558162)

That's what I thought. I just wanted a second opinion in case I'm making stuff up from desperation.

As far as the fix goes, at first I thought flattening that corner on the shock, but the problem is that the sway bar end link rubber bushing twists the control arm forward, till the shock makes contact. All the other bushings are either pillowball or spherical bearing ( on the shock ). So even if I file some of that corner off, it will still make contact, due to the endlink bushing twisting it.

On stock control arms, the inner bushing is rubber and won't allow the arm to twist. SPC arms have the pillow ball type inner bushing.

I got the shocks and the arms at the same time. The bottom of the shock is big and of course the corner of that hex is exactly at the narrowest spot.

I was actually perusing your website yesterday, because I think the heim joint endlinks would keep the arm from twisting forward like that. Do you have the rear endlinks in stock?

Yes, we keep stock of all our suspension parts. I think I saw your order come across yesterday.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cjymiller (Post 1557719)

Its like the manufacturer didn't even test fit...

They were designed to be used with the stock arms.

Quote:

Originally Posted by supramkivtt2jz (Post 1561494)

They were designed to be used with the stock arms.

Ah you're right, I overlooked the fact he was on SPC since they look stock.

So what was the fix for the issue?

I'm having similar problems :(

The problem turned out to be shocks themselves. I spent ridiculous amount of time and effort installing the suspension pieces and taking them off again. Putting rubber sheets between various pieces trying to isolate the cause.

In the end it was the shocks and even knowing that ,we couldn't get the non-remote version to be quiet. My final solution was to have the shocks rebuilt to remote reservoir version and my suspension has been quiet from that point on. 7 months and 12K miles.