I just installed a set of Buddy Club Race Spec coilovers about a week and a half ago. About a day after install I started hearing some clunking (coming primarily from the front right coilover) when driving slowly over bumps or over larger bumps at normal speed. I kept an eye on it over the next few days, and it started getting louder and more frequent until one day I had to pull over and pull the wheels off in a Walgreens parking lot. I found that the lock rings on the spring had come loose. Reset the preload, tightened everything up, and also tightened up the top nut.
The noise went away for another day or so, then sure enough it started coming back. Pulled the wheel off again, top nut was still tight, the lock ring on the spring was still tight, but somehow there was now no preload in the spring (about 1/8" gap between the spring and the top perch with no weight on the suspension). Thought maybe it was due to the spring sagging since springs do that right after install, but to get 1/8" in a day or two after they've already been on the car for 5 days seemed unlikely.
I pulled the coilover off the car, took off the top hat, removed the spring and dust boot to visually inspect everything. Everything looked good, put it all back together, put more preload on than before (Could barely turn the spring with no weight on it, then turned it a little more for good measure), double checked that the top nut was tight (also put locktight on the top not), then reinstalled everything and tripple checked that everything was torqued properly.
The sound went away completely and the world was wonderful...for another day...Now the sound is coming back again (not as bad and not getting worse as quickly as before though). Removed the swaybar end links just to try and rule that out- made no difference.
I know there are a bunch of threads similar to this on this forum, and I've read them all. I've tried everything that I've read from end links, to preload, to the top nut, to locking down the lock rings with a mallet and a punch.
I would just accept that this is life now
if the noise never went away...but there have been times when, very briefly, there was no noise at all which leads me to believe that there's got to be some fix.
If anyone has any ideas PLEASE let me know because I'm about ready to yank these off and sell them if I have to pull the wheels once a week just to make sure it's not all going wrong.
BONUS QUESTION: Does anyone know the best way to tighten the top nut on Buddy Club coilovers? They are inverted, so the adjuster is on the bottom. I've used an impact up to this point (even though I know some people have said not to) because there's nothing I can see to grab hold of with a strap to keep it from spinning. There's a spacer around the main shaft going up to the top hat, so that wouldn't keep it from spinning, the top perch isn't solidly mounted and could turn as well. If I put a strap on the threaded part of the shock body underneath the lower spring perch, it remains still, but everything above the lower perch spins away once you start to wrench it. I don't really see any way other than an impact
Oh and also- the rears started making some noise today... so there's that