Coilover and rain

[Andyxin]

Hi guys, I have AST 5100 and a set of LCA with Teflon joints on my car. I used the rubber top hat from factory shocks on my rear coilovers. SoCal had heavy rain past few weeks and I have driven in rain about 3 or 4 times(I don't drive it a lot and only use it for commute tasks). This week I notice there is a clunk sound from rear only in low speed. Is it possible that rain can damage my Coilover or LCA? I know it sounds stupid but I can't come up with any other explanation since the last time I track my car is almost 1 year ago and I always drive like a grandma on street. The noise came out right after the rain. I searched the forum and found that it might also be the axle problem which also appears only in low speed, but my problem has nothing to do with throttle on or off. It appears in low speed when roads have some imperfections(don't have to be bumps) and the car is warm. When the car is cold, this noise barely comes out. Thank you for any input.



Update. I drove back from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara today. There was no rain and the Clunk sound was super loud when I drove around Los Angeles. On the half way back the rain came. When I arrived at Santa Barbara the clunk sound was completely gone. The sound only comes in low speed so I didn’t realize it on the highway. Even though it is super weird, I can confirm now that the noise has to do with rain or water. I suspect the sound is from the spherical bearing of LCA. I will put some grease on it and see what will happen.

[86MLR]

Check all nuts and bolts.

Check all clearances, i.e. rear sway bar.

[Leonardo]

If any of the new parts are pillow ball, you will have more NVH. Also, a bit of rain shouldn't hurt your coils. Especially in such a short time.


I agree with 86 MLR, just to be safe you should check your work.

[TRDGriffon]

As mentioned above, if you are running front camber plates with spherical joints they will be noisey. My HKS coilovers are especially loud in cold weather/rain and relatively quiet in the summer time.

[Mr.ac]

Lol rain affected problems? Nah

common issues with aftermarket suspensions.

So common that if you read the install instructions, they always say to re-tighten after a set number of miles then again after said number of miles driven.

[Tcoat]

Only SoCal guys would think that rain can harm their suspension!

[Andyxin]

Originally Posted by Mr.ac

Lol rain affected problems? Nah

common issues with aftermarket suspensions.

So common that if you read the install instructions, they always say to re-tighten after a set number of miles then again after said number of miles driven.

Thanks, I will ask the shop that installed my coil over to retighten everything. My coilovers have been in my car for one year and they have always been surprisingly quite except coil binding sound.

[churchx]

Coil binding sound may indicate problems with bearing in topmount.

[Andyxin]

Update. I drove back from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara today. There was no rain and the Clunk sound was super loud when I drove around Los Angeles. On the half way back the rain came. When I arrived at Santa Barbara the clunk sound was completely gone. The sound only comes in low speed so I didn’t realize it on the highway. Even though it is super weird, I can confirm now that the noise has to do with rain or water. I suspect the sound is from the spherical bearing of LCA. I will put some grease on it and see what will happen.

[zaockle]

I too have been having some noise issues from my coils lately. I just posted a thread and it has a video. Lemme know if the sound you hear is the same as mine.