anyone with their car lowered ~2.8in!

[white86]

Okay so my car is lowered about 2.8" in the back, but I'm getting this clunking noise from both sides. Its not the suspension because I've had the manufacturer replace both sides and both top hats and I'm no longer running pillowball like I was in my previous thread. I'm running rubber in the rear and I'm STILL getting a clunk when I hit bumps. So I'm wondering if anyone else has lowered this car as much is having the same problem or has figured out what it is.

All I can think of is its:
CV joints in the axles;
Ball joints in the wishbones;

I know its not the axles hitting anything because theyre clean.

[Matt Andrews]

do you have any suspension travel at that height? you could disconnect the sway bar and put the car on jack stands. put a jack under the suspension arm to make it articulate, then rotate wheel and see if it hangs up on anything as you rotate it. you should be able to tell if it is in the drive train assembly or if the tire it hitting anything in the fender well.

[white86]

It's not a rubbing noise. You can check my other thread for a sound clip. I'm on my phone right now otherwise I'd link it again.

[ultra]

Raise it up, see if the sound goes away, then lower again. At least that way you can rule out your install and deduce whether it's really due to height.

Running that low it could be a whole lot of things. Do you have adjustable (and properly adjusted) sway bar end links?

[subaruferrucci]

could be bottoming out the strut in the back i had that happen on my wrx because of a bad coilover design

[white86]

So I raised the ride height to about a 1" drop at most and put a little more preload in it so see if that solved the issues and it didnt change the noise one bit. So I thought I would take the rear off and put the stock stuff back in and see if maybe something on the car was damaged on installation like the bushings or something. So with the stock stuff on it doesnt seem to make the noise at all, MAYBE when Im pulling in the driveway at an angle and the rear wheels hit the curb at a separate time but only under extreme conditions like that. Never made the noise when just hitting average bumps on the street. So Maybe I'm thinking the noise is normal but the stiffness of the suspension and also the more solid mounts and less rubber parts accentuates the noise and causes it to travel up the suspension to the mounts and now you can hear it better. I literally have no idea. everything seems to be fine until you start going over bumps, even small ones at low speeds its just so clunky.

[whataboutbob]

Might be a stupid question, is it topping out?

[JadeBRZ]

nevermind, just read your other thread. sounds like you got it figured out.....

[Don@Accelerated]

I have mine lowered that much and have zero noises

[white86]

I wish I knew someone local who had coils I could try to see if it's my car or the coils

[raz0rbladez909]

What kind of coilovers are they? I know typically on Megan Racing Coilovers the nut that holds the tophats onto the strut is usually loose and will cause loud clunking noises. Usually just tightening the nut gets rid of the noise.

[white86]

Ive replaced the top hats from pillowball to rubber mounts and the noise didnt change so its not coming from the top hats. It's almost like the axles arent long enough with the car that low and every time I hit a bump they pull out and smack back in the diff or the cv joints. I know s2000's had this problem so they made spacers for the end of the axles that go on the inside and mount to the diff. But this car's axles dont mount to the diff they just slide in with no restraints you can actually pull them out a bit