I FINALLY got the FiST back on the road, and am now working on the fine-tuning. The front end got a new, larger sway bar and new coils springs. On the first drive, there was some significant clunking from the springs that I assume was them settling into position. Sound normal to you? It has quieted down, if it doesn't go away 100%, I will investigate.
I am now hearing and feeling a good deal of smaller creaks and groans and clunks. Nothing jarring, but at parking lot speeds I notice more noise from the front end overall. I will, of course, look around and re-check the tightness of all bolts, but assuming everything is tight, what could be the cause? If it is simply a matter of "stiff suspensions are noisy because they transmit everything into the chassis" then I am fine with that. If its a case of "even rock-hard suspensions should not make any noise" then I need to resolve it. Thoughts and recommendations from the hive?
Photo added for awesomeness
I presume poly bushings on the new bar? They will squeak if not lubed, and if they are even the tiniest bit loose on the bar, they will rattle. Push on the roof of the car to rock it side to side. Hear anything? If you jack it up so the front wheels droop, you won't feel any movement. Sway bar links are not worn, and the nuts are tight?
Strut nuts tightened down properly?
Coil springs are the correct diameter, not rubbing on the body?
Not sure about the FiST but did you tighten all suspension components with it compressed/under it's own weight? I know Audi's will be noisy if you tighten everything up while it's in full droop, not sure if that applies at all to this though
If its on its wheels, I cannot access anything. :(
The strut bar was lubed and properly secured, I am thinking that I may have missed an end link, I remember tightening 3 of the nuts...
Brought back to the garage, triple checked everything, can’t find anything loose or off. Driving around, large movements of the suspension don’t cause the noise, only small ones. Very smooth surfaces it will be completely quiet, small ripples in the road create a rattling noise. It almost sounds like the shocks are blown and rattling in there housings, but I know that’s not the case. They are KONI yellows and I set them to full stiff which reduced the noise But didn’t eliminate it. Maybe the sway bar is so stiff that big bombs bend it quietly, but small bumps and can’t move so it clunks?
You can also check if the swap bar is sliding side to side and clunking. If you can't quite tell, put a zip tie on the outside of the mount on both sides and take it for a spin. If either zip tie is moved, you know you have lateral movement.
I'd do this test at full soft, as that's more likely to show it. If that's the case and there's nothing on the body/suspension to clank against, it's probably end links.
Are the dampers untouched from before? If they've been apart, are they the type where you replace the cartridge, or the whole strut body?
The description matches to me the cartridge not being fully captured in the strut body if it's that type. Either by the capturing nut not being fully tight, or by missing a spacer so the body isn't holding the cartridge tightly by the ends.
I'm not sure whether you've excluded this, as you ruled out blown and rattling in the housings, but this wouldn't require the damper to be blown, only to be not fully captured. Apologies if I've misunderstood.
pinchvalve said:
If its on its wheels, I cannot access anything. :(
Put car up on jack stands/ lift, raise each corner to ride height with jack, tighten fasteners.
Sway bar bushings are cut a wee bit loose.
In reply to rustybugkiller :
So this was the ticket, thank you rusty! One of the front sway bar links seemed to be tight, but it was in fact not inserted into the strut fully. It looked good with the car on jacks and the wheel at full droop, but when I raised the wheel to ride height, the link went a bit slack and the top mount was loose by about 1mm. I was able to fully seat the bolt, then tighten it the rest of the way, and the noise is gone. Wheh!
