Anyone know where to begin to stop that annoying D2 clank? I've done a lot of adjusting recently and, though the ride quality is now nearly perfect with no bounce at all and great stability, the suspension is now noisier than ever. I think it's the springs shifting around and hitting the shock. I was thinking about going to Lowes or Home Depot and getting a sheet of rubber to somehow put in there to isolate the spring from the strut. Anyone have a majic solution?

 

I don't think the spring could be hitting the strut because it's under load. Is the sound coming from the front or back? When do you hear the noise?

 

It's from the front. At first I thought I had a loose rim, but after checking all the bolts, everything is tight.

I put a little bit of pre-tension on the front springs (1/2" of copression) and this noise started. I seriously think the sound is the spring bending slightly and one of the coils hitting the part of the strut assembly that threads into the lower knuckle. The sound happens at every little bump.

 

I've heard a lot about the infamous D2 coilover clunk.

I believe it comes from the allen bolts at the bottom of the coilover that causes all the sound.

On my Ksports, there is just one huge nut at the bottom so it doesn't make that kind of noise.

I'd look into the allen bolts for the resolution.

 

Like Maxboost said, check the allen bolts and really tighten them. But I think the noise you're hearing may be from that 1/2 inch of compression/pre load on the springs. I didn't put any pre load on my D2's. I just put enough pressure on them to snug them to the perches. Make sure the spring isolators aren't damaged either. When I did it this way, I had no problems. The only time I heard any sound was when one of the struts blew. It was a 'clunking' sound when I hit large bumps.

 

Thanks for the advice. I had to really work on them to break them loose when I last adjusted the set-up. I think I'll try replacing them with regular bolts and see if that doesn't help. I was kinda wondering if that wasn't the issue myself. Looks like another weekend project for me! Whooppie! *sarcasm*

 

why do you think Rob took them off his car (and sold em to you)?

 

QFT. Ride great, but I can't be clunkin' around either.

 

What are a good set of coilovers to go with then?

 

It might be a pillow ball mount issue also. I have the clunking noise too and asked someone on the .org about it a while ago since that person also had the clunk. He said it was his pillow mount and that he had to tighten the top nut with an impact wrench every two weeks.

 

Thanks. I'll try that as well.

 

Rob sold them because he bought a new car and he didn't have them set-up right in the first place. He complained about bounce. I had that problem for a while until I figured out how to get rid of it.

 

I know...just messing with you. Although Rob did have some clunk too, IIRC.

 

All the clunk is gone! I took off the coilovers last night and what a surprise! The top allen-screw in both lower knuckles had snapped! Two hours, four drill bits, two drill batteries and a couple of scraped knuckles later and I had them drilled out and put in new bolts. Now for the alignment: because the geometry of our suspension and what I did down there, there was a lot of camber (one wheel negative and one positive) which, naturally, threw off the alignment pretty badly. So, I'm looking at it and came up with a great idea! Since the coilovers have camber plates that I could adjust and I had a nice, big square (carpentry) and a good hydraulic jack to use, I tried to get back to 0 camber by putting the square on the ground so that it formed an "L" next to my tire. Then by looking at the distance between either the top part of the square and my tire or the bottom depending on the camber, I was able to jack the car up and adjust slightly with the camber plates. Now, because I know that the car settles after a few miles, I basically released the jack as fast as possible to let the car fall 2" to the ground. I then repeated three or four times each time lifting the car less so that the springs had a good chance to settle in properly. Then I was able to recheck the camber and readjust if needed. It took me an extra 15 minutes, but now I'm back to 0 camber and I'm willing to bet the toe-in/toe-out is fine again too. The car tracks straight and the wheel is straight again (it was ALL out of whack when I first put it together...). Took it for a spin on the highway and had no problems.

Just a quick solution for anyone else playing around with these things.

 

Glad you figured it out. I wonder what happened that 1 allen screw on each side snapped??