With me being long overdue for struts, I finally ordered a set of KYB GR-2's off of the group deal section. Installed all four today and the front installation with no problems, installed some fresh MOOG front strut mount as well. Installed the rear, lowered the car back down to realize that I left these off both struts:



Without these, I was getting a BAD clunking metal and metal noise. So I had to to take both rear struts back off and install the metal plates. Lowered the car back down and for sure this time I thought everything was good and I took off and its still making a bad clunking noise when hitting every little bump. Its just the passenger side rear making the noise, driver side seems fine. When I press down on the trunk it will make the noise like its hitting something on the way down. A friend of mine from the ORG told me to hit the middle bolt on the strut with an impact gun because the weight of the car will make it loose all over again since hand tightening is not enough but I have don't this a few times and I never had to use an impact gun or anything. I know its hard with actually hearing the noise but you can imagine a metal to metal hitting sound. Sounds like its missing a rubber washer or something above the metal plates that I pictured above. Is their a link or something that shows the installation piece my piece anywhere by chance? I'm sure that would help to see if I installed everything or if i'm missing something. I'm pretty sure I installed everything correctly the second time around but early in the AM i'm going to take it back off and see what may could be the problem and install again and see if the sound remains.

Its funny because the imprint on the plates above, it doesn't touch anything rubber now I don't think, it seems like it needs a rubber bumpstop there or something but the rubber bumpstop is slid all the way down to the bottom of the strut.....

probably the strut rod nut. happened to me all the time. i ended up putting 2 nuts on it.

the nut in the middle??

yep.


so fold the rear seats down and move the truck carpet, you can see that nut in the center, see if its loose.

open the trunk and move the car up n down and see if thats where its coming from.

yeah that's what I have been doing all evening and it does move a little bit, no the nut exactly but it seems like that could be the issue but I swear I tighten it up.. might take it off and hit it with a impact gun. I need to invest in an impact gun, might ride to advance and use theirs...

mine would be good and tight, then month later it would rattle again. eventhough the nut has a nylon washer built into it. I would not OVER tighten it , the later on you will have probs when time to get it off. Id just get another nut for it and tighten one, then put the second on and tighten it.

ok i gotcha, it may not be tight but the other side looks like the same number of threads threaded down and its not making any noise but I might take them both off and tighten them some more and see if that does it.

ya it could be something else, try and confirm thats where the noise is coming from.

whats got me is like i said earlier, it seems like something should be sitting on top of those plates I pictured above from looking at the outline on the topside of it. Now with it installed, nothing of that sort is on the top to even make that imprint.

55248N is the part your have pictured.


yours is a 01 right?

00

ok here is 2000


there is a plate where it mounts. it could be that

Thats the order that I have everything...the part pictured is part # 55248N. everything except the dust boot..

Ok so i start early this morning to see if I can get this figured all out, went and took the same passenger side strut off that was making the noise and took it all apart. 2 things I (seemed) to notice. I used the wrong hat nut, it was a regular nut and not a lock nut, and it looked like the mount wasn't seated correctly. So i fixed all that put it back together and still the same noise. So now I take it back off and examined it again. My mount didnt seem to look to bad but I went to Napa and bought a strut mount came back put it on and STILL the same noise. Now im confused. So I jacked me whole rear end up, and switched the struts to the opposite side to see if the noise followed the strut and put the car back down and its still coming from the same passenger side strut. This makes me want to believe its not even the strut making the noise. Now im just thinking of what could possibly be loose around that area??????

PLEASE HELP!

^ wow


idk what to tell ya, other than try and see where it coming from.

Grab your exhaust and give it a good shake maby while working on the car one of the rubber mounts came loose?if you lowered it any did you cut the bumpstops to match?are the new bumpstops installed in the right direction?just out there reaching at possible answers for you.also check with DJ on here he does alot of setups he may know whats going on.

Is it a clunk or a rattle? A while ago I had a blown rear passenger shock. I replaced it with a Eibach Pro-Kit and Tokico Blues. Rattle still there. I checked the stock exhaust...nothing loose. Turns out the ebrake cable mount to the frame is missing a nut. I zipped tied it, went for a drive...no rattling. Good luck!!

Just for giggles, check your brake rotor dust/heat shield. I accidentally bent mine doing the install and it was scraping against the rotor. Worth a shot.

Just to update I got everything working and the clunking noise was gone, I was basically missing the bumpstop that sits on top of the plates that I pictured in the OP. I swear when I took my old struts off I didnt have the rubber stop. Went to Napa and bought two new rear strut mounts that came with all the hardware and everything is perfect. Car rides 100% with these GR2s! Thanks for all the input.