Hello everyone. I know there are lots of messages about squeeks/noises eminating from folks' shocks, but I'd like to post my particular situation is see if anyone would have an idea of what's happening.

I just came back from a purchase of another member's MR Bilstein stock shocks (w/ less than 800 miles on them) and Tanabe GF210 springs (w/ less than 400 miles on them). The install was done down in SoCal at a professional installation place (I'm back in NoCal now).

I notice that on some (not all) bumps or drops in the road, a squeek noise (more like a hollosh squish noise) eminates from the left front of the car (eg: driver's side.) The sound is more noticeable when I'm driving on the highway (and I drive over some uneven surfaces on the road or I drive on the bumps separating lanes). If I go over a speed bump, I don't notice the sound. I'm thinking it's from the shock/spring assembly, since the sound's coming from there and there was no sound before the install (when I was using my stock '03 evo shock/springs).

What could be the cause of this noise (and should I worry about it)? Is it an install issue or a part issue? I can't bring the car back to the installer now since I'm 400 miles away.

Thanks!

Sam

 

Still haven't figured out the cause of the problem, but I brought my car to AutoInnovations in Milpitas and talked to Orlando, and he spent the lunch hour looking at my car (thanks!) . He noticed that the camber bolts we both installed on the right side, while the regular bolts were installed on the left. He's not sure if this is the cause of the problem, but the installation was not performed according to spec. I've placed a call w/ the SoCal installer and am awaiting his response. Swapping one of the camber bolts back to the left would require a re-allignment. This install is becoming quite expensive!

BTW, Orlando tells me the sound's more of a rattle.

Sam

 

Mine "creak" when I'm slowing down at slow speeds...I've been in the car with my installer a few times checking noises of other things...like my exhaust...and he said that it creaks when it's cold, though it's not quite the 28 degrees in CA that it is here, but just a suggestion...try going somewhere and taking a bunch of hard corners, even like just going in a circle for awhile in a parking lot, and see if it still does it....the stupid "noises" on the Evo are hard to tell cuz everyone's "noise" is different, if you have an aftermarket exhaust you might check the exhaust heatshield on the bottom of the car, mine was rattling bad, a screw driver fixed that

 

check to see if they put the rubber piece back on between the spring and the strut spring seat... i did my springs myself and i have no problems... it prolly got stuck on the stock spring when they pulled it off and never put it back in...

jack the front of the car up, reach your hand back there and u should be able to feel the rubber overlapping the seat...

 

put the camber bolts back in their correct places

that is probably it

as far as alingment needed
you may not need it because there are only two setting for camber. It just depends which way you put the bolt in

 

After listening to the sound some more, the best way to discribe it is really as a "rattle."

Went to WORKS today and had the camber bolts put back into the correct locations. WORKS looked at the left front strut assembly and didn't find a probable source of the problem. However, the rattle still exists.

I'm finding that it's more noticealbe on small bumps on the highway, especially if I drive over the bumps on the lane divider.

Any ideas on what else could be causing this rattling? Could it be the shock itself?

Sam

 

how about the rubber that sits under the spring and above the spring in the actual assembly? is this aligned to factory....the small little bit of the metal spring touching the metal perch could be your source of the rattle. I know sometimes that if you have springs that drop your car too low or are designed with too many coils the springs will actually hit each other over bumps.

 

How would I check this?

BTW, I'm using Tanabe Sustec GF210's, that drop the car 1.5" in the front and 1" in the back. Not as aggressive as the Tein S-Tech's that I had on another setup (using stock shocks) before.

Thanks.

Sam

 

The rattle seems to be gone now. I noticed that whenever the wheels were dismounted and then remounted, the rattle would go away for a week or so, then come back. Recently I dismounted and remounted the wheels but used new lug nuts. The rattle seems to be gone for good (cross fingers.) The shop down south had overtorqued the lug nuts. I wonder if the source of the rattle could have been the lug nuts?? Is that possible?

Sam

 

I have these springs as well, and installed them myself. No out of the ordinary noises, but another thing to check is the torque specs on all your bolts. When i installed my springs, i made sure torque everything down as necessary. Not to sound like an **** here, but for the future, anything you can install yourself, do yourself. Because then you know exactly how everything went together and what was done/not done. Good luck!