Hey everyone. I am running Megan Racing Street series coilovers. After about a week or so of having them on, i started getting an occasional clunking from the front passenger side coilover. After some serching i concluded that it was either the top hat nut or loose perches. I tighted up the top hat, took off the wheel and tightened the perches. That worked for a little bit, but then the clunking comes back!
I looked at my perches again and they are loose on only that one coilover. Any idea on how to make the perches stay in place a little more permanently? Thanks for any feedback.

--Pete

 

Tighten them more, and make sure you do it with the correct tools. When I tighten the perches, I really go to town on them. With the spring perch and the collar below it, you turn them against each other as tight as you can get them.

 

Lower locking spring perches should be just tight enough so that they don't move and "lock" into place. Going to "town" on them isn't necessarily a good idea as they are usually made of aluminum and don't take to massive amounts of force kindly, unless you never intend to replace springs ...

The upper perches are usually held by spacers and a top hat nut. It is usually this top hat nut that has a tendency to loosen on most coilovers. Tighten it to the higher end of the recommended torque specs to keep it in check.

 

I've had the lower ride height collars on the Megans come loose pretty often.. same happened to me with my past Tein Flex coilovers.

Here's a couple of ways I use to lock them down:

1. Get a piece of aluminum block to use as a punch, put it against the collar and use a hammer to pound the collar and really lock down the collar
2. Slip a combo wrench on the end of the adjuster wrench and use that to apply more leverage on the collar to lock it.
3. Do either of the above and use locktite on the threads to make sure the thing is really stuck.

The BC Racing Type BR really improved on the older lower collar design used on the Megans and it has stayed in place for me without any of the above.

 

Care to elaborate? I've done it on every set I have ever owned and worked on, with no problems with the collars. I've never had to replace springs because I tightened a collar down either.

The collars have many hundreds of pounds on them being constantly applied by just the spring itself, not to mention the upward forces generated by the wheel/tire during impacts. If tightening down a spring perch with your hands was going to do any damage, these things wouldn't last a second for normal driving, let alone track use.

 

do NOT use loctite on the threads. The whole point of a threaded body coilover is that it allows you to make adjustments. And you don't want to be applying a flame directly to the shock body just to break the loctite loose if you ever change your mind on ride height, or decide to get the car corner balanced.

 

Loctite on the threads is a bad idea. Do not use loctite!

The reasoning behind not having to "go to town" on the lower locking spring perches is that usually the lower perches are made out of aluminium which is a very maleable(soft) metal. Too much force can bugger up the threads against the shock body.

The spring forces are vertical vs the torque forces to lock the perches are horizontal (in a manner). With well machined parts (tight tolerances) the required torque to lock the spring perches in place is surprisingly low.

 

Unfortunately a lot of ride height lower collar designs will come loose. My friend has used locktite before with good results on his Megans and still able to adjust it after setting the height. It just requires more muscle to move and a large extension attached to the adjuster wrench. It is much better than having "auto adjusting" ride height!

If locktite is not your thing try using an extension on the adjuster wrench to apply more leverage or use the punch and hammer - these work most of the time.

Some of the newer lower collar designs have spring washers (Tein Mono Flex), conical designs (BC Racing Type BR), allen key locking collars (Ohlins DFV) and other stuff to keep them from getting loose.

 

Maleable or not, I have yet to damage a coilover by tightening down the collars the way I do. I don't feel that it is an issue.

 

Just found this thread confirming that my Megans suck lol.
Freaking perches come loose after just a few rides and I guess especially here in Jersey with some of the worst roads on the planet.
Went to work today and they started clunking, come home, both the top spring preload perches are loose and even separated completely (~1" gap) and the bottom perch is loose too. Before, only the bottom one came off. Tightned like a madman again, let's see if it goes 2 days without clunking.
Super annoying.