for like two years I have been chasing a rattle/knocking sound in the rear of my car on rough roads/potholes. On track and good roads however there is zero issue. I have double and triple checked all nuts and bolts on the rear suspension, changed diff mounts, swaybar endlinks, re did all the bushings in the rear LCA's and a few other small things to try and track down the noise with no luck. At this point I think I'm down to 2 options, either 1 or 2 blown rear coilovers or 1 or 2 bad upper mounts.

I run an old set of Ohlins r/t (cant remember the shaft size off the top of my head at the moment) and i believe my rear upper mounts are very old tein pieces. The coilovers were rebuilt shortly before i bought them. The car doesn't really show any signs of having a bad shock in my opinion (no leaks, bouncing both rear corners by hand etc.)

So, if anyone else has ever encountered this or has any ideas please feel free to share. Otherwise, is anyone aware of a company that makes a spherical/solid upper rear mount these days? I seem to be having trouble finding some.

 

If the spherical in the rear is causing your clunk it will be very obvious to identify. Pop off the coils on the rear and see if there is excess play. It should be very tight, able to move but not something where you can physically feel the inner race moving back and forth within the outer race.

Where are you living these days? If you wanna venture up to my house in MA I'd be happy to help you out. Assuming its the spherical we'd just have to pop the old one out find a part # if it has one or if all else fails measure the ID OD ball and race and find a suitable replacement to press back in.

 

I ran spherical endlinks out back and they began to rattle, sounded more like the tension rods in the trunk then suspension parts. all the bolts were tight, the end links themselves were supposed to be rated at 4k of pressure. Sure enough, when I took them off and replaced with the stock units the rattle is gone. The endlinks themselves don't appear to have play if you handle them but spin very easily their sockets. Good luck.

 

i just moved back to NY actually. I havent actually pulled anything apart lol. just figured id buy the top hats since i did everything else. if it warms up a little this weekend i may get under there.

im running oem endlinks in the rear

 

Well pop em off and report back what you find. If they are the Teins looks like you can still get them online: http://www.jscspeed.com/catalog/Mits...ution_8_9.html

Also, it mentions the spherical are made by NMB. I know this is a longshot but I went back from my old emails as I was tyring to find replacement sphericals for my old Cusco front plates and it wouldnt surprise me if the sphericals are the same exact size. And if thats the case this is the replacement you need: NMB part # mbwt-18
Specs:
Inner 18mm
Outer 33mm
Ball 20mm
Race 16mm

I might be getting ahead of myself here but found the info so figured I'd post it. Not pop off a coil and check em out!

 

awesome thanks for the info man. id much rather buy bearings than whole new mounts if i can work it out...will save money. have a lot to do to prep for gridlife in april!

are bearings like that usually just held in with circlips?

 

Circlip, and a slight press fit.

 

Since you are running Ohlins R&T, why not just get a set of Ohlins Rear Pillow Ball Upper Shock Mounts? Any place that sells Ohlins should be able to source them for you.

 

thought about it, but my guess is they are very expensive. doing just a bearing will be the cheapest option buy far.

 

^This

No point. I don't think they would be that expensive but rear pillowball mounts on our cars are all essentially the same. If you can verify the bearing is toast your best bet if you have the means to pop it out is to simply replace the bearing.

 

It hasn't gotten above 15 degrees the past few days so I didn't get the coilovers out to check. Maybe if we get a heatwave this week lol.

 

Lol I wouldn't bank on it; I wanna say it was like 5 last night here haha. Winter wonderland this past weekend finally. So glad I insulated my garage last winter; I just keep it at 50 at all times. But I feel your pain I can't work in the cold, Im such a baby. No rush anyway your evo is probably sleeping for the winter anyway.

 

It was a chilly 45* here all weekend. had the propane turbine heater going...lolz