Started hearing a clunk on slightly rough surfaces about 2 months ago. That small, occasional clunk turned into a louder clunk with increasing frequency. Today, I decided to see what was up. I jacked up the front of the car, and held the driver's side wheel (where I thought the noise was coming from) and moved the wheel up & down. Sure enough, I could hear a dull thud coming from the shock tower. I removed the strut bar, and then grabbed a couple wrenches to tighten the center nut on the shock stem. I put the wrenches on the shock stem & nut and was getting ready to put some muscle into them when ......... well, see the pic below.


Anyway, looks like I have to call Tein for a repair tomorrow. I am running the Tein SS, bought 'em new in August of last year, and have about 13k miles on them. Anyone have any experience with Tein's repair service?

 

ive heard they do great and quick reliable repair/rebuild service, but thats for like dead or blown shocks or they will fix stuck spring seats (from weathering)

i dont know about that though....

 

damn man, sorry to hear that. i'm actually having problems with my front driver's side shock too. When ever i got over a small bump or uneven surface (slowly) it makes a squeak sound. I tried going over things quickly and i don't hear it. I'm not sure what that means.

I'm going to have to call Tein and see what they say. Hopefully someone can chime in on our problems and let us know how Tein's service is

 

 

holy smokes man that sucks, good luck wiht w.e happens

 

Teins shop is located near LA Ca. from what I heard.
They can rebuild any and all parts of the shock as needed, do custom valving and whatever you want. There is a rebuild price sheet on their website with every option and individual part price.
Fixing is what they do!

My question is: why did you think cranking on the main bolt- which has all that spring tension behind it, was the reason for the thunk?
And whats up with the real mounting nuts that are loose?
Based on the paint wear marks- I would guess there was something loose there!
Did you check the ball joints? Those are popular wear out item on the car itself~

 

The 3 nuts in the pic that are loose are the ones from the strut brace, I spun them back on there for safekeeping. As I mentioned in my initial post, I suspected that nut because when I moved the wheel up and down, that's where the noise came from. Paint marks around the other nuts are irrelevant - the OEM shock was located there, and the Tein is rotated slightly from that OEM placement. Everything else is tight. Thanks for the suggestion on the ball joint, but there are two reasons I would rule that out:
1) The noise is actually coming from the top of the shock tower, and, as evidenced by the broken shaft, there is a problem in that area
2) I drive in Florida on the turnpike almost all of time, no bad roads or bumps, and my car has 13k miles, so a bad balljoint is a possibility, albeit remote.

Looks like Tein's site is very informative on repair services and costs, so I'm just going to ship the thing out for repair and ride my bike to work (can't say I'm broken up about that, I just got a VFR 800 and I'm in love).

Thanks guys, I'll keep you updated on Tein's response.

 

Any updates?

 

WHOA...the noise that you're hearing, does it sound like a flat tire?! i have that too!!!

 

Well, I contacted Tein, explained the problem and sent them a picture. The guys were very helpful and they said that a rebuild would be necessary, and would not be a big deal. My cost for the rebuild was $152, and my cost to ship the shock to them was $33. So, all in, not a bad price. I should have my coilovers back on the car this week. I must say, the Teins ride a LOT better than OEM shocks. I didn't have the OEM stuff on long, maybe 600 miles, I put the Teins on almost immediately after buying the car, and having to switch them while the Tein was being rebuilt made me realize that the Teins were pretty good.
All that said, I can't help but wonder if the H&R setup would ride even better than the teins, due to the progressively wound springs.

 

Always loved Teins, have had them on my last 3 cars, you shouldnt worry about a rebuild ..

 

I have developed the same squeaking sound in the front left side as well. It's getting progressively worse since installing them about 3 months ago.

I'm super anal and torque'd everything to the exact specs and checked it 3 times since. Dunno, it might be that aluminum spring seat though.