I am currently on forms and function type 1 coilovers for my type s and everytime I go over a bump, it makes a rattle noise. Any ideas what the issue might be?

 

Ok, so I took out the entire coilover and I blasted it with the impact wrench, it worked for a little bit and the noise went away, but when i went to go adjust the ride height, the noise came back. I've also tried tightening the top nut while using vice grips on the shaft to stop it from spinning, but it didn't work. Any other ideas??

 

type 1s are known to suck and blow. (hahahha)

your best bet is to replace the shocks with a new set of coilovers, preferably NOT F&F type1's

it sounds like your shocks are blown and nothing you can do will fix them. replace them with something new

 

The issue is you're racking chitty coilovers

 

The thing with them is the car has to be dropped low. The higher you raise it the looser the spring on them gets and causes rattle over bumps.
Im rocking the D2 coilovers similar to yours. The simple solution is keep the height adjustment low or deal with rattle or just sell and get Tein basics

 

almost all these firm shocks and coilovers rattle. I think even Koni does it too... I should be able to confirm that even my Koni's rattle in the next few weeks. I'm about to do another overhaul on the suspension. I bought a steelman wireless chassis ear to try to locate the noise. I have checked, sway bar links (besides that they are new), and upper control arm, the knuckle itself, and the other 3 stabilizer arms on the rear .. And all those arms are dead quiet. But when I clamp on a sensor on the spring itself or the top of the shock nut in the interior, I am getting noise. I also double checked ever bolt on those arms that are attached to the wheel and where it mounts on the body. I think most of those bolts are specified to 42 foot pounds. And all of them are at least 42 foot pounds. So, nothing is loose. I even have the back seat out of my car and the rear deck is out. I checked the floor.. the seat belt tensioner, and the air bags where they mount on the body.. And NO NOISE.. And this wireless chassisEar is SUPER sensitive. I can just barely touch it with my fingernail and the noise comes though the receiver. I DO hear a little bit of creaking on the rear deck like when I turn or the car twists a bit.. but that is not the clunky noise. The shock noise that is coming through the receiver is consistent with the clunks as I hear with my ear while test driving.. So, I have only 1 conclusion.. Koni's and Tein's rattle.. So since I have eibachs and koni's, I am probably going to get KYB or something like that for the rear, and buy the TypeS assembly for manual cars, for my Automatic.. And then to help the sway, I will probably update the FSB.. I already have typeS RSB. But tying to find a picture of an Automatic TL with manual TypeS springs. I know I have read where someone did that in the past.. Finding that is like a needle in a hay stack..

 

This may be your experience and it definitely sounds like you have thoroughly inspected everything but referencing your conclusion, I have used Konis with a few sets of springs including 2 different lines of teins and had no such clunk, rattle, or noise. I Did experience those noises with the Function Form coilovers back when I had them but it went away after i re-tightened everything.

 

lucky. If you check around and review all those old threads where people are complaining about noise.. "Ironically" so many of the people have Koni's. I have read many threads.. And a few say Koni's are ok, but no one ever suspects a brand new shock.. right? I mean how could The Konimyster be bad? I must admit, it is illogical. Or it is a great scam. I dont know. Is it possible to have fake Koni's? I know there are "yellow" shocks on ebay, those are obviously a copy cat, but somehow, "mysteriously" so many people with Koni's have noise problems. I will post up what I find later. And I never had any noise whatsoever with my OEM springs and shocks.. I mean, when I bought my car, I was so surprised at how many things I could run over and the car just handled it and it did so very quietly. But ever since Koni and Tein Basis, they both rattle.. rattles over small imperfections in the road, and clunks over a hard hitting holes. I Even checked my rear wheel bearings by spinning the wheel, and I hear no growl. So I try to twist the tire by grabbing the 2 sides and the top and the bottom of the tires, and pushing and pulling, and nothing wiggles or makes any noise. Its tight! hahha

I also took off my brake light cover, but thats not it.. its coming from both sides. Even my wirelessEar detected both shocks with noise. Some of it might be normal, but Im getting a big pulse of light on that receiver. The receiver has a light and a speaker. So it displays the sound with visual and audio. If I go slow, I do hear the shocks making a normal swooshy sound inside.. yes, the wirelessEar will hear even the squishy sound inside the shock. But that is normal. But I am getting a bigger reaction from the thing when I start to hear these little rattles.. The visual meter jumps up. So, its detecting something very unusual in the shock. And by the way, the lower shock bolts are on like cryptonite. Much tighter than specs. That was one of the things I checked first... And by the way, all this trouble shooting has taken place over about 6 months and about 4 or 5 different Saturday mornings.. So this troubleshooting has not been a rush job...Because the last thing I could ever imagine would be that my New Koni's are bad.. I mean how is that possible? I dont know but I sure see a loooottt of coorelation between noise and people with Koni's. And even Tein...

 

I have not seen these threads, but I also haven't searched for them since I have not run into this. Are you going to pair the Konis with OEM springs to further test your theory? It definitely sounds like you've done a lot of trouble shooting and have checked everything I could think of as well. The only problem I have run into with Konis is frozen valving and that was on a previous vehicle other than the TL. Koni still repaired/swapped them under warranty of course. Also I have used tein springs with stock shocks as well as Konis and no issues what so ever.

Perhaps I missed it, but why are you needing a picture of an automatic with manual type s springs? If it is to reference a height comparison, it is minimal if any. The aspec springs are really where that comparison is more noticeable. I would be more concerned with your consideration of going with different shocks in the rear than in the front as I have seen times where aftermarket shocks are not always necessarily true to OEM height...meaning there is the possibility of sitting at different heights front-to-rear due to the use of different shocks despite them being OEM type replacements. It doesn't always happen but I have seen it happen. Although this may be due to one set of shocks being brand new while the older shocks may be sagging due to wear and tear.

 

not going to pair the koni's with anything.... I am ditching the koni's.

Yes I was wanting to see a pic for reference. I have seen 1 before, but I can't find it now. I'll look more later..
So, regarding ride height. KYB is OEM'ish. I am open to another brand but I aint spending $400 on shocks alone..
From the factory, these TL's tend to sit a tad lower in the rear. So, I dont think they are exactly level to start with.
But I have Eibachs and for some reason, my car is lower in the front .. and that is weird because the original eibahcs that I have seen in other peoples pictures, the rear always was saggy.. But for some reason, my car is not like that.. The nose is just as low and the back and maybe even lower. So, basically, I want to raise the nose a little bit. And I can do that with the oem springs but I wont get the ones for the automatic. I would buy the ones for the manual cars and therefore it will cause my automatic car to sit a bit lower in the front. And yes, it will do that because I have seen the pics.. Its just been so long I cant find it now. Anyway, it will raise the nose a little. And that is what I want.
BUt my car will be lower on the front and lower on the rear than this Car in the attachment.. And it is a beauty as it is.. So mine is going to ride smooth and noise free and slightly lower. That's the plan.
I just noticed this TypeS is pretty much equal height in the front and rear. That seems a bit unusal. Oh well. I will still be lower than this car. but I dont want it too low. Looks good up a bit

 

Gotcha. Well it sounds like you know what you are doing and have a plan as well. I'd be interested in seeing the outcome of this and what ends up solving the problem.

 

I figured out my problem after 4 days of installing new KYB shocks on the rear only and trying multiple things. Thanks to my Wireless Ear tool, I would not have found it. So after I replaced the shocks, I still had the noise. So, this time I removed 1 side of the Sway bar to the tension of that was eliminated so I basically took that out of the "equation". And I have already checked the 5 link suspension arms, and they are all quiet using the wireless ear, as I mentioned above. So, at this point, I was back to the shock and spring.. So I used the wireless ear again and put 3 sensors shock/spring assembly. 1 sensor on top of the shock where it bolts down inside of the car, on the rear deck. Then I put 1 sensor in the wheel well at the top bracket between the rubber insulator and the car. Then I put the 3rd sensor on the base of the KYB shock where the spring sits. You know on that lip. So I went for a drive and the Top sensor inside the car was even more quiet than the KONI's. I could not even hear any squishy sounds.. even though the annoying sound is a clicking/clunking/rattle.. So, I knew it is NOT coming from the KYB shock because that rod where the bolt screws on, is literally the rod that goes into the shock.. and it was quiet! So, then I listened to the other 2 sensors.. and it s was OFF THE CHARTS clicking! I was like, How is that possible? Springs can't rattle! Now way! And these Eibachs come with an insulator.. But key point here! The insulators are not long enough! Here is what is happening. The spring is collapsing on itself by at least 2 or 3 rings!! This picture is the spring normally loaded with the car sitting on it. So the plan is to get new springs or just get more of those little eibach insulators. Like 10 of them! 5 for each side! haha 1 eibach insulator does not go all the way around 1 loop even..

 

^chad if you can through a link up for the insulator that you find works best. I have H&R sport springs paired with Koni's, and have noticed that tein s-techs come with an insulator. Wonder why other springs don't? Thnks in advance. I have a minor rattle, over small little ripples/bumps in none perfect road conditions, otherwise silent........

 

I called eibach yesterday and spoke to a girl and I think she inadvertently sent me an email and said the customer is asking for an insulafor..and asked me for a part number.. she said she was sending me an email to attached pictures on the phone. So I did then she replied and suggested I speak with a technician. BUT I don't need a tech. I need the insulator. Obviously you have to fight with every stupid idiot in the world. I mean you cant just call and get insulators. You have to teach a woman go get the part number, and order it. I gave her my pro kit IID and 2005 acura tl and she found that partnumber.. but no I gotta call back a second time and tell her again and go back through the same crap.. no there is not a link. Feel free to throw one up yourself.

 

I called her at eibach and the part number is UB0205-1. There is not a link. And her computer is not functioning properly so she said. And she will call me back if she needs more info. But it's stuck in pending state. I'm not surprised. Haha. $4.25 each plus shipping. I ordered 8

 

Here are some other idea's that you can try, and is cheaper, and you can get it at home depot near the PVC pipes. This tomahawk brand clear stuff is not very flexible so I would recommend cutting it off in shorter pieces. And just using it as a temporary fix. Or just get some and see if it help, if it does, then look for a perm solution.. My eibach springs are 1/2" inner diameter (ID) and this clear tubing barely fits the spring because it is also 1/2" in diameter. So, I would get something slightly larger. OR go to an auto parts store and buy some vacuum tube, OR any rubber tubing that is sized properly. Also besides cutting it into pieces, you can put a slit down the inside or the outside of this tubing which can help you install it. The eibach spring insulators also have a slit down the inside and you can pull it off. But those are preformed in a circle and they fit the spring perfectly since it was made for it. You'll have to improvise with these other ideas I just gave. But you can also buy an Energy Suspension insulator, the tube kind, but those are often quite large. I bought 1 from only and the measurements didnt match the tube. So, its a gamble if you get exactly what you order because it seems what they send is not what the specs say they are.. Thats why I think getting your hands on something is better than looking online unless it is specifically for your springs.

https://www.amazon.com/Polycarbonate-Tubing-Wall-Clear-Color/dp/B0019400XS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1479790121&sr=8-3&keywords=plastic+tube+1%2F2%22+id

 

Chad I am wondering if the orientation of the springs in your setup makes a difference. I mention this because a friend of mine had springs installed upside down where the coils spun closer together were placed at the bottom. Not sure why but this seemed to cause noise when driving. We flipped the spring so that the closer spun coils were placed at top hat end and voila! No more noise. Perhaps your springs are upside down?

It seems strange that that would cause an issue given that I have read elsewhere that it shouldn't make a difference but I witnessed first hand where it did. Might be worth a shot.

 

Wow. No more rattle over little bumps and even some larger "quick hitting bumps"... Its been 2 years! haha This is everyone problem right here. You need ring insulators on more than just 1 loop.. Note: You will not need the bottom insulator shown as #1 + a piece that I added, IF you use the OEM boot. This picture is the spring loaded with the car on the ground. But nothing in the trunk. And it is still collapsed by 4 rings. Eibach comes with 1 insulator that only goes around 1 loop by about 80% and they install it on the 3rd ring. That's not enough. There are sections on the lower rings that can still hit each other and cause noise. Close, but no burrito.

 

^Good to hear! (No pun intended).


But i can possibly agree, with a progressive rate spring, I have always thought the tightest coils are at the top. ? At least my H&R sports are......

 

If you consider static forces, it doesn't really matter which way the spring sits because the portion of the spring that compresses first with variable forces, will be the lower rate portion of the spring first.. So it doesn't matter if that location on the spring is at the top or the bottom... it will compress first.. But it is best to make sure the spring fits properly on both ends. If you observe on the base of the shock, it is beveled by at least 1/2 an inch. Likewise, 1 end of the spring is not as flat as the other. The flatter end should go at the top. And the most beveled end should be at the bottom because it fits best there. Notice in the picture the higher rate coil is at the bottom and so is the large beveled coil.

 

I am still not hearing the rattle over small uneven surfaces and little bumps. But if I hit a bump hard enough or the fast sharp hits, I am getting a low-pitch clunk. After extensive checking and double checking, I think what this clunking is coming from is still again, the spring. It's not rattling at all over the small bumps but when I hit a harder quick-hitting bump, I think the clunk is coming from the spring hitting the plastic insulator. The insulator is only thin plastic. So while it keeps the metal on metal rattling from happening, it just makes more of a deadened sound which is basically a clunk rather than a rattle. So, to test my theory, I am going to take some of that Clear tubing and place it on the area's of the spring where I do not have the eibach insulators installed and where it is bare... This clear tubing will provide a thicker cushion in combination with the eibach insulators. Then I think the clunk will be eliminated. I will report back when I get that done and tested.

 

Good to see you found an answer to the noise and that it wasn't the Konis. Do you notice any difference in height with that many added insulators installed? Also maybe the sound would be even more deadened if the insulators were perhaps made out of something else. Maybe a durable rubber that is soft enough to absorb, yet firm enough to not wear or make the ride/handling mushy.

 

Rubber or polyurethane would be a lot better for noise deadening. The more durable the hose, the better it would be. For example, vacuum hose is pretty light weight, but a heater hose or hot water hose is more durable. Whatever you chose, it would need to be somewhat flexible or pre-formed in a curve. Otherwise a straight tube like the tomahawk tubing above will kink a bit and be a little more difficult to get it go around in a circle, around the coil. But you can cut any type of hose or tubing in shorter lengths to get it to go in a circle. And you can slice 1 side so that you can clamp it on to the spring without fishing it around the coil from the bottom. You would have to remove the spring to do it that way. Each spring coil is 1/2" thick on the eibachs. You can use WD40 to get a tight hose to slide up the coil if you bought a hose or tube that is too tight. Like another 1/2" inner diameter tubing.

I did not notice any ride height changes because the bottom insulator is no different than using the oem boot which goes around the bottom seat. So there is no change. And the other coils do naturally have a slight bit of space between the coils, so the rest height did not change. But I suppose if you hit a bump and the spring collapses completely, and then you could added up the 2 upper insulators and it might be 1/8" of an inch thicker when the car is bouncing down. But that doesn't matter and its not noticeable. The only concern is resting height.. or ride height.

 

correction: I put on little pieces of that tomahawk clear tubing where the bare spring exists, along with leaving the eibach insulators on there, and the combination of the 2 has presently raised my car I think about 1/4". That just goes to show you how collapsed these springs are even at ride height because the insulator and tubing must be touching and boost it.. The clear tubing is thicker than the eibach insulators. So, I might have to install the remaining eibach insulators that I purchased as "extras" and remove the clear tubing. I'm not sure yet what the best combination is. It's like "try and see". I am about to go drive it out on the road to do an errand. And I will see if I hear any of that low-pitch clunks. But I drove in my apartment complex and I heard no clunks and no rattles.. If it still clunks then I might just drive over to corvette warehouse in Dallas tomorrow. haha

 

Na.. s5ill got the low pitch clunk over the fast hitting bumps. But the rattle is gone at low speeds. Not sure at this point what it is. Both sides are doing it. I'm still not convinced it's not the progressive rate springs. I know everything is tight to where the bolts stops and won't go further.. like at the bottom of the shock and the top of the shock. The bolts and nuts hit a stopping point. That's how tight they are. And I got new sway bar links... to be continued

 

2 interesting things in this video. The closely wound loops of the spring is at the top, like you mentioned. And this guy said those closely wound loops are the part that collapses first. I was thinking the opposite. I thought the close loops are the higher spring rate portion of the spring. So I thought it was tighter. But not so. The wider loops actually take longer to compress for 1, because the space is wider and 2 because each loop is straighter than the tightly wound loops. The area where the loops are tightly wound , those loops are more perpendicular to the force being applied which is straight up and down. So that area will collapse first. Oddly, I thought that was the high spring get rate side, which was stiffer.. but it's not. And a perfect example of what this guy said in the video is clearly shown in my picture where the springs are practically collapsed when the weight of the car is on that springs. Now here is the other interesting thing, which leads me to partially agree about flipping the spring over. It's true that the chassis is far more active than the cabin of the car. the wheels move more. So will there be any difference if we put the collapsed part at the top, rather than the bottom.. so all the movement is on the chassis side.. seems to make sense but the weight of the car is the same with the spring in either position. And therefore the collapsed part of the spring should be collapsed 100% of the time regardless if the tightly wound area is at the top or at the bottom. At least in theory the tightly wound area should be collapsed either way. If it makes a difference in noise, I wouldn't think so, but it's interesting to speculate. It would be easy to argue that if the tightly wound loops were at the bottom, and noise was coming from that part of the spring, then put it further away from the body to avoid hearing the noise.. which would be at the bottom. But is the shaky bottom side causing the noise? But again it may not matter since that part collapses first out of the whole spring..only way to know for sure is try it I guess..

 

Idk. I called H&R regarding spring rates for my H&R Sports, and they won't give them out. Idk why? (This was years back)


I did forget to ask them about the isolaters that come on other brands (tein, eibach).


My rattle is only ocassional over very bumpy (short bumps) roads. On normal pavement, no rattle. I haven't researched it enough, to come up with a soolition. I just thought maybe the progressive (tighter coils) part of my springs needed an isolator to remove the "possible" metal on metal, rattle/clunking. It could be a number of things!?

 

Yup correct. The way I think of it is if you remember the coilovers with the second "helper" spring. The helper spring was softer and was suppose to help aide in ride quality. The coils were also closer together. But I'm glad you are understanding where I am coming from on this. The example I mentioned is not the first time I've flipped the spring to solve a problem like that. Give it a try and let me know your findings. I have quite a few springs that I have used over time and some still here in front of me. The H&R is an interesting design but the coils closer together are at the top, just like the coilovers I mentioned with the helper spring at the top.

Are you using a wall mount spring compressor to swap the the suspension components? This seems to be easy for you and I'm wondering if you have tools most of us don't have such as the wall mount to make it all happen.

 

No I do not have special tools. You do not have to remove and disassemble the shock/spring assembly to install the insulators if you have eibach springs. Just raise the car so the wheel is off the ground and then use a heavy screw driver to pry up on the spring and you can insert the insulators on the bottom loop of the spring. For the 2nd and 3rd loops, you dont even need to pry on it. Just raise the car. And this is if you have the "close loop coils" on the bottom.

 

Try it. You probably do need insulators. But it might not solve all the noise. And it might change the sound from a rattle to a clunk. Don't know for sure.
Question: On your springs, do you have the closer coils on the bottom or top?

 

you know, if you think about raising the car to insert those insulators, if that is even possible (and it is because I did it) then it should be easy to see that during normal operation the "closely wrapped coils" are easily slamming against each other. Because just as soon as I start to raise my car, those coils that are closely wound are separating. So they are just going to sit there and bang up against each other.. No way around it.. I need to find another spring that is not progressive rate. Sort of like the OEM spring but a little bit lower.. Like 1" lower. Any suggestions? haha (Other than turning the spring upside down, or flipping it over)

 

I'm getting a slight annoying sound in the rears (only) with KW-V1's on small bumps around 10-20 mph. Other than that they are pretty darn silent. Gonna try to get some more help but do recall the installer mention a lack of helper springs.

 

Spring is likely making noise. Insulators can help but if my guess is correct, it won't eliminate the clunk on these progressive rate springs on a 3g TL. I had progressive rate springs on a camaro and never heard anything. So I'm not sure why the tl has issues with it. I may go back to oem and lower them with konii. Or find another linear spring.

 

Like I said earlier, my tighter coils are at the top of the spring, as this orientation is how I was told it is to be installed.


I've seen pics of tein s-techs installed the same way, but tein has insulators, at the first 2 maybe three tightly wound coils (at the top).

 

I hear ya. I just called Eibach and spoke to the sales guy and the more technical guy, and both said the closely wound portion of the spring should be at the top. So I have it backwards. And there may be some small difference in the beveled gap of the end coils. So it MAY not be seated comp,etely "right"..

The tech also said that the closely wound coils is the progressive portion of the spring. That is the LOW RATE part of the spring. It's not the tight end. It's the low rate end. And it goes on top. Also, the salesguy said that you may be able see the numbers that are stamped on the spring. If the numbers are upside down then that might be another confirmation, although it's not a reliable method to tell if the spring is upside down.

Now, I asked him, if it was upside down, would it make noise? And he didn't say it would, but only if the ends are not seated as firmly as they should. Like if the gap was different on 1 end vs. The other end. If that it true then it might be a problem when variable bumps and pressures are applied.

So, I guess I have to remove these shocks and springs once again.

Oh! On the prokit, The front springs are linear. And the rear springs are progressive. Makes sense. Only getting this noise on the rear..

 

I just flipped the spring on the drivers rear. And it didn't fix it. It might be a tiny bit better, but it is hard to tell. I test drove it 8 miles. I left only the eibach insulators on the spring, on every other coil. I could re-install the tomahawk clear tubing on the other adjacent rings, in combination with the eibach insulators, but I'm not too hopeful about it.

The only other thing I can think of doing is replace the spring, or just start replacing some of those arms on the 5 link system.

 

I didn't want to mention earlier. But I have read a loose ball joint, could also produce noise....idk, it all hear say, until you can try it yourself.




I had ingalls rear camber/toe kit, but had problems with the bushings, so went back to oem. I plan to purchase either SPC upper/TruHart upper camber arms, for the rear....

 

on the rear the only ball joint is on the upper control arm. And I have already had another adjustable set on there, and I too went back with oem. Because i am not that low. The upper control arm had no effect on the noise.

But yes, my front ball joints make noise too. I have already bought all those parts. But if I cant fix this noise on the rear, then i'm thinking about trading.

 

Hmmm. Well I'm not too far beyond spec for negative camber, but want the adjustability! I may be lower than you, but not too much.

 

I have been through a few setups and haven't experienced what you are experiencing...weather it be coilovers or springs and shocks. It looks like you have exercised every option that I can think of possibly being the issue as well. I was really hoping flipping the spring would fix your problem. The techs are correct based on all my experiences with springs including the label being upside down may mean the spring is too. Only problem with that is if the manufacturer ended up with a batch of springs where the label was put on upside down...then that theory ends up meaning you can't rely on the label.

Seeing as you are at a point where you are considering linear springs, what are the linear spring options? I am only aware of the oem springs being linear front and back

Referencing camber kits, I have the SPC one in the rear and have zero issues with them. No noise and no problems.