its an 03 civic with sleeved skunk2 coilovers on stock struts. it makes an ugly grinding noise when the steering wheel is turn/turning. the audio shop that was hooking up my stereo said the strut bolt that sits underneath the hood and located right in the center of the strut is over-tightened. he said that nut is suppose to turn WITH the springs and not just tightened down so it cant move.

any idea?

i used some grease on the springs and that was only a temporary solution. im looking to find a way to get rid of this issue permanently.

thanks

 

heres what the shop told me..

in pic 1: i have the middle 17mm nut super tight. in the 2nd pic, its a little loose and that strut pole is suppose to turn WITH the steering wheel, and not against it.

#1


#2 (ignore the missing nuts, i took this pic off another website )

so would that mean that i should loosen that 17mm middle nut a little and im good to go? is it best to have it up jack stands or just do it when car is parked?

 

That nut is what holds the strut to the upper mount
it should be tight. (I think spec is something like 45 ft-lbs, but with the allen wrench in there you can't get a torque wrench on it, so tight will suffice)
Why are you taking maintainance advice from a stereo shop?
Its clunking because you're on sleeves with stock shocks and they probably blew.
Also look at the steering bearing to make sure it was properly re-assembled when the springs were changed.

 

do you have any examples of how the "steering bearing" should look like?

im gonna be asking the guy who installed my coilovers to check them out and hopefully find a solution.

 

Its 2 races (top and bottom) a bunch of steel ball bearings (I think there should be 18) and a pile of grease. If the races are cocked, then it doesn't work right. IF that nut is loose, then they're not pressed together.
I don't have a picture, I've been on pillowballs for a couple years.

 

here are whats left of the stock suspension after he installed my sleeved skunk2 coilovers.




anything odd?

 

The rings taped to the top of the hats.... those are the steering bearings. I should think that to be a bit odd unless Skunk 2 supplies new ones.

 

skunk2 only provided a pair which was used for the front springs (the smaller shorter ones).

the rear didnt come with any though.


is this suppose to be an common issue with skunk2 coilovers? i remember when i was able to visit 7thgencivic.com, plently members with skunk2 coilovers had this same noise issue.

 

hes not actually talking about the whole top mount. there is a ring around the inner part of the top mount. i beleive if you take that ring off the bearings are under that. if the bearings are still on your stock top mount you need to take the bearings off and put them on the top mounts skunk 2 provided

 

i had the same problem. live with it seriously. we have a macpherson suspension. which means that the spring turns while you turn the car. so when you put your skank2 coilovers on the coilover turns which makes the noise. the best you can do it put hellla greaseon the bitch and try to fab top hats which moves much smoother. there are a couple of people with ep3's that did this and the noise kinda went away.

 

i checked and there are no bearings underneath the top mount hat.

drunknmunky, i used some mobil1 multi-purpose grease on the springs/plates and it was only temporary . came back within weeks

what you mean by fab the top hats?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JTTeG_X &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

drunknmunky, i used some mobil1 multi-purpose grease on the springs/plates and it was only temporary . came back within weeks

what you mean by fab the top hats?</TD></TR></TABLE>

hard to explain. but if yo ugo on 7thgencivic.com and search for the skunk 2 coilover noise topics then you will find some answers. for me i bought some cheap grease at wal-mart and just put a ****** handful on that ****. hasnt made noise for almost 2 months.