Hello everyone,

I have a 2001 Accord LX coupe, with KONI Yellows and Ground Control coilovers. I originally had it at around 1.5-2 inches when I initially lowered it and now the car sits as low as it can with 15 inch wheels, which should be around 3 inches. My reason for posting is a month or so ago I hit a pot hole on at around 60-65MPH on my front, passenger wheel. Everything seemed fine initially, however, about 2 days later I found that there was a bubble in the tire that I hit the pot hole with and I had to put on my steelies.

Anyways, ever since that incident happened, my driver side, suspension components have been making a weird noise, somewhat squeaky, bouncing noise (Cannot interpret the sound into words well). I'm trying to figure out if A. The strut mounting hardware is loose or there's a problem, B. If there's something wrong with the coilover, or C. I blew out my driver side strut altogether. Based on these circumstances, do any of you know or have any inclining what the problem may be or am I being too vague?

I'm not expecting KONI to supplement me with a new strut if my strut is the actual problem, however, should I consider them possibly giving me another strut for a lower price or a new one altogether due to their lifetime warranty? Finally, these struts have been driven on for about 50k miles and have provided me with much utility and good use, but I'd like to know if I'm expecting too much life out of these struts at this specific height (I've driven the car at 3" low for about 40k miles or so). Thanks for your time guys.

 

The lifetime warranty is for manufacturing defects and wear, not road damage. Koni does not owe you anything - especially if you bottomed out the damper internally - so you shouldn't expect anything. Any help with replacement should be considered a generous bonus.

You're going to need to visually and physically inspect the suspension yourself, because we cannot look at your car for you. Check to make sure all ball joints are tight with no play, no bushings are broken or deformed, and no arms or other components are bent. Squeaks are typically caused by ball joints or bushings. Check the damper to see if it is leaking fluid. Turn the adjuster to make sure it moves through its full range (usually slightly less than 2 full turns); an adjuster that is stuck or will not move through the full range indicates internal damage. Test drive the car on a bumpy or rippled road to get a feel for what the suspension is doing - does it feel like the damper is building force at that corner, or does it feel uncontrolled?


Modified by Targa250R at 1:59 AM 3/25/2008

 

Not sure how the Koni for Accord works, but at least for the Integra ones, it's really hard to bottom out the damper unless you completely crush the bump stop.

Anyway, I am not sure how you could damage the driver side if you hit a pothole on the passenger side.

One thing you could try is put the car on jackstands, and use the jack to raise the driver side suspension. You might hear that noise again...