I just had ground control coilovers installed on my car at honda dealership awhile back. It seems like now when I am driving in hit a bump or something in my car it sounds like I just hit a huge pothole. It makes me cringe everytime I hear it cause it is not a pleasant sound and cannot be good on my car. And it really will do it with minor bumps. Does anyone else came across this problem? Did something get installed wrong?

 

how low are you riding?

 

i had noises like you described, and they went away when i replaced my bump stops. do you have any loose bolts?

 

This sounds like it could be one of two things: Hitting bumpstops, or loose bolts somewhere.

My friends Audi had the same problem. We went over the whole thing 3 times. On the last time, we decided to take the shock / spring assy apart. Turns out that the tophat bolt needed one more turn to be in spec. Couldn't even tell until we disassembled the whole thing; but it made a ton of noise.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EX_AutoXer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Hitting bumpstops, or loose bolts somewhere.

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you should retighten all bolts after about 250 miles - sounds like something is loose

 

I had the same exact problem with GC's on Koni Yelows, this was on a 96 hatch with a gsr swap. The noise was only in the front, and the only thing I could figure was the extra weight from the swap was my problem. i switched to a much stiffer full coilover set-up, and the problem is gone. I love not cringing anymore.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tyson &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how low are you riding?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I would say its about 2.5" low all around. I had 1.75 inch lowering springs before in this is a little lower.

I am putting new brakes on tommorrow I guess I will try to check the bolts to see if anything is loose. My tire rod nut came off from the upper control arm and had to put that back on. I hope honda did not screw anyting else up when they put it on. Its always hard to find places to do stuff right.

 

Ok I just took the wheels off to inspect and the black sleeve on the top is getting bent to ****. I took some pictures of it to see if anyone can tell me whats going on? I know engine stuff pretty good but suspension is not my thing. So any help is appreciated.

 

sorry about the huge pictures I cannot figure out how to shrink them

 

hmm i didn't use the sleeve when i installed mines.. well i did at first but the shock wouldn't go down all the way so i took it off and now everything works great. haven't had any problems yet.

 

are you not supposed to use those sleeves? I am trying to figure out why its so bad on bumps

 

i used these bumpstops/dust boots from KYB: (attn. n00bs: just the one on the left)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TroyL &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">are you not supposed to use those sleeves? I am trying to figure out why its so bad on bumps</TD></TR></TABLE>

its still not apparent to you? youre hitting the dust boot. in all honesty, the GC instructions says to cut them in half, but youre running really low, so youre hitting it still. just get rid of them. and make sure you have a bumpstop under there.

i noticed you said you paid someone else to do the installation. i suggest you just do this yourself. you wont need a spring compressor THIS TIME, since the springs are not preloaded. it'll be an easy task if you have a jack and jackstand, a 14mm wrench AND socket, 17mm socket and 10mm wrench or socket and metric allan keys, and know how to take off your wheels. its pretty simple from there.

raise your car up in the meantime.

 

yeah i dont think you are suppost to use the dust sleave thing. i think it will hit the bottom perch.

another thing too... if you are ridding real real low with your bump stops cut too much, your upper contol arms will hit the body. that will make a real hard metal to metal hit. That was hitting hard on my old crx. i put just a little bigger bump stop in and it shorten the ride a little. that stoped the hard hitting. just remember the car doesnt handle worth of crap when its that low. you just look cool.

 

I would use the dust boot, or get something like Mugendude posted. Unless its a track only car and you trailor it, or want the shocks to get dirt build up and fail prematurely I'd use it.

 

well, he either raises his ride height, or gets rid of the dust boots completely, because theres only like 2" left. look at the pic, its not doing anything any more except providing a hard bumpstop. and if you can see, he's pretty much close to hitting his real bumpstops. the guy needs to raise his car, anyway.

btw, what you can do also is remove the brake hose collar from the shock and move the shock just a bit further into the fork to get more shock travel. but that seems a bit out of your mechanical ability if you had to pay someone to do your work. its a very custom job.

 

My car is not that low to begin with...I see alot of cars lower than mine. I guess I might raise it a hair but I kinda like where its at right now. See for yourself.

 

your fronts are low.

 

that drop is nice! can use a little more drop tho

 

Maybe I'll go try to raise the fronts up 1 spin around. See if that helps.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by apm &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">that drop is nice! can use a little more drop tho</TD></TR></TABLE>

See most people tell me that, so I did not think it was to low. I really don't want to raise it any more, I like the height that it is at.

 

im really not looking at this from an aesthetics point of view. just look at the picture youre showing. if youre already hitting the dust sleeve, which is only like a quarter inch from hitting the bumpstop. when youre constantly hitting your bumpstops, its too low.

if you want to roll around "rid'in low", your choice. youre asking why youre front suspension is hitting, its because youre riding low.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tyson &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">im really not looking at this from an aesthetics point of view. just look at the picture youre showing. if youre already hitting the dust sleeve, which is only like a quarter inch from hitting the bumpstop. when youre constantly hitting your bumpstops, its too low.

if you want to roll around "rid'in low", your choice. youre asking why youre front suspension is hitting, its because youre riding low. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks for your feedback, right now I have 205/40/16 tires and I think with my next set i might get 45 series instead. I think then I could raise it a bit and still look the same.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MugenDude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i used these bumpstops/dust boots from KYB: (attn. n00bs: just the one on the left)

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Another good alternative is using Rancho Shock boot covers which are softer and more pliable.

 

Well, you're not the only one with the noise problem. My bro recently installed ground controls on my civic as well, with stock shocks and same thing -- the rear hits on bumps...more like rattles. Not sure what the noise is exactly, but he tightened all bolts on the passenger side rear this past wknd and a lot of the noise went away (the remaining noise is due to a loose sideskirt I believe). However, now the noise is on the driver side rear (when it wasn't before)...which means he has to take another look. Don't you love how it's one thing after another?