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Noise after changing springs

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My car was fitted with eibach lowering springs and anti roll bars. The ride on poor local roads was so harsh I changed the springs back to stock springs, but since doing this I'm getting a noise from the front right. It was perfectly fine before the change. At slow speed (crawling traffic) its a definite clonking/knocking almost regular with each turn of the wheels but as the speed gets faster its more like a regular noise like tire noise or a tennis ball boucing around the arch liner!. It does it on pretty flat roads rather than bumpy roads.

I've taken the wheel off and checked the bolts/nuts are the right torque and there is no contact. I've also removed the spring again and checked the strut is not blown. I've also checked the strut brace nuts even though these were not removed. The suspension deals with large bumps and undulations fine. My suspicion is the drop links, as even though the bolts are torqued, the thread seems to be smaller than the strut hole. Is this normal? Video attached. Its driving me nuts and passengers can't hear it (unless its the slow noise) 

Any one else had something similar and how did you resolve?

TIA

P1110736.MOV

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Video won't play on my phone, but from my experience it sounds like your drop links.

If they're torqued up properly then I don't think it'll be the fastener slopping about in the mounting hole. Sounds like it's worn ball joints to me, new drop links would cure it I reckon 🤔 😀

These might be a suitable upgrade?!

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3 hours ago, TommyC said:

Or standard ones for about half the price...

Standard Front Drop Links

Thanks for the reply and links. I'm sure its related to the drop links too, but I couldn't remove the lower nut on them to test on the jack. I've converted the clip to mp4 which should play on phones. you can see at the bottom it looks like the paint has worn away from movement?

Car has only done 12k and was fine before changing the springs. only other thing I can think is the eibach roll bar is on the hole at the end and with stock springs this is causing binding rather than vertical movement?

P1110736.mp4

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At 12k the ball joints shouldn't be knackered, but there could be a chance they were damaged when being disconnected...?

Do you have any idea of the condition of the ARB bushes? The noise could be coming from the ARB moving about 🤔 I've experienced this on previous cars of mine when trying find the source of the 'damned knocking noise!'

🙂

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19 hours ago, TommyC said:

At 12k the ball joints shouldn't be knackered, but there could be a chance they were damaged when being disconnected...?

Do you have any idea of the condition of the ARB bushes? The noise could be coming from the ARB moving about 🤔 I've experienced this on previous cars of mine when trying find the source of the 'damned knocking noise!'

🙂

I can't see how they could have been damaged really when dismantling. Think the ARB bushes are on 8k. Will try to check these too. Unfortunately the weather is really bad this weekend. I will probably start with new drop links, but if they still rattle in the strut hole I don't know what next.

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Wrecked a socket! 😮 How tight were they?!!

Anything else appear loose on the strut/suspension assembly? Could be something like the brake heat shield? (Also had one of those rattling for a while in the past before I tracked it down!).

Admittedly I'm kinda guess as I really thought it was the drop link/s...

 

Reading your original post I'm now thinking about other things to try to eliminate them from the situation. Try swapping the front wheels and see if the noise moves! (There's a chance the problem is completely un-related to the spring swap but the timing is misleading).  As you've checked over the tyre etc did you notice if there was a missing tyre balance weight or something?! 🤔

Also, what wheels are you running on? It's possible that a harsh bump/pothole could have buckled the wheel (especially with harder springs)! 😮 

Could be worth getting that wheel on a balancing machine to see if it's either of these things...

 

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Lowering springs really don't seem to work well on these cars. I've heard nothing but bad things about eibach especially on this car. Surely if they are matched with shortened performance dampers they'd work better. The droplinks do seem disposable unless you go for uprated ones with a nut and bolt rather then Allen head. 

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20 hours ago, TommyC said:

Wrecked a socket! 😮 How tight were they?!!

Anything else appear loose on the strut/suspension assembly? Could be something like the brake heat shield? (Also had one of those rattling for a while in the past before I tracked it down!).

Admittedly I'm kinda guess as I really thought it was the drop link/s...

 

Reading your original post I'm now thinking about other things to try to eliminate them from the situation. Try swapping the front wheels and see if the noise moves! (There's a chance the problem is completely un-related to the spring swap but the timing is misleading).  As you've checked over the tyre etc did you notice if there was a missing tyre balance weight or something?! 🤔

Also, what wheels are you running on? It's possible that a harsh bump/pothole could have buckled the wheel (especially with harder springs)! 😮 

Could be worth getting that wheel on a balancing machine to see if it's either of these things...

 

Well I think the cause of wreaking the drop links was 2 fold. The lower threads were very rusty, which had affected the size of the hex socket in the end of the thread, and the rusty thread made the nut difficult to get off. Due to the location its hard to clean up the end and threads and get the allen key in securely. I will definitely be trying to protect the new ones somehow. As expected the ball joints were actually fine which was a shame.

I've checked the wheel visually and they are the same ones as before. I had thought about swapping the wheels but I've found that it clonks if I push down on the top of the strut under the bonnet. Thats why i thought it was the droplinks moving. I'm hoping its just the topmounts, but it could also be the lower ball joint or the steering ball joint. I will take a look again at the weekend. 

 

To be fair to the eibachs, the ride now on stock springs is still very stiff (but not as brutal) as there is more travel and the car did handle better and look very good lowered. For a track only car they would be perfect but as a daily road car too much.

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Changing to stiffer anti roll bars has an infamous effect of making the ride harsh on these cars as you have discovered on both set of springs. You would have been better off leaving the lowering springs on and replacing the ARB back to stock, you would get the aesthetics and comfortable ride back with minimal loss of body roll (lets face it these cars are very planted stock and even better just on a set of lowering springs). Sorry it doesn't help your knock problem, but I also have a very similar knock from the front, its only evident at speeds less than 20mph and small bumps in the road. Anything faster or more aggressive and its silent. I've checked everything for play and tightness and all is good, the only thing I intend to do now is loosen the ARB and top mount nuts, lower the car so the full weight is on the suspension then retorque it back up.

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8 hours ago, Varelco said:

Changing to stiffer anti roll bars has an infamous effect of making the ride harsh on these cars as you have discovered on both set of springs. You would have been better off leaving the lowering springs on and replacing the ARB back to stock, you would get the aesthetics and comfortable ride back with minimal loss of body roll (lets face it these cars are very planted stock and even better just on a set of lowering springs). Sorry it doesn't help your knock problem, but I also have a very similar knock from the front, its only evident at speeds less than 20mph and small bumps in the road. Anything faster or more aggressive and its silent. I've checked everything for play and tightness and all is good, the only thing I intend to do now is loosen the ARB and top mount nuts, lower the car so the full weight is on the suspension then retorque it back up.

Thanks, thats interesting to hear. i take it you've tried various combinations then? I still have the springs so that could be a future option once I sort the knock out. The eibach roll bars have 2 holes, so would changing to the softer setting be similiar? when I find out the cause I'll post it up. What setup do you currently have?

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