Noise from the front coils

JonnyRotten

JonnyRotten

Well-Known Member
1,673
771
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Vehicle Model
Civic Si
Body Style
coupe
I just installed front coils on my car and had no issues. This is my first experience with coilovers so I'm new to this.
After a few days I noticed a spring twanging type of sound coming from the front when I'm rolling out of my driveway and turning the steering wheel or when I'm going around corners slowly.
I checked all of the bolts and rings and everything is tight.
I spoke to another member who happens to have the same coils to ask if he had any of these types of issues and he said he didn't but suggested that I tighten up the front coil spring preload a little bit. I'm going to try that today.
I'm just curious since there are so many people who are running coils on this forum, if anyone else has had this issues themselves and what resolved the issue.
:feedback:
 
Something is prob shifting under load of turning the wheel. You said you have everything tight, so I don't know what to tell you. Did you use a torque wrench to verify the proper specs?
 
webby said:
Something is prob shifting under load of turning the wheel. You said you have everything tight, so I don't know what to tell you. Did you use a torque wrench to verify the proper specs?
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That's what I'm thinking as well @webby so I'm going to take the wheel off and see if I can see what might be moving and possibly making the noise. I didn't torque all the bolts but I did check to make sure everything was tight. The noise comes from both sides randomly.
 
It happens at low speed with the wheel turned and the suspension compresses a little? It sounds like coil bind or that the spring is not facing the right way... possibly. I would try loosen everything and adjust where the end of the spring sits and see if that doesn't make a difference. I know a few people have had luck with spring silencers. Basically a small section of silicon tubing placed around a couple of the coils to reduce the noise of them hitting each other. I think its the spring trying to rotate in its spot and can't.

Just guessing at possibilities over the internet though. hahaha... sometimes just loosening and retightening everything after a short break in period can fix noise issues as well.
 
Nix said:
It happens at low speed with the wheel turned and the suspension compresses a little? It sounds like coil bind or that the spring is not facing the right way... possibly. I would try loosen everything and adjust where the end of the spring sits and see if that doesn't make a difference. I know a few people have had luck with spring silencers. Basically a small section of silicon tubing placed around a couple of the coils to reduce the noise of them hitting each other. I think its the spring trying to rotate in its spot and can't.

Just guessing at possibilities over the internet though. hahaha... sometimes just loosening and retightening everything after a short break in period can fix noise issues as well.
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Thanks @Nix for the feedback. I was thinking the same thing. It sounds like the spring is not moving and binding for some reason. I'm going to have a good look at it today and if anything, loosen a few things and retighten them to see if that helps.
It's annoying when it happens. Even my wife asked if it's going to continue making the sound :mad:
 
I'm having the same issue with eibach sportlines.
My mechanic checked it out and he couldn't feel any vibrations coming from the strut nut but hear sounds from the rear instead.
He speculates that its my rear drums binding because the pads aren't smooth.
Could be something similar for Si's discs.
 
wondermalt said:
I'm having the same issue with eibach sportlines.
My mechanic checked it out and he couldn't feel any vibrations coming from the strut nut but hear sounds from the rear instead.
He speculates that its my rear drums binding because the pads aren't smooth.
Could be something similar for Si's discs.
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This has nothing to do with the brakes @wondermalt. It's a coilover issue.
 
Only other thing I could think of would be the strut mounts. There is a lot of discussion about them being installed pointing the right direction.

Maybe check yours to see what way the arrows on top are facing?

Edit: forgot you mentioned the coilovers having pillow ball mounts. Probably not the issue I was thinking of which relates to oem strut mounts.
 
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So just got the noise issue sorted out yesterday morning.:)
Thankfully the NA distributor for HSD is in my city and was willing to check everything out. They are actually very helpful.
The first time I went in they had a look, lubed up the pillow balls again and said the installation was done properly (by me thank you) but they couldn't hear or see where the noise was coming from. I was told to see how it goes and let them know if the noise came back.
Well it was great all day until the next morning.
Noise came back and was getting worse. I called the distributor and said I wanted a new set of front coils but they asked me to bring it in and let them take one more look at it. I even took a video with my phone to record the sound so I could prove the coils were noisy. (I'm trying to upload the video but it's not working)
The second time I went in we took the coils right out of the car and disassembled them to have a closer look to try and figure out where this crazy noise was coming from. Everything looked fine on the left coil so we added a bearing to where the top of the spring sits. When we had a look at the right coil (which I figured out was the one that was making all the noise) everything looked fine except the pillow ball was SUPER tight. Add the same top bearing as we did on the left spring and replace the pillow ball and reinstall both coils.
Silence is golden. :thumbsup:
Our conclusion was that because the right pillow ball was too tight it wasn't allowing the coil to turn properly which was giving me spring bind. It's amazing the types of noises and how loud they are when things aren't working properly.
 
Flightmaster127 said:
Its cool that the distributor took the time to help you diagnose and fix the problem. +1 for good customer service.
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Ya, they were really good about resolving the noise issue. The mechanic even took the time to flip over one of the rear top rubber shock mounts that I accidentally installed upside down.
 
Let us know if it comes back. I had no noise when I originally installed my teins but now they have developed some coil bind when turning when turning full lock. I think coilovers are just prone to this since the strut, spring and bearing are all trying to rotate with the steering wheel.

I'm going to regrease everything to see if it goes away.
 
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