I got an 09 R3 (used to have an 05 before) but the series II tech section is pretty dead so I am posting here.

I had a shop install koni yellows and progress tech springs (1.2 drop in the front). Car is quite low in the front due to the koni & pt combo. Also have rb sways on the car with the beefier rb endlinks.

There is a loud clunking noise at low speed (or standing) when turning the wheel off full lock in both directions or close to full lock. Sounds like metal to metal impact, like something is hitting something and then coming off not merely touching. I can feel the impact through the steering.

Took it to a shop, they looked at all the suspension parts but could not find anything. No sign of contact between bottom of shock/spring and control arm. All the bolts are tight all the bushings are good.

On the track there would be a noise when turning and going into hard braking zones I would feel and impact underneath almost like something was shifting and then hitting another part as I brake (was at Mosport and the impact was felt when braking for 5a). There would also be clunking at lower speed corners but without the shifting impact.

On the street the noise only appears at very low speeds.

Car has 60.000km on it - mostly highway and a few track days. Springs and shocks were put on by SG Motorsports in Brampton, Ontario. The shop has a good rep and builds cars for the Canadian Touring Car Championship (but I suppose _uck ups can happen anywhere). I did not get a chance to bring the car to them yet and not sure when or if I will be able to.

Any ideas on what may be the cause of this? How can this be connected to the springs / shocks?

Thanks for the help.

 

Very common issue, you need to tighten up your end links. There is a ton of slack in the OEM ones. I had the same issues and actually got some nylock nuts to keep those things tight

 

Sorry mobile does not have an edit button but I see you have the racing beat end links you probably want to try tightening those

 

Everything has been re-tightened so it is not the endlinks. The noise is too loud for it to be the endlinks to begin with in my opinion.

 

Curious but what specs were used to tighten everything? OEM specs are 44ft/lb on the endlink bolts i believe. On my aftermarket endlinks I had to go up to roughly 50ft/lb to rid myself of all slack.

I see that you mention that even at a full stop you hear the clunking going from full lock to full lock? Thats a strange one because none of our suspension components rotate when turning the wheel (some cars the bottom of the shock turns with the wheel hub).

Only other things I can think of is that the top lock nuts on the shocks isn't tightened all the way. That would definitely cause some loud metal on metal noises. For that one you are going to need to attack it with an impact hammer.

Can't think of anything else at the moment.

 

Spoke to Progress Tech about the noise. They suggested I re-check the bearing in the "top hat" which means taking the shock out. Any thoughts on this?

 

I would put money that you are hitting the bump stop. Local had the same issue because when his suspension was installed they didn't preload the suspension. Once he took it back in and they preloaded it life was grand.

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...hlight=preload

 

Bump stop were cut, they would not cause this type of noise and I would know if I was hitting them so they are not the issue.

 

You should be able to torque down the top hats on the front without removing, the rear needs to be removed. Like I said though, you need an impact hammet

 

Sounds like someone hit something with a hammer, but you do not feel anything in the steering wheel??

Different approach. Get some more grease on the front sway bar, inside the shims. Not easy, but if you loosen them, and get one of those hollow needles with a grease fitting on the end, you can squirt some in. A check before you do that is to take the end links loose and see if you can swing the sway bar up and down. If not, grease it.

Keywords: Clunking, Banking, Front End, Rear End, End Link Noise

 

https://www.rx8club.com/series-ii-technical-trouble-shooting-160/need-some-help-finding-root-cause-207648/ Scroll down and check my videos, sound similar?

 

Did you fix the issue? What was it?