I changed my shocks on all four corners over the weekend. The shocks in the rear were no problem. Simple. The fronts were a pain as I had to take off the entire assembly and remove the spring. But when I put the fronts back on and lowered the car back down, it now sits much lower and theres an audible clunking sound whenever I push quickly down on the car or drive over any kind of bump. I used a spring compressor that I got from AutoZone. Is it possible that the spring has gone bad or something like that?

 

Not sure how that would be unless you reassembled in correctly. Like maybe the springs are upside down or something. No leftover parts except the inserts I hope?

 

Did you tighten everything AFTER the car was on the ground sitting on its wheels?

 

Sounds like the spring is not seated properly on the rubber insulator

 

Did you forget to install the top hat on the spring? That would cause the spring to ride on the strut tower housing, which effectively lowers the car and potentially make noise since it's not captured by the tension of the strut bolted to the upper bearing.

 

Did you put the washer between the spring cup and mount? I forgot that once, sounds like the same thing

 

So what am I supposed to be able to tighten once i lower it to the ground?

 

I'm guessing you have to remove some of the steering/suspension components while replace the front stunts. The suspension/steering should not be tightened down completely until there is wait on the system. It can bind otherwise.

 

True, but that would tend to make it ride higher, not lower.

 

Why do you have to mess with steering and the rest of suspension to replace the cartridge. You only need to mess with 4 14mm top nuts, 2 17mm bottom bolts, 1 17mm brake caliper bolt and the catridge nut to remove the strut/brake asembly

 

You have to remove the entire wheel assembly on the fronts. For the rears, all you have to do is remove the wheel and cartridge. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that the sound is coming from the top of strut area.(around the cap at the top not the near the steering components)

 

When I have the car lifted with the wheel off, I can actually put my hand on the spring and turn it like a screw. Is this bad?

The sound seems to be coming from the strut cartridge knocking on the the shiny part of the strut. These are kyb gr-2s

 

Did you use a washer top and bottom?

I just got kyb's and they only came with one large washer for the bushings. I said wtf, and installed as the instructions said. Yep. the strut pushed right through the bushing on the first bump. I had to pull it all out and install one of my old washers so I had one top and bottom of the bushing.

 

What a min, you have a gslse the after market struts for it are too short they are all for 12a cars. To get them to work in an se you have to add washers or something inside the tube to make up the extra length. Other wise the gland nut will bottom out and you can still move the cartridge up and down in the strut housing. And there's a rattle.

 

Your talking about the rear shocks his rattle is the front struts, which is because he has 12a struts in gslse strut housings.

 

Ahhhhh, I wondered. But if they're 12a shocks, wouldn't they be too soft for a gsl se because the se's shocks were stiffer because of the bigger engine?

And the rear shocks went in perfectly. No issues and they work fine

So to fix my issues I have to basically drop something inside of the tube below the shock that I drop in? Does it have to be anything special or can I just drop anything to fill the void?

 

No the shock stiffness will be fine I used the same ones on my se. Yes just put a couple thick washers from like home depot in there too fill the void.

 

Do you know the gap that needs to be filled? How much space is there?

 

The entire cartridge is basically moving up and down as you drive inside the tube like a battering ram. When I installed the cartridges on my 1980 a few weeks ago I forgot to put the 3/4"ish spacers in the tubes. I got the same noise your getting. Unbolt the hock and quickly push the assembly up and down like your driving down a rough road, youll feel the insides moving.

 

my friends told me this was the normal sound of a rust bucket...
now i gotta check my springs