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car sounds like a bucket of nuts and bolts

Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 4:00 pm
by ronc
so today i put in the oem bilstiens and rb springs on my 07. my car went from a smooth beautiful ride with out a squeek or rattle to the front end sounding like a can of nuts and bolts. my friend the so called madza expert took the small hardware from my oem suspension and put it on the bilstiens. what could he have done wrong? i personally checked all connections and every thing is tight. i guess he screwed up the transfer of small hardware to the new shocks. could this be the reason? needless to say i am very upset and heartbroken. im thinking of bringing it to the dealer.
RON

Re: car sounds like a bucket of nuts and bolts

Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 5:38 pm
by Brian
Something didn't get put back together right....but can't tell you from this distance.

Re: car sounds like a bucket of nuts and bolts

Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 11:46 am
by jasonMX5
Did you check under the FSTB? The top hats of the shock assembely may be missing the nuts so when you hit a bump it could be rattling while tension is unloaded. My best guess

Re: car sounds like a bucket of nuts and bolts

Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 5:15 pm
by ronc
so after racking my brains out trying to find the source lo and behold. i had stripped one of the sway bar end link nuts when i was installing my new front sway with the rest of the front suspension and it was a tad loose. so i put a spare end link in and bam. the ride is smoother than it ever was . not a noise to be heard. i never would guess that such a little free play could make that much noise.

Re: car sounds like a bucket of nuts and bolts

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 6:16 am
by ronc
Brian wrote:Something didn't get put back together right....but can't tell you from this distance.
ok so the suspension is in; and got rid of the nuts and bolts sound in the front due to a loose sway bar nut. but now i hear a metal to metal sound in the right rear. sounds exactly like the sound you get when you go over a manhole cover that is loose. car otherwise is very smooth...
no rattles over any bumps. only does it on a very quick jolt when the tire hits a little hole in road. i checked all nuts under right side and nothing is loose. the only thing i can see is the lower control arm (the one with what looks like a ball joint on the end) is leaking grease through the rubber. i must have punctured the rubber housing while taking it off when i did the right side suspension. could this be giving me this metal to metal to sound or possibly contributing to this problem. THANKS RON

Re: car sounds like a bucket of nuts and bolts

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 8:52 am
by Brian
I doubt that is the source. You checked the bolts at the top of the shock assembly? If alignment bolts are not over 100 ft/lbs (we regularly do 120 ft/lbs), you might get the eccentrics clunking around.

Re: car sounds like a bucket of nuts and bolts

Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 7:23 am
by catshark
It might still be the endlinks; I found out if you can spin the end link bolt on the sway bar using the allen key then they can still make a clunking sound when driving over an uneven surface.

I was actually trying replacing my swaybars this past weekend and was only able to slightly loosen an endlink before the allen key insert stripped (the endlinks were very rusty). It doesn't look like I touched the nut but if I pull on the sway bar it does move a tiny bit and I'm getting the exact same sound you described when driving around.

I just ordered a new set of adjustable endlinks from Brian :)