Quote:
Originally Posted by Top40
As I posted on 9-22 the KW's have been nothing but major problems and a money pit. It annoys me further that I've spent a total of $4K already, which includes the KW kit, labor t install them and paying for labor and parts in a attempt to clear up all the problems. Non the less these problems still exist. The shop that installed the kit (KW Authorized Shop) also had to wait for weeks to receive the new rear bushings and of course I was charged to dismount and remount everything and then again charged to dismount and remount. The popping noise in the front still exists and no one seems to know what the problem is, not even the KW Authorized Shop. I've given up. I will be remounting the original shocks and springs. For the price of $2K the KW's have certainly not lived up to my expectations and I do not recommend them (at least for AWD). Joey that is very interesting that the rubber between the coils cleared up your problem. I must commend you on an excellent find and wonder why KW didn't come up with it. I will definitely try your recommendation and hope it works. That will be my last attempt to rectify the problem on my car. Then it's back to the originals. I will post after I do it.
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It was also very time consuming and costly for me to find a solution.
If you try the rubber inserts, you don't need as much rubber as shown in my pic. The rubber doesn't encircle the entire coal. The only functional part of the insert is the piece in between the coal. See the attached pic. I wasn't sure how the rubber was going to fit, so I had cut a chunk out of the rubber tube so the shape was a
C. Most of the rubber shown in the pic is just hanging there and not helping. The weight of the car on the spring is holding the rubber inplace.
Just jack the car up about 1 to 2 inches until the spring opens up enough to insert the rubber. The wheels won't need to be off the ground and you don't need to take the wheels off. Just reach in and stick the rubber inserts in between the coals. The whole process takes 5 to 10 minutes.
If I didn't buy the wireless chassis ears I doubt I would have ever found this solution. The chassis ears narrowed the popping down to the coilover area. From what I could tell, the chassis ears had ruled out tie rods, steering rack, tension strut, and upper and lower control arms, ball joints, and brakes.
I was originally certain it was the endlinks, which I replaced. When that didn't fix the popping I posted the Youtube video of the noise amplified with the wireless chassis ears. Although I doubted the springs/struts were the cause of the noise, I called Tom Edge and he watched the video on Youtube.
He immediately said it was my upper strut mount bearing. At the time I didn't know our strut mounts do not have bearings. But when I sprayed the upper strut mount area and upper springs with silicone lubricant in hopes of lubricating the bearing the popping stopped for 2 days, but would return after the lubricant dissipated. So I was convinced it was the strut mount and bought one.
After receiving the strut mount I find out there is no bearing or moving part and I am really stumped why the silicone lubricant stopped the popping. But I install the upper strut mount anyway, and the popping doesn't stop.
So I continue to spray the strut mount and upper springs with silicone lubricant and the popping continues to stop for 2 days. I then came up with the idea of the rubber inserts.
I called Tom again and told him of my fix and he seemed skeptical, or maybe stumped. He said he had never seen this problem before with KW springs. Later I find out the noise/problem is called coilover "binding". I did some googling on "binding" and it is a known problem.
The true fix is a new spring. But I have a set of relatively new KW springs in the garage that KW sent me 1.5 years ago for another problem. So I didn't ask Tom to send me new springs. I will see how long this rubber insert fix lasts. Someday I may pay the $50 labor to have the springs swapped out.
