Help with spring seating!

[collin]

Does anyone have pictures of how the springs are seated on the bearing plate/strut? I installed all 4 H&R Springs along with the GR-2's in the front only. I got an alignment today, and the front right side makes a loud bumping noise on every little bump. Very loud. I think its the seating of the spring that is making the problem.

Any help is appreciated,

[collin]

if you look at that picture you can see the strut rod touching at the top of the bearing plate. I think that is causing the noise, but I"m not sure? any pictures or help?

[Sternie]

A little off topic, but where are you located in Wisconsin? And how long did it take you to do the install?

Tony

[drburns]

It sounds like bad spring seating to me. When I had my H&R's installed, I had the same exact problem; they had to be taken apart and re-seated. I think the proper way to do it is to mark the original spring position on the strut plate, so when you install the new spring you just line it up in the same place.

Once it was seated correctly, there was no more loud clunking. However I was and still am getting a strange grinding/squeaking sound from the strut mount area. Tomorrow we'll see what that noise was because I'm having the KYB's installed with new strut mounts to avoid anymore problems.

[collin]

ok, I thought so. I reseated them once already, but I think I still didnt get it in the right spot. I'll have to take it out again and retry. If I ever do this again, I'll mark like you suggest. My mounts look in good condition. I suppose I could replace those too. How much are they from a dealer?

[drburns]

The dealer price on the mounts is crazy; $100+ each. I ordered mine from gmpartsdirect.com. They were $54 each. Only problem is if you need them in a hurry, don't expect to see them too quickly. I ordered mine on 3/25, and they should finally arrive today. If the mounts look good, you probably don't need to replace them.

[collin]

But your car is a 2002? and you had bad mounts? Mine is a 1999 but they look fine. What did you do to yours?

[drburns]

I really don't know if the mounts are bad. A couple of different mechanics have told me that the sound could be the mounts, but no one knows for sure. The only way to tell is when the front end comes apart. I would bet that I spent the extra $ for nothing, but at least I'll have an all new front end. I just hope that there are no more noises when everything is done.

[collin]

yeah, or at least you will know thats not the problem!:thumbs: