Is this normal..

[Brin]

For front springs to sit like this, with the coils literally touching each other?? I tried comparing the left front but I don't think it's as bad ill have to have a better look.. My rears are like that, but I never noticed the front was.

When I go over speed bumps or a pot hole, there is a slight rattle in the front right hand side as of the last few days.. I thought maybe the shock had come loose in the strut, but everything seems to be in tact.. Sway bars etc. Bushes are a little worn but not to make a rattle noise like that.. It's not a clunking noise, just a rattle like something is loose... Any ideas? Could it be the spring has sagged?

Cheers

Sab

[walesy]

ummm wtf??? definately not sposed to sit like that brin...

[Brin]

..... *dies* they are super lows.

but they arent supposed to sit like that?

[walesy]

no definately not... if the coils sit on top of each other then there is no suspension travel...

[Brin]

so the coil could be the culprit of the rattle noise..... what could cause it to sag like this?

[Brin]

could it be me throwing myself onto the bonnet to try and make it close?? :| haha

[walesy]

haha i dont think that would be enough to do it... i have no idea how this woulda happened unless the previous owner got the springs compressed and went overboard with it

[Brin]

i dont think they sat like that before, thats all :|

although lately i have been literally throwing myself onto the bonnet so it'd click shut.... fifty kilo been thrown on it 3 or 4 times in a row?? you sure.... lol

you see, the rear passenger spark plug lead likes to come loose, so i hear it miss and gotta pull over and reconnect it.. darned thing. yes, my car is a bomb.

[walesy]

haha 50kegs??? hardly gunna budge it ... just noticed ur from liverpool... i was born there grew up mostly in c'town

[Brin]

but i did throw myself on there quite a few times. actually several times. also whilst i had her jacked up yesterday trying to find out where the jingling noise was coming from....

been in liverpool since 2000. absolute shite hole :P im at my other halfs at campbelltown now... campbelltown hasnt changed, i dont know which is better haha.

[walesy]

haha i moved away from there in 98... was gettin pretty bad, i moved to nowra, then coz of work went to melb back to syd then perth... i hate perth cant wait to move back east...

with ur springs if you want a better ride then id be getting new ones, because that would be pretty bumpy hey

[azkwazere]

wow... their ****ed

Time for new springs, is it both sides?

I highly doubt you jumping on the bonnett will do that, ive never seen springs fail like that.

Are they the correct springs?

Is your car lop sided?

aZk.

[Brin]

it's not lop sided.. im pretty sure the left is the same but i havent had a thorough inspection, only the right side was jingling.. they are the correct springs.. lemme try find pics when i first got em..

[Brin]

what could cause them to fail like that so suddenly?!

[Brin]

this was last august, when i bought them, methinks.

[Morton]

ummm wtf??? definately not sposed to sit like that brin...

Looks perfectly normal to me. My Superlows have always sat with the first three or four coils bound when static.

Keep in mind, when lowering a car with stock struts, your new static height is going to be lower than standard. This means your struts have a LOT of give to extend from the static position. When you create a lower spring, you have to allow for extension to stock, and beyond stock during front end lift. What Kings do, is create extra "soft" coils that bind when static, so when the front end lifts the coil extends to fill the gap, and won't shift out of place. Notice the bound coils are sitting a lot closer together out of your car in that pic. These are progressive rate springs.

That's my understanding, anyway. I've seen a lot of cars with static bound coils, and that's how I've understood them to work. It's cheap and nasty, but it does the trick. If you want your springs to be perfectly engineered, get coilovers.

[Brin]

hummm. thankyou morton. ive got lowered shockers in the front too... but do you think the coils could be the culprit of the jingly noise??

it sounds like theyre money in there, and holden4life and i are convinced the vn is gonna start spitting out money and start paying me back slowly... cause we cant find what the noise is!!

i even had my little bro like, run next to the car when i went over a bump trying to hear where it was coming from.. its definately a rattle and its only been there since mondayish.

[azkwazere]

Looks perfectly normal to me. My Superlows have always sat with the first three or four coils bound when static.

Keep in mind, when lowering a car with stock struts, your new static height is going to be lower than standard. This means your struts have a LOT of give to extend from the static position. When you create a lower spring, you have to allow for extension to stock, and beyond stock during front end lift. What Kings do, is create extra "soft" coils that bind when static, so when the front end lifts the coil extends to fill the gap, and won't shift out of place. Notice the bound coils are sitting a lot closer together out of your car in that pic. These are progressive rate springs.

That's my understanding, anyway. I've seen a lot of cars with static bound coils, and that's how I've understood them to work. It's cheap and nasty, but it does the trick. If you want your springs to be perfectly engineered, get coilovers.

My understanding was the spring was engineered to be stiffer therefore accounting for he reduced number of coils. If you have a stiffer coil, you can reduce the coils and therefore the height. This is why ride comfort is often reduced due to reduced travel.

I see no benefit to having 3-4 coils static like that. A variable rate spring is designed to compress at a variable rate, ie, there are coils which will give out more easily than others in order to retain some of the original dynamics.

Im most likely wrong but that image seems to be a mechanical design flaw to me.

On a side note, i reckon your gland packing nut is loose and that's the rattle, your shock is probably loose.

aZk.

[Brin]

gland packing nut?? thats not the one attached to nothing above the tie end rod is it??? *clueless*

[azkwazere]

nah, where your shock enters the strut there is a large retaining nut which holds the shock into the housing. If it becomes loose (which it does if you don't use locktite) the shock is free to move up and down inside the housing and it eventually cracks... can miss it, its huge, needs a Stilton wrench to get if off.

On that note too, its ambiguous to say its just that. You need to be really specific when describing noises as it could be anything... right down to your vacuum booster res. being loose...

aZk.

[Morton]

My understanding was the spring was engineered to be stiffer therefore accounting for he reduced number of coils. If you have a stiffer coil, you can reduce the coils and therefore the height. This is why ride comfort is often reduced due to reduced travel.

I see no benefit to having 3-4 coils static like that. A variable rate spring is designed to compress at a variable rate, ie, there are coils which will give out more easily than others in order to retain some of the original dynamics.

Im most likely wrong but that image seems to be a mechanical design flaw to me.

On a side note, i reckon your gland packing nut is loose and that's the rattle, your shock is probably loose.

aZk.

You could be right, I certainly shouldn't be anybody's final source of info on this subject But the way I understand springs, if Kings engineered the front springs to sit unbound when static, AND be stiff, then when you had a lot of front end extension, the springs wouldn't have enough "bounce" left in them to extend far enough. If you get my drift? Because the front struts can extend further than they SHOULD IDEALLY do from the superlow height. So you have the "progressive" spring, with the tighter coils at the top, which basically act as gap filler.

All VN/VPs with superlows and ultralows I've seen run bound when static

[Brin]

nope it aint that one. shock is fine inside the strut....

its a rattle!! its not a clunk, if it were a clunk id be more worried, its just a ding ding ding when going over bumps/potholes.. it wont make the noise if you move it when stationary... nothing is loose in the bay.. and you can feel a slight wobble when turning right which isnt good..

i was thinkin of takin her up the road to ozzy tyres but i dint know how much theyd charge me just to tell me whats wrong seeing my mate doesnt work there anymore. they used to have a look at it for me for zilch and send me running off with a list to repair..

[Brin]

You could be right, I certainly shouldn't be anybody's final source of info on this subject But the way I understand springs, if Kings engineered the front springs to sit unbound when static, AND be stiff, then when you had a lot of front end extension, the springs wouldn't have enough "bounce" left in them to extend far enough. If you get my drift? Because the front struts can extend further than they SHOULD IDEALLY do from the superlow height. So you have the "progressive" spring, with the tighter coils at the top, which basically act as gap filler.

All VN/VPs with superlows and ultralows I've seen run bound when static

Morton, the spring is REALLY tight, meaning even when jacked up it wont budge... ideas?? heeeelppp me, you sound knowledgable

[Morton]

Well it shouldn't budge... lol, it should be locked in there pretty firm


Your rattle could be swaybar link pins. You had a look at those yet?

[Brin]

i can picture me driving along the highway, and seeing my wheel roll away and my car going BANG and hitting the road.. thats all... holden4life suggested my wheel nuts were loose, but he saw that was not the case haha..

i basically jacked her up and tried to shake everything under there, like i said bushes were a little worn but not enough to jingle....... my front grille was loose but that didnt solve it, and after putting the wheel back on the jingle was worse...

could it have something to do with bad camber? what components would affect that? the outer side of the front tyre is worn pretty bad..