nexstage350

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for your advise. i plan to take my car back to SGP and have them take a look at it. hopefully everything will turn out for the best. if any one else has and input please help. thanks
nexstage350

JonathanG35

well, I worked on my flex this weekend and I have cut the noise by 90-95%. I only get an occassional rattle now and it is just one clunk instead of the rapid shaking sound from before. I basically did two things to the rears. I coated the top of the rear strut with white lithium grease. I also noticed that the motor sits in a little cavity above the wheel well. I thought the sound may be getting amplified in there and in the trunk so I took one of those memory foam pillows and cut a chunk off and put it up in the hole. then i also cut out another chunk and removed some material to accommidate the edfc motor and slapped everything back together. life is much more quiet. I think i will finish it off with some dyno mat extreme before i do my stereo upgrades.

heres acouple pics

pico350z

Yup, same here. Tein w/EDFC installed at 8600 miles and now have approximately 11700 miles. Some rattling from rear of vehicle but only over bumps and potholes. Funny, I cannot hear anything when I am on the freeway. All noise at low speed and esp. when going over a bump or pothole or dip of some kind. Steering wheel is sound. No shaking at 55 -60mph. Alignment is true and steady with a very slight drift to the right after some distance going 60mph or so. rich, san jose, ca

crayons

Well, finally got to work on my car this weekend with my friends and as far as I can tell I've resolved the sound issue . The major source of the rattling was because of the top bolt. It wasn't loose, but it wasn't bolted down as far as it could go so all the washers above and below the upper seat were bouncing like crazy (this is probably why my rattling was much louder and more often than everyone else's).

We first tried to turn the bolt to get it to turn down further, but the piston rod kept spinning. We didn't want to put any force onto the piston rod to hold it in place while turning the bolt since we were afraid of damaging it.. so in the end we carefully held the EDFC motor to stabilize the rod while turning the bolt down tighter. We tightened the bolt down until we could see the bushings compress a little (which was basically as far as it could go anyways before we couldn't turn it anymore). The washers were definitely not loose anymore. After that, I made sure that I could still turn the pin on the EDFC motor one turn counter-clockwise and one turn clockwise.

I didn't put any lithium grease anywhere yet. Since I'm working on my car again this coming weekend (sways, plenum spacer), I'll wait a week to see if the rattle is completely gone; if it's not, I'll take out the shock again and add some grease up there. So far, everything sounds good even over speed bumps.

Quick question Jon: Did you just coat the top of the rear shock (top nut, washer, bushing) with the grease, or did you loosen everything so you could get the grease in between them all and then tighten again?

If anyone has any suggestions or safety concerns about tightening the top nut down that much, feel free to chime in .

On a side note, after adjusting the shock stroke distance back to the correct recommended distance, the ride is MUCH better now. I'm such a dumbass haha! But yeah, the ride was seriously when the shock stroke distance was mismatched. I can't believe how much better everything is . I'm probably going to wait another week before I fine tune everything to my liking.

Thanks again for all the help and comments!

JonathanG35

I just put the grease on the top of mine. Funny thing was my top bolts were plenty tight and shaking the strut itself produced no noise or rattle so i knew the nut was not my problem. My ride is also much better now after properly adjusting the suspension. I did not do the original install. My ride height was .5 inch too high in the back and the passenger front was .5 inch higher than the driver front. Needless to say, my car handles much better now. My old lady even noticed how much better it rode and how much quieter it is.

zero2prove

I've have had the Tein flex on for the last 3 months. No rattles here. The car rides a little stiffer than the stock touring setup but still very comfortable at the 16.

Tuan

crayons

Do you remember how tight your top bolt was tightened down, and are all your shock distances the default recommended?

pico350z

hey Tuan, with that huge TT engine, you may not hear the rattles!! rich, san jose, ca

Janus

iTrader: (1)

Becareful with the EDFC unit. I've had one die on me from shorting out. (smells like ozone when it powered up.)

The only thing I could think of why it did that was either 1.) not rolling down my windows on 90+ degree days, or the fact that the velcro patch partially covered the vents. (I have since used the mounting bracket and spaced it from the vents).

The techs at Tein in Downey said it looked like it shorted due to over heating.

I don't know what the space is like under the console, so be careful...

crayons

Thanks for the advice. There's plenty of airspace underneath the console for the unit to breathe (and nothing is covering the vents), but sometimes I do get a little concerned by the fact that the EDFC unit is in direct sunlight. But.. I guess we'll see. I love the position of the unit right now, and so far it's outweighing safety haha .

daveh

iTrader: (9)

Is there a notch on the piston rod on the flex's?
I've had the RA's on other cars and there is a notch in the rod where you can use a box wrench to hold it in place while you tighten the pillowball nut so it doesn't rotate letting you get the nut nice and tight. I never had any noise on mine (unlike my JIC's which rattled from day 1).

crayons

There wasn't, unless it's above the nut (which is now covered by the EDFC motor anyways). It would have been nice if there was though, it would have made the job a helluva lot easier!

Superhung

iTrader: (2)

I currently have the 'rattle'. The sound was REALLY bad the day after install. It sounded like the suspension was going to fall apart. It became less audible over time and the sound disappears at high speeds, but at low speeds when you hit even the smallest bumps, the rattling starts. I'm taking it in soon to have it looked at.

pico350z

Hey Super: I have the exact same challenge--exactly. Please see what I wrote above. I believe it is the nature of the TEIN system from what I have read so far. At high speeds the vehicle is a real tiger--can't hear a thing. The rattles are all at low speeds. rich, san jose, ca

crayons

It's been about 5 days since I tightened the nut, and through all driving conditions (freeway, suburbia, putting around bumpy and nasty LA roads) the rattling is gone . I might put some lithium grease on the top this weekend just for good measure, but I'm glad this didn't turn into a chronic thing.

Mr_Q

iTrader: (1)

Would placing a stiff rubber isolator between the shock mount and car fender REALLY be that awful? I'm not talking anything too thick, but just enough. Anytime I see metal to metal contact I get worried about noises. Although I have run many cars with isolators removed and not had ANY noises.

Also, have any other coil overs had this noise problem. Maybe buying TEINs just isn't the best thing then? I mean if you can get awesome adjustable performance without any noise, isn't that a better option?

Rog1206

iTrader: (2)

I've tried tightning the top nut with an impact wrench, using white lithium grease, and stuffing some memory foam into that enclosure area, and the rattling noise still won't go away!

daveh

iTrader: (9)

Hi guys, don't have teins but am having a similar problem with my koni coilovers. I think my noise is coming from my rear springs. There is a little free play in them when I get under the car and shake them. Do the spring perches on the teins have any rubber on them or are they just sandwiched between the spring and the the sheet metal?
Do you guys think the noise could be coming from your springs??

JonathanG35

tein spring perches have rubber mounts.

JRSport018

iTrader: (4)

meagan racing doesnt..