My brother recently bought the Tein Flex suspension for his 03 Z, then he shipped off for the military, and has charged me with some of the maintenance while he's gone.

The problem, if you can call it that, are those washers on top of the rear struts that jingle against each other while the car is in motion. Are there any known fixes for this noise? It sounds like a pocket full of change, and it is unknown to me if there are way to make it stop, nor what those things accomplish in the first place. If nothing else it makes the car seem ghetto and sounds like something is broken.

I have thought of putting some sort of insulator in between them such as a rubber or plastic ring to keep the two metal washers from actually touching. Any advice from anyone with the Flex system is appreciated.

 

Hmmmmm, I've had some intermittent rattling noise from the rear of my car now for a few months. We've checked and tightened everything else, but I did not even think of this one. I'm going to check on it this weekend and maybe get an answer for ya.

 

Im not sure about the tein flex washers? but i did get an annoying creaking/poping noise out of my coilover install. Actually it was the camber arms i bought! - they made the noise, but for anything in that general area you can spray with silicone lube! They usually sell it at auto parts stores in a spray can style. it will have a label saying it stops squeaks and such. you would be surprised how long that stuff last! night and day improvement for me! no more creaking/popping noise whatso ever.

-j

 

Thanks for the responses.

No, this is definitely a "jingling change" type of sound. I am sure it makes the noise because before he installed it, we both noticed those washer-things and thought that it would do exactly what it is doing. There are no other noises from the suspension, which includes Hotchkis anti-sway bars, and the Tein system that the original post was about.

Again, I don't know what those things are there for in the first place. He does not have the remote ride adjuster option (I forget the name of that part), perhaps those serve some sort of purpose for the mounting of that device, but as it sits now, they apparently do nothing but just jingle...

 

probably the pillow ball bearing in the upper mounts.. something you have to live with if you want them :/

 

Its not the bearing, I have the EXACT same noise. Its caused when the metal washer dislodges from the rubber mount. This is sort of a bump stop.

Below is an attached photo of the rear Tein Flex upper mount. That silver double platform washer is what is ratteling.

EDIT: You can see in the enlarged picture that the rubber is molded to the washer. My guess would be to use some sort sealant or glue to buffer the ratteling.

 

Thanks for the picture and detailed response, Punish. Once I get a chance to check them out, I'm going to try some kind of insulator to quiet them down. I'll post my results at that time.

 

Its not hard to determine if thats it or not. If its bad you can spin it, if not you cant. Easy as that. It will have verticle play in it.

 

Finally got around to address this. It looks like the rattling only affects the right rear in my brother's case. The left rear was tight and noise-free.

I first tried to put zip-ties between the washers as insulators only to find that it only addressed the noise from the washer to washer contact. Only there are 2 more points of contact: upper washer to shaft, and lower washer to shaft. So instead of ridding the noise, I simply changed it's pitch and repetition speed.

I've seen some bad designs/builds in my day, but I have not had one so annoying. This is utterly one of the most agonizing noises ever. This isn't the only problem we've had with this system either: the front pair was adjusted to exactly the specs in the install instructions and the front right wants to set a 1/4" lower than the front left. I've double and triple checked the settings. It's not installer error. The only fix I can think of for this is to simply uninstall everything and return it as defective merchandise.

I don't think I will ever use Tein on my own Z after this experience.

 

I havent had this issue on my car at all, no noise from the pillowballs on either JIC FLT A2's or MONO Flex. You guys did tighten that top strut nut right? With an air gun BTW, hand tight wont do $hit. They arent TQ'd to spec when they ship!

 

+1
My Teins were making that same noise you guys are talking about. What I did was take out the shock and I found that the top nut was just hand tight, so I trq it down and....wala fixed no issue to this date.


-Luie

 

Hmm, I was not the one that installed it. I will look into this...

 

got the same problem too. i need help. please anyone help me about this problem . pm me thanks

 

My brother came home on leave and fixed this problem by doing exactly as described. He said he removed the struts and basically tightened/checked all the fasteners on the units. I was not there when he did this, so I can not comment on the actual job itself, but I figure I'd better post how he remedied it since some people actually do search for problems before making new threads. Thanks for the advice guys, and good luck to you, ENS350z.

 

Good to hear he fixed it. People should ALWAYS tighten everything that comes "assembled" from manufacturers. A few minutes of your time now or a lot more later to remove, re-tighten, re-install

 

I just installed my Flex types on friday, and when I drive I heard clicking noises also. It almost sounds like I'm dropping dimes as I drive by. I'm to try this sometime this week and we would see what happens.

 

Does the tein flex manual list the pillow nut torque specs? I think one of my pillow nuts is loose (Tanabe sustec pro-7s), and I here a clicking sound at the top of the mount area when I drive. I rode in the trunk and made my wife drive up and down our driveway to confirm the location. But, after looking in the install manual, there isn't any torque specs that I can find. (Edit: Sorry to revive an old thread!)