pifcat2

It sounds like sheet metal grinding. The noise is occasional and occurs during a vertical movement after a dip in the road. Now that I've installed lower springs the occurrence seemed to have increased

I've inspected the struts and mounts
Nothing is hanging low underneath the car

latief

check your ball joints, just for safety..

mine started to grind yesterday, time for new ball joints !!!

Wolfe190

yea sounds like ball joints.

You mentioned lowering springs, it could be your tires rubbing too... Mine make some pretty narly sounds when they hit the fender

pifcat2

I did notice a tear in the boot. What's actually grinding?

JSe420

Check the part of the cladding that wraps around the fender and sits right on the inner part of the wheel well. I lowered mine recently and thats where im rubbing.

pifcat2

well, I replaced the LCA with new ball joints / bushings and struts and the noise persists. Now I hear it also when I brake. I suspect it's the wheel bearings allowing the rotor to hit the dust shield. I was going to replace them but didn't have a puller. I will recheck clearances...

ocpanther

This may be a stupid suggestion, but here is something that happened to me. I had new tires put on and there is a little washer like thing that goes around the lug nut. The tire people lost one and put the lug back in, but it went a hair deeper. When I hit the right dip it would rub on the brake shield. It sounded like scraping/grinding kinda like bad breaks.

Just a thought.

pifcat2

Hah! I thought I checked but found bad rub wear at the tab that holds onto the fender where I notched it. Plus with 16" wheels and 205/55, it appeared to have ample space. I removed the cladding and drove around with no major noise. It's rubbing less on the right side. I rolled back the fender lip which should help the cladding clearance.

I still have a little scraping noise under some compression (deep road dip). It doesn't sound serious but I'll continue to monitor it.

One other factor to the tight clearance may be the rear is higher than the front causing the arch. I'm not sure why maybe it will settle. Oh the fun of lowered cars...

I realized there were washers on the original strut bolts so I added those. The Bilsteins included new bolts but no washers. It didn't seem to be a problem pushing out the sheetmetal guard.

I will recheck the wheel bolt lengths since one of them is a lock bolt. I also have to torque the LCA's, hopefully the toe is correct. I don't like the special bolt and slot design as it seems the ears could compress on the bushing when tightened.