I have a 2014 E63S that has been lowered with the KW HAS kit. With 2 different aftermarket sets of wheels (1 winters and 1 summers), i get a loud clunk from the front driver's side when the suspension gets fully compressed on a big bump. I do not get this clunk when i have the factory 5 star forged wheels on the car. I have been trying to determine the cause of the clunk and am not having success. I cannot find any evidence of rubbing or suspension components hitting each other. As well, it does not get rectified by raising the ride height with the adjusters. Below is a link to a video in which you can hear the clunk. Any thoughts?


Thanks.

 

Here’s a pic of the setup that currently makes this clunk.

 

Is the diameter of the new wheels exactly the same as the oem wheels or bigger? If the new setup is taller then you're hitting the wheel wells perhaps with the wheels or the fenders

btw love those wheels what are they?

 

Thanks Peter -- sorry for the crappy iphone picture (I need to take some proper shots some time). These are BBS CI-Rs with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S. The fronts are slightly taller than stock (i.e. 265/30R20 with diameter of 26.3" vs. 255/35R19 with diameter of 26"). What stumps me with the noise is that I can't find any damage in the wheel wells, fenders, suspension components or the wheels themselves that suggests something is making contact when the suspension is compressed. As well, it puzzles me that only the driver's side makes this noise, and the noise is not consistent with rubbing sounds I've heard with other cars of mine when I had clearance issues (i.e. my E92 M3 made very different rubbing sounds when I dropped the front and put larger wheels on it causing clearance issues).

 

and it absolutely doesn't happen with the stock rims?

with the window down does it sound like it's coming from the caliper/heat shield/wheel area or in the engine bay?

with the lowered links and the combination of a less compliant tire/wheel setup (stiffer side walls on the 20's) I think you're hearing suspension items in the left wheel well that need to be torqued down or that are reaching the end of travel limit ... and you're right it doesn't sound like the rubber stop sound ... I had an Acura lowered and had that noise all the time -- the end of suspension travel thud

 

Sounds like the heat shield is loose

 

And no noise at all with stock wheels? That is very odd man. I’d agree on the heat-shield sound. Take a close at it. How’s the spacing on the wheels? Are they very close to the caliper?

 

That is simply a rub from the tires against the fenders, probably the front

i get the exact same rub, lowered in KW HAS with stock wheels and 12mm spacers in the back and 10mm in the front.

 

You can apply some paint to the fender lining and see if it gets rubbed off during hard bumps

 

I’m going to put it on the lift and re-inspect. I’m also going to try the paint suggestion. I’ll report back after I get a chance to do this. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

This pic looks like in Richmond......

 

Good observation -- Richmond it is indeed!

 

So I continue to be somewhat puzzled. Today I removed the driver's side strut, disassembled, cleaned and reassembled the strut assembly / HAS kit and re-installed just to make sure it wasn't odd spring noise or something else I'm hearing. Then I tested the setup with (i) the BBS CI-Rs show above including a 5mm spacer on the front, (ii) the same, but without the spacer, and (iii) my stock forged rims with contis on them in stock size. The first two setups continued to make that sound, while the stock wheel does not. I'm beginning to think that sound may simply be the tire rubbing against the fender liner as MikeDWerks suggested above. The roads were wet so I didn't get a chance to put some paint in the fender liner as Peter suggested. Perhaps the extra 0.3" diameter is simply too much rubber when lowered. The strange things is that i only get the sound from the driver's side. In fact, I went for a short drive over bumps with the BBS CI-R on the passenger front and the stock forged rim on the driver's side and this confirmed that there is no noise coming from the passenger's side. Maybe the driver's side wheel well has slightly less space than the passenger's side?

 

Hate that you wasted all that time removing and replacing the strut assembly. It’s 100% simply just a case of rubbing on the fender

its probably not the liner. Its probably at the seam where the front quarter panel meets the bumper panel, metal juts out there slightly

the reason it happens on just the the driver side is because you are sitting on the drivers side and the additional weight makes a slight difference

you really want to test this theory... simply raise the front suspension up a bit and I bet it goes away

 

I’m sure you’re right. Thankfully the E63 struts pop out super easy so I only wasted 90 minutes on that task. I’ll try raising the front end 10-15mm and see if it goes away.