phat_stak_tipa

Yes please!

So had the new sleeves installed on the bottom shock bolts, and it has made no difference, this confirms in my case that it was always the top mount that has been the problem, as I did manage to get it to shut up for a little while when I spun the top mount 180degrees, I will apply the same fix to the top bolt in the near future. But a big shout out to paul from heasman suspension for the help, they have solved it for others, just not me.

Cheers mate yeah hope it works for mine too..... FG noises hmmmm yep fun, after the new bolts il be able to live with the rest lol, I thankfully dont have many! I had nothing but drama with my bloody drivers seat even after I had it welded up, had the seat out like 10 times!!! But finally found it was the tension wires underneath that squeak! Fixed it with pallet strapping....but matt ello678 had the better fix with his nail idea!!! Its crazy that so many of the fg range have the same problems thankfully we have all worked together to try to fix them, where would we be without forums, and top people!

It does not happen straight away for whatever reason, mine came after maybe 6months or so.... It does not seem to happen to everyone who puts them in, some guys have had them years and no dramas. Though I have seen a post from a bloke with a B series f6 complaining of exactly the same thing, then put factory back in and no knock, it was a post which was made years ago on fordforums with not many replies...... Its even more odd that not only to do some cars not suffer with it, but that in my case and some others, its only the passenger side that does it...... But I have another theory (I have had a few lol) I think it is rear wheel camber related, mine from memory is different side to side, not much, but could be enough, I have had camber correction done on mine with bushes due to the fact I have 3sl/4sl kings, every car would have different wheel alignments and its possible there is a range of where it may induce the noise......probably barking up the wrong tree though.... Anyway im going in tomorrow to heasmans to get my sleeves put in, and hopefully I never have to worry again!

All FG's mate

Excellent news! Will be sorting it at my next rdo!

I spoke with heasmans today, the sleeves they put in for matt are apparently 'prototypes' and they wont really have anymore for a couple of weeks or so, im hoping they aren't just fobbing me off, guess il find out. How is the car going matt?

Sweet! I will have to go see them at some point!

Ok so to throw a spanner in..... My previous attempt with the longer bolt was not a fix, the knock was better but still annoying after more driving, so I removed it and put the factory bolt back in, I was not able to tighten the new bolt enough as I needed more washers, to stop the thread bottoming out, but I dont think is the bolt anyway.... Here is another 'theory' of mine lol, the opening hole on the body mount is quite large compared to the bolt and also the shock eye, so I wrapped the bolt with some electrical tape, several layers and then cut it back to a 1/3 of its width creating a 'collar' just behind the bolt head, then I grabbed my 450mm breaker bar and did it up tight, something I did has done something as it is much more quiet than it has been, still get a tap from it over the little stuff at low speed. I think the bolt shank might touch on the body mount ever so slightly as it all flexes and that's where the little tap comes from, I think the mount may need to have the opening made smaller, the easiest way with maybe a 12mm washer welded on.......or some kind of rubber collar that crushes up as the bolt tightens, maybe a small piece of rubber hose, or a proper metal collar..... I think the high speed damping of the bilstein in combo with small bumps is causing flex in the mount/bolt, before it translates into shock movement, when there is more weight on that side I.e passengers the shock is not able to overcome the weight and it wont knock, also when upto speed I.e 60kmh and above it is quiet over any surface, as I believe the shock damping cannot then react in the same manner as the car is moving over the ripples/bumps too fast. Something else I have been thinking about is ride height, my static ride height with no one in the car is higher on the back left obviously due to settling of the springs, this would likely get worse when its just me in the drivers seat, also this would also be an issue with most cars id say... I have considered swapping springs to see what happens but need to get to a suspension shop for the hoist, bit hard in the driveway. Or maybe that is all useless brain fart, and ello678's bottom bolt fix is the answer!

I have a knock still but im going to play again and see what happens

So I didnt go ghetto, I picked up a new longer bolt high tensile, 90mm is all bunnings had but the non threaded bit was longer, so to stop the thread running out I packed it with some washers 5 x m12, did it all up and test drove. Still have a slight knock that is possibly due to the shock eye/bush not being completely uniform but there is no more rattle/ratcheting sound, so I am happy, if at any point it gets worse il have another go, but now at least we have found out what it is.

So have the shock out of the car, I think the the non threaded part of the top shock bolt is not long enough, I.e too much thread is inside the the top mount and is causing a rocking and also I have thread grooves in the top shock mount which may be causing the grooves and bolt thread to rub together, so eventhough its highly ghetto, il try what 08G6ET suggested by taping it up and see how we go fingers crossed!

Not sure tsb is relevant to the bilsteins, never had the knock before the bilsteins went in, and had kings in with standard shocks for ages too, no noise......

So between ello678 and myself we have been chatting about this issue, there has been alot of mucking around due to the fact that the noise continues to come back. ello678 has had a top bilstein bush replaced and the noise came back, he also tryed a custom bolt that was slightly thicker but this has not worked either, after both of us being in touch with heasman suspension (bilstein reps), the foreman who seems happy to help (unlike one of the other employees) has now decided to make some even thicker bolts and see if that works. I have played around and had the most success with having the top hole and bolt packed with grease, but the noise came back, so my theory based on all the info is........ The factory bolt must be just a touch too small, and I believe the alloy? Of the bilstein is very soft and the bolt eventually wears the hole out, elongating it and causing it to rattle around no matter how tight the bolt or mount is..... So hopefully for all that are having this issue thanks mainly to ello678 we will have a fix.

Ok so bilstein knock had been sorted....hopefully for good! This is how shock should look, Oh yeah I needed a 450mm breaker bar to undo the 15mm top nut!!! I also undid the shock mount on the body that has 4 10mm bolts, they were easy to undo thankfully! I left the bottom bolt in mainly due to the fact I couldnt undo it as I didnt have the right socket... This is how the the other side closest to the diff looks.... As you can see there is 3 grooves!! I got the dremel grinder out smoothed out the grooves, not a great job.... So I greased it all up and put it back together......AND it still knocked!!!!! Got home again and took it apart, and turned the shock mount around, so the smooth part was now closest to diff, and the part with the grooves facing me, packed more grease into the shock bolt hole and went for a drive and NO NOISE! I think it will come back, but if it does il be abit more heavy with the grinder and see what happens, maybe the grease has 'cushioned' things maybe turning the shock 180degrees helped not sure but it now is ok, thank f*ck for that!