Rep Power: 300

Ok,

Ever since I had my Tein H-Tech springs and tokico blues installed, i've been getting minor creaking sounds when driving slowly over bumps. It occurs only for a tiny bit when the car is still cold. Once I've been driving for awhile, the sounds disappear completely.

Does anyone know what may be causing this? Is this normal? Everything was installed a reputable shop that supposedly indexed everything correctly.

 
Rep Power: 258

welcome to the club brother.
same thing happened to me, I had H techs in the beginning then now on S techs, still on stock shocks, sound still there. installed by Super Autobacs
which is supposed to be the top JDM ricer shop in my area...
i trust those guys highly and ive taken it to other shops and no one knows whats up. Only happens when I go over speed bumps or drive slowly.

 
Rep Power: 300

mine happens only when the car is cold though...

 
Rep Power: 258

btw do u like ur h tech drops??

 
Rep Power: 300

i don't mind them....handling has improved a tiny bit but ride quality still felt fairly stock when matched w/ my tokico blues...note however that the springs dropped the car way lower than their rated 0.8"...measured immediately before and after install, the rear fell 1.3-1.5" and the front didn't change at all because my old fronts were already sagged...right now i have a tight 2 finger gap in the rear and 2-2.5 fingergap in the front. this is pretty much the same drop as my friend's coupe that's lowered on H&R sports rated 1.3".

the ride height isn't really uneven but i sorta wish the front was about 1 fingergap lower...i noticed that s-techs would have given me the same lowering job on the rear but the front would have been about 1 pinky lower in the front...

if i had the choice to go back in time and do it all again, i think i would have forked over the extra cash and gotten myself some coilovers because i'm so **** about getting the perfect ride height..heheh

does your car ever scrape at all? i have an RS front lip and OEM sides. the skirt kit never scrapes but i've heard my stock exhaust hit a few speed bumps gently...this is one of the reasons why i didn't go for more than a sport drop

 
Rep Power: 258

yes im on s techs with a tight 2 finger gap all around (17 inch rims) and an RS front lip as well, and yes it does scrape... its a hassle going over speed bumps and dips and business areas. I still want to go lower though!! hate that gap from far away! But if i go any lower i wont be able to clear speed bumps that I HAVE to go through daily.
btw, did you put any double sided tape on your RS front lip? The guy who installed mine put some on the top of the lip and it seems as if the lip is kind of tight because of that...

 
Rep Power: 238

Try this....

Did you lube the Camber kit bushings and/or do you even have a camber kit?

Is anything rubbing such as exhaust on lower arm and/or swaybar bracket?

Did you cut the shock bumper down as recommended by Tein?

 
Rep Power: 258

no camber kit.
nothing rubbing.
JDM ricer shop told me specifically they cut bumper stops down

no lubing! im afraid to lube my car in the wrong places..
what to lube with?

 
Rep Power: 300

i have an SPC rear camber kit w/ rubber bushings...do those need to be lubed? can they be lubed w/out removing them? i just got my alignment not too long ago so i don't want to have to get another one done if i don't have to

as for bump stops, yes they've been cut

 
Rep Power: 300

i didn't use tape because it didn't need it. i didn't care about the lip rubbing the underlying paint on a plastic bumper...the sides are oem honda sides because i wanted the rubber gasket...aftermarket replicas are crap because most of them will scrape paint off the side of the car then cause rust

 
Rep Power: 238

Yes!
you have to lube the bushings on the camber kit!

No!
i wouldnt just take the word of a shop!
*This doesnt mean that they didnt do it necassarily, but a check wouldnt hurt here!

No!
you cannot lube without removing the rear camber kit and popping off the C-clip and sliding the bar out to get the lube in.

Yes!
I would check this if it were my car, cuz any creaking, banging, rubbing, etc.... Would drive me effing crazy!

 
Rep Power: 258

so no tape at all for the RS front? just screws on the sides?
do you have some pics of it?
thanks!

 
Rep Power: 300

https://www.civicforums.com/forums/4...w-out-lip.html

i have a couple self tapping screws on the underside of the lip going into the plastic bumper...i didn't bother with tape because then the lip would be a pain in the *** to remove...i also have an original OEM honda RS lip at home...it has metal brackets on the inside..aftermarket replicas don't come with those brackets..

note that side skirts are oem so they're installed as per manufacturer's instructions...

 
Rep Power: 300

ok, you're saying i have to disassemble the camber kit? the kit already comes w/ the rubber bushing preinstalled..shouldn't they have lubed it up already?

 
Rep Power: 258

wow your drop looks extra sweet for being H techs,
do you have any day pictures?
thanks

 
Rep Power: 258

i took mine to a shop... the guy drove over a speed bump pretty hard and problem fixed. i dont hear anything anymore..

 
Rep Power: 320

if its index'ed correctly and it only makes noise when you go over bumps. THen i would check the dust covers. some times the dust covers will rub on the spring when you go over bumps. people have fix it by putting plastic heat shrink around the spring at the part that rubs against the dust boot.

no more sounds when you go over bumps.

 
Rep Power: 258

I've never driven over speedbumps with anyspeed... i would barely crawl over them. This guy just let the car loose and into one and sure it was like my car was on hydrolics for a moment but after that... wow... 2 months of the annoying creeking gone. He didnt even charge me either. Everyone should check out his new shop on Orangethorpe in Anaheim

 
Rep Power: 300

in 2002, there was a honda TSB released describing of creaking suspension noises caused by the upper strut mount rubbing against the spot welds on the underside of the shock tower...the fix was to grind the welds down until they were flush and also put teflon tape on the upper strut mount.

that may have been your problem...hitting a bump hard could have caused the strut to sit flatter against the strut tower


i'm pretty sure my creaking sounds are from the upper strut mount area. i marked the spring and the lower spring seat with a felt pen then i turned the steering wheel to check if the spring was moving around the lower spring seat. everything down there was fine...

 
Rep Power: 300

i'm thinking my problem is either the strut mount rubbing against the shock tower or it may be the bearing inside teh upper strut mount...

anyone know what year civics had the ball bearing in the upper strut mount and which years had the plastic bearing?

 
Rep Power: 300

the shop fixed mine yesterday....turned out the dust boot was dragging the bump stop up and down causing creaking noises...all they did was grease up the bump stop and now the sound is completely gone...and there's no need for an alignment either since they didn't have to remove any of the suspension parts


heh, yours could have been the same issue...by hitting a bump hard, it could have moved the bump stop to some position where it didn't rub so much...

 
Rep Power: 291

is it really neccesary to cut the bumpstops with just a 1.5 inch drop? i've read that it wasn't unless u dropped it 2in or more...

 
Rep Power: 247

can u take pics of where they greased it?

 
Rep Power: 300

even w/ tein h-techs, the tein documentation(which really sucks) said to cut the bump stop....

what happens if one doesn't cut the bump stop? would something get damaged or would the ride quality and handling suck from the car hitting the bump stop all the time?

 
Rep Power: 300

if you look at how the bump stop works, the friction was probably where the bump stop slides up/down the shaft of the shock...sounds retarded how a bump stop would cause such loud creaks but the shop told me it was pretty audible when they moved the boot up/down w/ their hand...i took their word for it because it was a very reputable shop and the noise is now gone.

 
Rep Power: 247

so did they grease the inside of the bump stop, or the top, the bottom? all of the above?

 
Rep Power: 258

oh man this sucks - this morning it was really cold, and as i drove over a speed bump the noise came back!! When I brought it into the shop the guy drove around hitting speed bump after speed bump and we didnt even hear a noise... Only early morning, similiar to yours... I will tell them to take a look at that, thanks again