I just installed a set of new buddy club n+ coilovers on my 2009 GE.

Everything seemed like it went well except i can't tighten the top nut that holds the strut to the car in place. The shaft seems to spin with the nut as well as the top rubber mount.

Did i forget something to install on the coilover? This is what i reused from old coilover.
I preloaded the spring to 200mm. im lowered good amount not slammed.

Front: Top hat. That's it. lol

Rear: Two black rubber hats. one black washer thing like.

Every time i turn my steering wheel from a dead stop it makes this spring like noise. Im guessing its from the top nut not being tightened all the way. On oem struts it had allen wrench hold on top to hold the shaft in place to tighten but this coilover doesn't seem to have that feature. So im guessing there's some different way to hold it in place.

I need to get this repaired before getting a alignment done. Which i need really bad my steering wheel is facing all kinds of way when driving

Thank you very much for support.

 

Bump no one?

 

Look at the very top of it... Does it have a hexagonal hole? If so, shove an ALLEN wrench in it to stop it from spinning. You'll have to hold the ALLEN Wrench or brace against something.

If not, grab two more nuts that fit the thread... Put the two nuts on and tighten them against each other near the top. Once they are sufficiently tight, use the lower one to hold the shaft from spinning. Of course, this means you need two wrenches with matching sockets.... And more importantly, room to do it. Once you get the nut in just loosen the two nuts from each other and they shouldn't have a problem coming off.

 

/snicker

sorry just had to !

 

Omg you're god. I didn't try it out yet but that totally makes sense using two extra nuts and use one to counter the tightening force.

I'll deff try this soon on weekend. The BC N+ don't have hole for allen so the nut sounds like the only way to do this. Thank you.

 

Did you get everything fixed already? I had noise coming from mine turning at full lock-- I found out I forgot to use the bearing from the stock shocks because BC's don't come with them or top hats.
And also for the top nuts, the rears have like a 8mm nut right below the damper control that you can use to counter while you tighten.
It slipped my mind how the front are(I haven't touched the top in a long while), but I know I was able to tighten it enough when the car was on the ground and not on jacks so the weight helped.

Another edit-- your springs are 200mm? I got mine last year and mine were 175mm so I had to change my preload from the 200mm on this site, the 200mm were the older version.


Side note: I used that "2 nut" method that ryu talked about to get my bearings off my stock struts because the top hex was messed up haha.

 

I havent fixed it yet, been busy with work was thinkjng avout working on it tomorrow.

Bearing?? I deff didnt install that nor heard of it before of reusing it. Lol looks like i have to remove my coilovers again. Read few forums no one ever mentioned the dam bearings. =[

Mine were 200mm. I bought it new but im giessing it was sitting in the shops warehouse.

Thanks for reply

 

Glad you posted that reply. I need to get that bearing on asap.

 

Oh okay yea the spring noise is most likely coming from spring-binding. I had that spring clunking sound for a while until I figured out it was the bearings. I even tried greasing the springs and it helped a little but it def needs bearings. BC's for the GE8 aren't complete with everything so you have to reuse the rubber top mounts as well as bearings for the front and the rubber holders that hold the springs for the rear. It's pretty easy to do it yourself if you still have the stock shocks, just get the bearing(held by the top nut holding everything in place).

I was able to install the bearings myself without taking the coilovers out completely:
I had the car on a stand and used the jack to raise/lower & keep the strut&rotor in place while I unbolted the top nuts. I lowered the strut enough to fit the bearing in all within the wheel well. Under the rubber grommet(I think there is one, I forgot) that goes in between the contact point between car & coils you'll notice a dome-like groove and you'll realize that's exactly where a bearing was meant to be haha. Then jack it back up slowly through the mount again.
Just a little help if you didn't know already know of course :thumb ups:

As for the front struts, I checked mine and there is no hex on the top but I can assure you, I tightened mine down until the shock would rotate with the bolt and it's been doing well for more than a year, no problems. You can torque it down pretty good.

 

Update: I installed the bearings like mr.zeebrah notified to me and now wallah the struts tighten without the nuts needed and no more noise. ( I did use the three nut trick to tighten down the bearing to the struts though) Thanks again for the replies everyone.

 

Glad to hear everything's fixed! Now all that's left is to go enjoy them coilovers!