I had PSS10s installed about 3k miles ago. I have been hearing a "crunching, squeaking" type noise from the rear suspension since. I took it in to a different mechanic for a second opinion. He sent me the attached pics of the rear struts before disassembly. He claims that they are definitely misaligned in the upper mount area and the coil springs have been rubbing on the shock body, hence causing the crunching noise.

He will have to disassemble and reassemble correctly. Based on the pics and background, I'm curious to know your thoughts are.

 

here is another pic

 

No pic's try again.

 

Okay, so the pics aren't uploading, even tho it said it did. Do I have to resize them? If so, what size?

 

When you bring up the attach files box it tells you the allowed file size 146KB 1024x1024

So re-size and re-load

 

see if it works now..

 

one more...

 

The top end of the shock doesn't look to be assembled correctly. I did mine last winter so I'm fuzzy but IIRC you don't reuse one of the old pieces. I remember thinking that the instructions were a little vague on this point. Sorry I couldn't provide more details.

 

WTF? What m^*$% did this? This is so wrong!

You'd better get your money back, whoever installed these did not know what he was doing! This is terrible! The stock top hat has to be taken apart. The supplied booklet has a schematic a monkey could follow.

You don't reuse everything with the Pss10s/9s, it is different from the simple Bilstein HDs installation!

Excuse my outburst, but some mechanics have no common sense! At the very least he should cover the cost of having somebody else fix things for you.

 

Problem solved. New mechanic just called me and told me the top spring pad and the plastic spacer was supposed to have been removed before installation. Once removed with an alignment, and my crunching noise is gone. My favorite phrase..."your car is ready to be picked up"!

 

Here is Bilstein's supplied booklet. I have highlighted the only OE parts to be reused.

Again, in each case, these are the only 2 parts you will salvage from the stock shock assembly.

Notice how on the right page, the huge rubber hat is not depicted. It has to be removed. The supplied huge aluminum part replaces it.

This is how the pss10s/9s install differs from the typical Bilstein HDs/ other springs install. That's the only thing you have to watch out for, when following the awesome Rennlist Shocks Install DIY.

 

bingo... I was just reading through the thread after I saw that first pic...
ouch.

Congrats on getting it solved!

 

Pretty bad. Even I figured that out on my first install and I missed the pic in the manual.

 

My concern now is what appears to be scoring on the shaft of the shocks..... Did you get to look at the shocks before they corrected it, I would hate for you to end up shortening the life of your new suspension because of the **** poor initial install.......

 

Well, that explains your tires wearing out so quickly. Not the "cheap" tires fault as Matt tried to blame it on.

You may want to forward these pictures to him so he can see the kind of work that they did. You should ask for your money back! or at least the cost of having it fixed by Alan.

I'm glad that Alan at German Car Repair was able to find the issue. He probably sent it to Dave at Perfect Performance for the alignment. You should be all good to go now!