Hi Everyone

i heard a clunking sound the other day after autoXing coming from my right front wheel area. I jacked up the car today and found something that doesn’t seem right.

First, there seems to be a gap at the bottom of the Coilover (see photo). Second, there is a gap up at the top of the Coilover. (See photo).

I’ve also included a video to show you what’s going on. I went over and looked at the driver side and there is no gap at the bottom, but there is the same gap at the top. Any insight is appreciated. I don’t have any experience with coil overs.

These are Ohlins Coilover with the Elephant racing mounts that came with them after a recall.

 

The top gap is just how the parts go together. The bottom gap is normal too. The bottom may be different based on spring preload and corner balancing. I would check torque on all the bolts up there and see if anything is loose and inspect sway bar and tie rod links.

 

Will do. Thanks De Jeeper.

 

I don't think the 2 collar rings should be below the sway bar mount, that 2nd collar should be locking the spring perch ring to prevent its movement.

I can't see a functional purpose for the 2 collars below the sway bar mount.

ETA... Your locking ring setup is fubar'd per the Öhlins instructions.

https://world.ohlins.com/app/uploads...MI_POZMW00.pdf

 

Jengah - Where’s the second lock ring depicted below the spring perch in the diagram above? Same for all four or just that side?

 

@zbomb Thanks - you bring up a good point. It looks like they followed the instructions with two lock rings below the Anti roll bar bracket, but only used one above the bracket.
@hatchetf15 The driver's side was set up the same way, but the two lock rings are not snug together, there is about 1/4" between them. Something doesn't seem right. I'm going to go check the instructions Ohlins sent with the recall update to see what's up.

 

SO here are the instructions for the set of shocks that came with my car. Looks like they got one side right and the other wrong... both have the correct placement of lock rings, but there is supposed to be a gap between the bottom ones.

 

Its kinda strange way for ohlin to do it. It may be a space constaint.

Basically upper nut, sway bracket and middle nut all lock together to set the preload. The lower nut is used to space the shock up for corner balance and then u tighten the unpright nut to lock it in

Still not sure this is the cause of your clunck but it should be fixed. Depending on how this all gets adjusted u may need adjustable sway links so there is ni preload at ride height.

 

Thanks De Jeeper. I do have adjustable sway bar links. I'm going to check in w/ Ohlins.

 

The manual's figure 3 makes no sense...
Sense makes:
Spring perch can turn on the shock body and is locked by tightening locking colar nr. 1 up against it. Use it to keep the spring preloaded at full droop and thus seated.

Drop link bracket isn't threaded and can be slid up and down to get rid of preload on the ARB. It is locked by tightening colar nr. 2 from above and nr 3 from below.
Locking ring nr 4 is used as de jeeper wrote, I.e. to corner balance the car.
That's how I understand it from the link further above

 

what @zbomb said - assembly order looks wrong.


looks like you have a c4, so the rear strut assembly in the @FCPEuro video shows the proper order.

 

Is your car a C4?
reason I’m asking is that I have the Ohlins coil over myself (on my C2) and the fronts do not look like that.

 

@SleepyCyclist & @meirschwartz I have a C4S which uses a different shock kit and settings than the C2 and C4. Note that the instructions that @zbomb provided show (2) locking rings above the roll-bar bracket, but mine has none. I've written to Ohlins to ask what's up because what Ohlins shows on their website for my car is what Zbomb attached, but my instructions are what came with the factory recall and provided Elephant racing hats.

 

I don't really think it matters... if the SB mount butts up against the spring perch and it gets locked by a collar... but having the spring perch floating is not right.

Move the SB mount up with its locking collar and be done with it.

 

This is what i was trying to explain. My sway bar mounts r threaded so they would have to be spun up but i think yours r just clamps. Just loosen it and use that middle nut to tighten it up against the top nut. U will also have to lengthen the sway bar link. Its a simple fix.