Strut Clunk!!

[emw525E34]

Whit,

Thanks for the reminder on getting under the car and shaking drive compoents until you find the offending part. I must do that. That steering clunk when just pulling off is annoying. I dont get clunks going over bumps. Just the one when I pulled off the driveway or off a car park.

The PO used to have lowering springs which was restored to stock when I bought the car, so the springs were re-done. Thats where I should check first.

[prasad]

Thanks all....
I finally got a electric Kobalt impact wrench..Tightened the three nuts holding the strut housing at the bottom....Noice went away for some time but reappeared after some off road testing....Finally found that the nut on top of the bearing was loose by couple of threads....
No noise....but car runs stiff....May be I will change sway bar links some time soon....Any recommendations for the rear shocks ?
-Prasad

[Mobius]

All I could do was a tongue and grove plier to turn the nut.

If you could turn the strut collar nut with a pair of pliers, then it's very definitely too loose. You should do what you can to get this tight - even if it's not the source of this noise, it will be in the future if this nut keeps getting more loose. I know, mine was loose for a time. I tried everything before discovering it.

As far as the rest of the suspension bits you talk about are concerned, here's a list of torque specs - go and check that everything is nice and tight:

Strut housing to steering arm (the three lower strut housing bolts) - 81 ft-lb
-Use loctite on these bolts (Bentley says Loctite 270) - if they loosen and fall out, it'll be an interesting ride.

Shock cartridge retaining collar - 96 ft-lb (how you measure this, I have no idea)

Upper strut mount to strut cartridge shaft -
(with internal hexagon) - 33 ft-lb
(with external hexagon) - 45 ft-lb

Strut assembly to body (three nuts on upper strut bearing) - 16 ft-lb (note very little torque here)

Stabilizer bar end-link - 43 ft-lb -Absolutely check this first. This would be the cause of 90% of front-end rattles.

[Kalevera]

Prasad - depends on what you want -- performance or ride quality? I love my sachs kit, which has the boge turbo gases on the rear. Everybody and their moms like the koni's, although you have to do a lot of work to adjust them on the rears once they're in the car. Also, it seems like people use the bilstein sports on the rear with few complaints.

EMW - If you've got a clunk in the turns, best thing I can think of is to first check the steering box mounting bolts (from below...in the subframe). If they come loose, you'll get a clunk in low speed turns (check bmwe34.net for details)

best, whit

[Mobius]

EMW - If you've got a clunk in the turns, best thing I can think of is to first check the steering box mounting bolts (from below...in the subframe). If they come loose, you'll get a clunk in low speed turns (check bmwe34.net for details)

Steering box AND front subframe bolts. Tightening my subframe bolts just the tiniest bit cured my steering creak at low speeds.