Strut keeps coming loose - still happens :(

[Sam_Q]

whoa whatever you paid for that conversion it was worth it! incredable job

[Gilly]

indeed!!! that is some excellent work gone into those coilovers

[RobertoX]

You can try marking the nut and top of coilover with a bit of paint to see if the nut is actually coming lose.

[Stefan]

Update - unfortunately, this still happens a bit. Car is fine until hit a bad bump, then will clunk badly. Next time you drive it, it's fine until hit a bad bump... I'm a little stumped. Had the car up on the hoist and everything seemed fine. Will swap the entire struts left and right sometime and see if the noise changes sides.

[thechuckster]

the spring top hat looks very close the top mount/bearing - should there be a spacer between the two?

[30psi 4agte]

Are you sure it is the strut that is the prob?

[RobertoX]

the spring top hat looks very close the top mount/bearing - should there be a spacer between the two?

It does to me too, most people seem to run some sort of spacer here for the t3 strut tops. The hat looks like it might clash with the sliding plate on the strut top (the gold plate). If its because of this you should see some fairly significant wear marks on the bottom of the strut top.

Another thing to check is the condition of the spherical bearing in the strut top, these can wear out and get clunky

[Stefan]

the spring top hat looks very close the top mount/bearing - should there be a spacer between the two?

No. If I was using solid upperhats, then yes, but this is the T3 design with rollerbearing upperhats. I like it, as load is taken by the plates of the strut top rather than the spherical bearing. Some people don't. For further discussion, see

This thread on old forums (especially OldCorrolla's and Gabe's posts) and
This other old thread on old forums

[Stefan]

Are you sure it is the strut that is the prob?

No, but it was fine with the stock strut setup. Next step is to swap the entire struts left and right and see if the problem changes sides.

Its interesting that the car rides perfectly until I hit a dip in the road (by bump I mean inverse bump if this makes sense, like a pothole), then it clunks and will keep clunking over smaller bumps, will be fine netx time I take it for a ride until I hit a big bump.

[thechuckster]

well it does sound like it's related to extension - is the spring captive (under tension) at full droop?

[Stefan]

Yes. The spring isn't under heaps of tension under full extension - at the current ride height, 2 people can reassemble the struts without spring compressors (1 person is able to push the spring down by hand just enough for the other to put the top nut on). Never reaches this full spring extension at full droop, especially with RCAs underneath.

This is a lot more than I can say about the King lows I had in the car briefly with stock struts, which aren't at all captive under full droop

[Stefan]

whoa whatever you paid for that conversion it was worth it! incredable job

Yes, the work is excellent. I bought them off these forums, a friend of a member had made then never used them in their car. I was told that the shortening and welding was done by one of the guys that fabricates rally cars at Neil Bates rally team. This is just what I was told, but given the results (and the fact I was told this *after* purchasing them), I have no reason to doubt that it is true.