97Luder and I installed my GCs this past Sunday. I had been running on Neuspeed sport springs with the KONI yellows. The suspension was perfectly quiet before with the sport springs.
Since we installed the GCs though, my suspension creaks over speed bumps unless you creep really slow. First we adjusted the coilovers so there was 0 wheelgap. After a few test drives I decided it would be alot better to raise the car a little. We raised the car about an inch so there was a 1 finger gap between the tire & fender. The car rode a little nicer, but I was getting suspension squeak on bumps in the road (not huge bumps, just normal stuff) and the metal dust boot on the front passenger side would hit the top of the KONIs on hard left turns. I cut another piece off of the dust boot so there was only about 2" of it total and it doesn't seem to rub the shocks anymore, but it rubs slightly against the inside of the springs.
I thought maybe the squeaking was caused by my front swaybar bushings. I had been using a Neuspeed bar up front, but I took it off and put the stock bar back on. I tried cleaning off the bar and bushing, then applying some synthetic lubricant, but that didn't help. Then a few minutes ago I used some o-ring lubricant and it still squeakes over speed bumps. At the same time I applied the o-ring lube, I also raised the car another inch so there is now a 2 finger gap between the tire & fender. After raising the car to this height, there is no more suspension squeak when driving along a bumpy road and there is no more metal/metal contact on the passenger side from the dust boot. However, the front end still squeaks when I drive over a speed bump without holding the brakes all the way across the bump.
I thought it would be the front swaybar making the sqeaking noise (it sounds almost like someone jumping on an old spring mattress, but a lower pitch) since it only squeaked when the front tires go over a speed bump. I also went over one fairly large speed bump and it felt like the car lifted completely off the springs and slammed down when it crossed the speed bump. It was a pretty harsh slam, and I wasn't going but 2mph or so. This is a major worry to me because the Eibach springs with the GCs are so short, there is barely any travel before the car isn't even resting on the spring anymore. Would having the KONIs shortened be the only fix for that?
Notes of interest: I'm using the stock rubber spring seats (that cushion the spring in the tophat).
The out-of-whack camber when I dropped the car really low may have damaged the metal dust boot on the front passenger side (it doesn't come straight down over the shock, I may have f'd it up
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I put synthetic lubricant on the rubber spring seats to no avail. I may try the o-ring lubricant and see if that quiets it down any.
When reading through some old threads about GCs, I saw where Billy or someone posted about using a rubber/urethane sheath to keep the spring centered around the threaded collar, I may look into buying/fabricating some of these.
That is all I can think of right now, I'll post up more if I left anything out.
added: The GCs are currently sitting on the upper front perch and middle rear perch. I may move the fronts down to the lower perch tonight or this weekend and see if that has any effect.
I also plan on dropping the car back down a bit after I get my front camber kit in. Would you guys recommend getting the dampers revalved if I go lower? Thanks!
