dram300 Posted January 4, 2009 Posted January 4, 2009 I suspect that there may be a wee problem with the car after driving around town in the last week (05 WRX). Been happening for months, but getting more noticeable. Symptom No.1 Drive away traffic lights, get stopped at the next set after a few hundred yards. Just as I'm about to put the h/brake on the back of the car feels like it dips a bit, there is quiet, but audible clonk from the driver side rear. Feels like the car just rolled into a hole in the road. (it didn't BTW). Symptom No.2 Reversing out of the driveway at home, press the brake in the street, hear a clunk from the rear. Not everytime, but enough to be noticable. The car had its 3 year service in September at which time I raised the spectre of shocolatt dampers but the car was given a clean bill of health. Both comments raised at the service. The rear passenger side damper was replaced under warranty two years ago. Warranty now expired Symptoms sound familiar to anyone? Any suggestions?
Joe G Posted January 4, 2009 Posted January 4, 2009 Def the shocks mate. I had my shocks replaced 8000miles ago and now the o/s/r had a slight clunk again. Im going for coilovers this time!!
dipsy Posted January 4, 2009 Posted January 4, 2009 Joe G the clunk could be on your the diff support arm hitting the floor on the o/s/r
Joe G Posted January 4, 2009 Posted January 4, 2009 Dipsy said: Joe G the clunk could be on your the diff support arm hitting the floor on the o/s/r Will check the support arm but pretty sure its the shock. Still gonna go for coilovers though
dipsy Posted January 4, 2009 Posted January 4, 2009 Joe G said: Will check the support arm but pretty sure its the shock. Still gonna go for coilovers though Its just the movement when you change up and down gear depends how aggresive you are with gear changes .I get on the Sti
arch Posted January 5, 2009 Posted January 5, 2009 (edited) Def rear shocks had the same issue on my 55 plate wrx. Exact same symptoms. The shocks are known to fail and are not the best quality. If the cars still under warranty you will get them done no problem if not then oem replacements is probably not the way to go. If you open the boot and sit on the boot opening and push down to rock the rear of the car you will prob be able to reproduce it Welcome to the standard shocks are crap club Edited January 5, 2009 by Arch
scouk Posted January 5, 2009 Posted January 5, 2009 I hear there's a guy on the RB320oc forums who contacted his dealer about it last week only to be told they were suspendign the warranty replacement for the shocks until further notice! I guess they have realised how much it's costing.. But it's warranty afterall.. they can't pull out of that can they? By bro's RB is booked in to get his replaced today so will see what happens..
col666 Posted January 5, 2009 Posted January 5, 2009 I got my rear struts replaced under warranty no problem a month ago.
RATechnology Posted January 5, 2009 Posted January 5, 2009 ScoUK said: I hear there's a guy on the RB320oc forums who contacted his dealer about it last week only to be told they were suspendign the warranty replacement for the shocks until further notice! I guess they have realised how much it's costing.. But it's warranty afterall.. they can't pull out of that can they? By bro's RB is booked in to get his replaced today so will see what happens.. Having worked in the main dealer (Mercedes, SAAB and Porsche) for over 6 years I have seen manufacturers not replace warrantty items that they know will just fail again. You could find with these rear shocks that Subaru are waiting on a replacement to fix the issue altogether. Car companies update parts all the time, usually it's down to change of suppliers but in other cases of repeated failures they update parts, go testing themselves and rectify the problem once and for all. I'd seen a particular problem with SAAB 9-5's with Timing covers (They used to leak quite badly) must have replaced 50 Timing covers and all other related parts in a small dealer over a period of 12 months under warranty. Quite a few part and part number changes later and the problem stopped. Ask your dealer for goodwill on a replacement set of shocks (Even though the car is out of warranty) they should still come to the party as it's a known problem and also ask if there sorting the problem?
bobbyc Posted January 5, 2009 Posted January 5, 2009 Got the car back from Grieves today after it's service & it's to go back for another new pair of struts, thats eight replaced in 5500 miles two years of warranty left, could be a record attempt for the Guinnes book of records lol
Richie Cross Posted January 5, 2009 Posted January 5, 2009 At low speed, and over any little hole/bump, I get a metal on metal clunking noise from what I think is my front drivers side. Thinking it's the shockers as the whole of the front end has been checked with the drop links/arb's etc all ok. With my Eibach springs the ride is bumpy enough so don't want coilovers etc. If the oem shocks are duff...what do I go for? Cheers
arch Posted January 5, 2009 Posted January 5, 2009 (edited) Richie Cross said: At low speed, and over any little hole/bump, I get a metal on metal clunking noise from what I think is my front drivers side. Thinking it's the shockers as the whole of the front end has been checked with the drop links/arb's etc all ok.With my Eibach springs the ride is bumpy enough so don't want coilovers etc. If the oem shocks are duff...what do I go for? Cheers Richie your problem is probably related to your eibach springs these seem really prone to clunking of the spring coils. Do you have the spring coil covers on them. The subaru problem seems to be pretty much confined to the rear shocks the fronts dont seem as unreliable. I was going to replace my springs with eibachs a while back but didnt bother due to the number of people complaining about clunking after changing to the eibachs. The suposed fix is to put a rubber coils round the spring coils to stop the metal clunks as the coils touch. Thats the explanation I got anyway but I wouldnt have expected the coils to be compressing enough under normal driving to start bottoming against each other Edited January 5, 2009 by Arch
Maxxed_Ross Posted January 5, 2009 Posted January 5, 2009 bobbyc said: Got the car back from Grieves today after it's service & it's to go back for another new pair of struts, thats eight replaced in 5500 miles two years of warranty left, could be a record attempt for the Guinnes book of records lol that is increadable! As said already there is a great debate going on over on the RB320oc about all this. It seems Subaru are in talks with Bisteln (or however you spell it!) over what the heck is going on! It seems to be acommon problem so there must be a flaw somewhere in the design Must be costing Subaru an absolute fortune to keep having to do this
colzo Posted January 5, 2009 Posted January 5, 2009 It will be the shocks. I've had mine done on my 53 and 55 plate STIs. IIRC this problem has been reoccurring for over 5 years, seems ridiculous to me.
dram300 Posted January 7, 2009 Author Posted January 7, 2009 So, the consensus seems to be that my shocks are knacked. Whats the prognosis ... are they likely to fail? Are they dangerous?
fai17 Posted January 8, 2009 Posted January 8, 2009 That is shocking news..LOL Yes the shockers are duff and i've replaced with Tein Coilover and it has never knocked since. I'm currently driving my mate JDM STI V 8 and his rear shocks knock too....so that means its a world wide problem and not just british cars.
martin_allen Posted January 8, 2009 Posted January 8, 2009 Hmmm... i've got the same issue as Richie, the clunk seems to come from the front rather than the rear (had the rear struts replaced under warrenty but as an 03 car it is now well out for that) It doesn't do it all the time and i've had the front checked durign the MOT nothing leaks, everything seems tight but sometimes, just rolling to a stop there is a noticable mettalic clunk or 'pop'. Is this likely to be the start of a shock job? Any chance of Grieves sortign this outside warrenty too? 5t.
Richie Cross Posted January 8, 2009 Posted January 8, 2009 As Arch said....that was my exact problem. Do you have Eibach springs? It just seems to be the slightest of small holes or bumps and I'll hear a noise. Already had hose put round the springs but getting it re-done. Eibach have a 5 yr warranty so I should be able to get them replaced ok.
martin_allen Posted January 8, 2009 Posted January 8, 2009 Nope totally standard suspension on mine which made me wonder if yours really was caused by the springs. Back to the drawing board for me it seems! 5t.
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