I had a set of Bilstein struts and shocks on my car and they would make a popping noise at low speed when going over bumps. A few people told me that it was my strut mounts that were bad. So I just went ahead and replaced everything with steeda strut mounts and a coil over kit.

My struts looked good and perfomed good and had no leaks. So I went ahead and sold the Bilsteins to a guy here locally. He said when he installed them his car made a loud clunking noise when pulling out of his driveway. Is it possible for a strut to make a popping noise when it goes bad? I no longer have my recipt for the struts and the company which sold them to me is out of business. So should I just go ahead and toss there struts in them trash?

 

Yes you should throw them away...in MY trash!

Did you also do lowering springs? Did he use lowering springs? If so then...

The popping sound you heard was more than likely the strut mounts, the factory ones are very weak. When they go bad they make a "popping" sound. Plenty of upgrade options out there, even the GT500 ones will work.

He said he heard a "clunk". That could be alot of things. How long before the clunk? Is there a big bump or dip in his driveway? Without knowing any more info I would guess one of two things. First is that the bolts on the front sway bar came loose. This is very common and will cause a "clunk", can be fixed with some Loctite. Second thing it could have been is the front sway bar bushings went bad. Factory bushings are rubber and degrade over time, replacing them with Polyurethane Bushings will fix this.

Could be something else but this is the most common problems Ive seen.

 

Is there a way to know for sure its not the shocks? I installed new GT500 mounts and it did it right off the bat.

 

When my first set of from bilsteins wore out on my '97 they would make a clunk/pop noise when backing out of the driveway and going over the curb.

They passed the tests for dampening for awhile and I couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from. Eventually they wore out completely and the front end was bouncing up and down on every bump.

Ended up emailing back and forth with someone at bilstein USA and they sent me out a front pair charging my credit card as I recall. After I sent them back the originals I think I got a check from them. It was years ago so I don't quite remember if it was a check or they just put a credit back on the card. I also think I had to send them my receipt, which having ordered them online it was in my email. So I ended up with a new set of fronts for the price of shipping the old ones to them.

And yes, after 80K I wore them out, but it's a lifetime warranty and they stood by it. The rears and quad shocks are still going good as far as I can tell.

When I replaced them the noise went away as well as the bouncing.

Of course that's a different suspension system so all I can say is yes, they can make a noise like that going over a curb. With the 05+ different factors may be involved.

 

Ok maybe I will just toss them. Backs are fine and the fronts take pressure to push down and they come back up slow but maybe there is something wrong and causing that clunk. Car rode fine and handled good and didnt bounce alot. Bilstein said they would charge me $75 each to rebuild since I lost my receipt so I guess I will just toss them out. Not worth it to rebuild them and then see if I can sell them. I was really hoping the noise was suspension issue and not the struts since they rode well and tires wore out even.

 

I would say yes if the rebound valving failed. Prob more clunking as it topped out vs popping that is reported often from bad strut mounts. Was there a lot of body movement when you heard it?

 

No car felt fine. And at high speeds on the freeway and around corners no noise at all.

 

I have a clunk/pop noise too. This happens when I go over a bump (slow or fast) and usually turning left. It always comes from the left side of the car. It has also happened a couple times when I have to brake hard. I only have 15k miles and original suspension on my '05.

Driving over non-bumps feels fine; no bouncing.

 

Not sure what the issue is so I guess ill just toss the springs and shocks in the recycle bin tomorrow.