Okay I remember reading some clunk was normal for shocks with solid top hats but here's the deal:

I just installed JRZ RS pro shocks onto my car, I am getting some clunking in the rear over uneven road surfaces. During cornering or any of that sort there is pretty much no noise at all. Over dips and uneven surfaces however I can hear a slight almost like tapping/clunking noise and I am a bit worried in case this is not normal.

I installed new springs onto the coils, checked and tightened all the bolts so I'm pretty much 100% positive the nuts by the adjustment knob are not loose. Is it the helper spring? Not enough rebound? Maybe those top bolts aren't as tight as I thought?

Last thing to note is that I temporarily have my rear canisters ziptied onto the Upper control arm until I drill a hole to route the canisters into the trunk. Is it possible these are moving? I checked them when I fastened everything down and there is almost no movement from just running my hand along. The clunk is definitely most audible from within the car though, so I don't think its that.

Is this normal? Or did I do something wrong here?

 

Sounds like it's possibly solid top hats with a center bearing that is toast. Those will make the exact sounds you're describing. Top hats new or used?

 

Used but I actually think I may not have tightened those two nuts enough. I'm going to see about tighening them and will report back to see what I find.

 

Mine was making the exact noise before, and it was the 2 bolts from the top.

 

So the top nuts on the shock shaft were a bit loose, they are completely tight now but Im still getting a little bit of clunking (significantly less clunking)

My NC miata bar on the rear looks ridiculously close to my diff mounts but I'm not sure they are making contact. That and there is some play on the ziptied canisters....do you guys think it could be one of those two? I am going to get spacers and extended bolts for the bar tomorrow and see if that does it.

 

My noise came from the top of the shock shaft. It loosed when I turned the shock to adjust the height

 

I had a similar issue and it ended up being my helper spring perch rubbing against the top of shock body. I think Eibach had the same issue with the r2 so they ended up flipping the springs around. I chewed through my JRZ with incorrect diameter springs too

 

I have the correct diameter spring and the helpers are on the bottom of the shocks haha. I'll check the perches tomorrow and see if I can find anything.


The weird thing is I cannot replicate the sound just pushing the rear of the car up and down at all. So what the heck?

 

Shock internal is the next suspect

 

I'm having the exact same issue with my eibach r2s and I can't figure it out for the life of me. Doesn't make noise anywhere else except when I'm driving sub 30mph on a bumpy road.