Racer20's deep dive into the strut clunk.

[USSEnterprise]

OK I did this today. Took some pictures and marked up the parts, so hopefully this makes it a bit easier for folks down the line. A right angle impact (must have to get all those screws and bolts off to get the metal pan off and then back on, or you will be hand wrenching for an hour), a deep offset box wrench (17mm), 10mm & 16mm sockets are the tools needed. I was too lazy to put the car on the lift so just did it on the driveway. Takes about 30-40 minutes including test drives.

Here is the general area where the steering gear is located:



Here's a different view of the same. When you drop this metal pan, this area underneath the pan is where the steering gear would be:



Then when you get to the steering gear, the nut to tighten is not the one that's easily visible. It's the one on the inside towards the engine bay, circled below:





Then came the interesting part. There wasn't enough clearance between the nut and the oil pan to get a socket (17mm) and ratchet in there. So I had to use my deep offset box wrench (which you should have a set of anyway if you work on camber plates):



Tightened it a bit, took it for a test drive, made sure the steering wasn't too tight, then tightened it a hair more before putting everything back together. I will post impressions of whether this solved the clunking after I get some decent miles.

[USSEnterprise]

Originally Posted by USSEnterprise

OK I did this today. Took some pictures and marked up the parts, so hopefully this makes it a bit easier for folks down the line. A right angle impact (must have to get all those screws and bolts off to get the metal pan off and then back on, or you will be hand wrenching for an hour), a deep offset box wrench (17mm), 10mm & 16mm sockets are the tools needed. I was too lazy to put the car on the lift so just did it on the driveway. Takes about 30-40 minutes including test drives.


Tightened it a bit, took it for a test drive, made sure the steering wasn't too tight, then tightened it a hair more before putting everything back together. I will post impressions of whether this solved the clunking after I get some decent miles.

OK this did absolutely nothing, my clunking is alive and well. Oh well, it was worth a try.

I have GC camber plates so I am sure its the reason for continued clunking.

[AM///X3M]

Originally Posted by mattylmbr

Same here. Tightened rack - still had a clunk.

Clunk ended up being a loose lock nut on the thrust bolt on my drivers side. Car is now like brand new with a new nut and properly torqued.

Hey man,

Do you know exactly which nuts is it? I have the same exact problem. Did 3 notches to the steering rack and the clunk still there.

[BimaExtremeRetro]

Originally Posted by USSEnterprise

OK this did absolutely nothing, my clunking is alive and well. Oh well, it was worth a try.

I have GC camber plates so I am sure its the reason for continued clunking.

Hi Mate,

Ive been chasing exactly the same clunk relentesly for the past 3 days on my f80.

Tighthened all suspension, adjusted rack bolt, changed rack, absolutely no change whatsoever.

After all that, i found 1 of the rhs subframe bolts missing and the other 3 on the same side virtually finger loose. Removed all 8 and locktight up, clunk completly gone. what a nightmare chasing this one.

hopefully you have the same issue.

[USSEnterprise]

Originally Posted by BimaExtremeRetro

Hi Mate,

Ive been chasing exactly the same clunk relentesly for the past 3 days on my f80.

Tighthened all suspension, adjusted rack bolt, changed rack, absolutely no change whatsoever.

After all that, i found 1 of the rhs subframe bolts missing and the other 3 on the same side virtually finger loose. Removed all 8 and locktight up, clunk completly gone. what a nightmare chasing this one.

hopefully you have the same issue.

Thanks for the tip. Can you give us an idea of roughly where these bolts are? Would be helpful to know exactly which bolts needed to be checked/tightened. A photo would be awesome if you took any.

[clutchdj]

Good work guys

[BimaExtremeRetro]

Originally Posted by USSEnterprise

Thanks for the tip. Can you give us an idea of roughly where these bolts are? Would be helpful to know exactly which bolts needed to be checked/tightened. A photo would be awesome if you took any.

sure mate. i didnt take photos but all 8 are easily accessable with the bottom support off. The rear 2 need a couple of plastic covers removed to access but it is easy.

No 2,3,4 and 5 in image below obviously on both sides. I would take out one at a time and locktight. As i said my front one was missing completely and the other 3 were finger loose, pretty scary.


https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=31_1123

[USSEnterprise]

Originally Posted by BimaExtremeRetro

sure mate. i didnt take photos but all 8 are easily accessable with the bottom support off. The rear 2 need a couple of plastic covers removed to access but it is easy.

No 2,3,4 and 5 in image below obviously on both sides. I would take out one at a time and locktight. As i said my front one was missing completely and the other 3 were finger loose, pretty scary.


https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=31_1123

That is very clear now, thank you. I assume you took the metal pan off correct? Or are the subframe bolts accessible with the pan still in place?

[BimaExtremeRetro]

Originally Posted by USSEnterprise

That is very clear now, thank you. I assume you took the metal pan off correct? Or are the subframe bolts accessible with the pan still in place?

yeah mate, need to take pan off.
was so nice to drive without that damn clunk, different car

[dannyz_M4]

I've had a clunk and rattle for a while.. I'm lowered on MSS springs and GC camber plates.

Removed the camber plates, still noisy, put stock springs in. Still noisy. Put the MSS back in.. guess what still noisy. Was really annoying me!!

Ended up re torquing sway bar tie rods with wheels under load, and also moving the steering preloaded 3 notches as described. FINALLY!!! Test drove it and it's perfect. Sooooo glad!!!

Might try putting the GC plates back in and seeing how it goes.

Thanks for the info on this post!!

[USSEnterprise]

Originally Posted by dannyz_M4

I've had a clunk and rattle for a while.. I'm lowered on MSS springs and GC camber plates.

Removed the camber plates, still noisy, put stock springs in. Still noisy. Put the MSS back in.. guess what still noisy. Was really annoying me!!

Ended up re torquing sway bar tie rods with wheels under load, and also moving the steering preloaded 3 notches as described. FINALLY!!! Test drove it and it's perfect. Sooooo glad!!!

Might try putting the GC plates back in and seeing how it goes.

Thanks for the info on this post!!

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "sway bar tie rods?" And if the car is on the ground with wheels under load, how do you even access them??

[dannyz_M4]

Originally Posted by USSEnterprise

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "sway bar tie rods?" And if the car is on the ground with wheels under load, how do you even access them??

Sorry, I meant sway bar end links.

How I preloaded them? Put the car on the quickjack and raised it. Removed front wheels. Put a bottle jack under each front disc (with a thick piece of wood in between jack and disc.) raised each one up until there was a fair bit of tension (maybe 5 inches, not exactly sure) loosened end links bilaterally then re torqued them at the shock.

Again, just doing this and adjusting the preload on the steering 3 notches seemed to have stopped all my annoying clink and rattle.

[USSEnterprise]

Originally Posted by dannyz_M4

Sorry, I meant sway bar end links.

How I preloaded them? Put the car on the quickjack and raised it. Removed front wheels. Put a bottle jack under each front disc (with a thick piece of wood in between jack and disc.) raised each one up until there was a fair bit of tension (maybe 5 inches, not exactly sure) loosened end links bilaterally then re torqued them at the shock.

Again, just doing this and adjusting the preload on the steering 3 notches seemed to have stopped all my annoying clink and rattle.

This is very helpful, thank you. Along with checking the subframe bolts that BimaExtremeRetro posted, I plan to do both tonight. Will report back. Hope this is light at the end of the tunnel because the clunk is killing me!

[dannyz_M4]

Originally Posted by USSEnterprise

This is very helpful, thank you. Along with checking the subframe bolts that BimaExtremeRetro posted, I plan to do both tonight. Will report back. Hope this is light at the end of the tunnel because the clunk is killing me!

Good luck!!! I know how frustrating it is…

[USSEnterprise]

Originally Posted by dannyz_M4

Good luck!!! I know how frustrating it is…

Update: Murphy's law strikes! Did what you suggested danny, got everything tightened and must have overdone one side because when I dropped the car off the jack stands on to the ground, the passenger side swaybar bolt just snapped off the strut mount.

Local dealer has a new end link on order, $95 and Friday ETA. Don't seem that hard to get though he said local warehouses didn't have them and it would be a couple days. FYI in case anyone else does the same mistake as me, driver's and passenger's side end links have different part numbers, but are the same price.

EDIT: I drove the car with the passenger swaybar disconnected and clunk is very much alive. So in my case it was definitely not the swaybar end links. I also eliminated steering rack, that's now two strikes. Only thing left to try is checking subframe mounts like bimmaextreme suggested above. Plan to do that on Saturday when installing new swaybar link. Will report back.

[dannyz_M4]

Originally Posted by USSEnterprise

Update: Murphy's law strikes! Did what you suggested danny, got everything tightened and must have overdone one side because when I dropped the car off the jack stands on to the ground, the passenger side swaybar bolt just snapped off the strut mount.

Local dealer has a new end link on order, $95 and Friday ETA. Don't seem that hard to get though he said local warehouses didn't have them and it would be a couple days. FYI in case anyone else does the same mistake as me, driver's and passenger's side end links have different part numbers, but are the same price.

EDIT: I drove the car with the passenger swaybar disconnected and clunk is very much alive. So in my case it was definitely not the swaybar end links. I also eliminated steering rack, that's now two strikes. Only thing left to try is checking subframe mounts like bimmaextreme suggested above. Plan to do that on Saturday when installing new swaybar link. Will report back.

Bugger…. Good luck in sorting it out!! Not sure what else it could really be?

[USSEnterprise]

OK gents, I tried BimaExtremeRetro suggestion and checked the subframe bolts. All were tight. This is strike 3 for me - steering rack, swaybar end links and subframe bolts. All are OK, and I still have clunk.

I am giving up on Ground Control camber plates and going to switch to the millway plates that re-use OEM strut bearings. While they are easy to adjust and do what they promise, I have lost all tolerance for the extra NVH added by ground control, but that's a rant for another day.

My personal opinion - I think my clunk is related to this metal on metal contact. The camber plate's bearing carrier hits the underside of the camber plate mount and makes the clunk. Don't think there is any solution to this.

[mcvaughan]

Originally Posted by USSEnterprise

OK gents, I tried BimaExtremeRetro suggestion and checked the subframe bolts. All were tight. This is strike 3 for me - steering rack, swaybar end links and subframe bolts. All are OK, and I still have clunk.

I am giving up on Ground Control camber plates and going to switch to the millway plates that re-use OEM strut bearings. While they are easy to adjust and do what they promise, I have lost all tolerance for the extra NVH added by ground control, but that's a rant for another day.

My personal opinion - I think my clunk is related to this metal on metal contact. The camber plate's bearing carrier hits the underside of the camber plate mount and makes the clunk. Don't think there is any solution to this.

It's definitely the camber plates. I had GC for a while and they got noisy. Switched to Vorshlag, and while they were quiet for longer, they are now clunking. It's something I've just accepted in lieu of adjustability and performance. I already have noises from other areas of the car, so what's one more? :

[USSEnterprise]

OK I have an update. I found the cause of my increased clunking. I recently changed the bearings on my GC camber plates and when re-installing everything, I had not aligned the bearing carrier at the bottom of the camber plates (on top of the spring in the wheel well) correctly. So even though my shock poked through the camber plate OK and bolted down from the top side, the spring was never seated/aligned right in the wheel well. As you can see in the pic below, this chewed up my bearing pretty good and was causing the insane clunking.

Its important to note that with Ground Control camber plates, you not only have to align the shock to thread through the camber plate, you also have to align the spring and bearing carrier to the underside of the camber plate (in the wheel well). It's a two person job, with one person holding up the bearing and spring while the other person threads the shock through the hole. Because unlike the stock bearing carrier, the GC camber plate doesn't pressure fit to the bottom of the camber plate and stay there unless you hold it.

I AM VERY VERY ANGRY AT GROUND CONTROL FOR NOT SENDING APPROPRIATE AND CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS. It is absolutely nuts and completely unacceptable for them to expect customers to figure all this out at the expense of wearing out bearings and trial and error and internet searches. Piss poor customer service. I am never getting or recommending GC to anyone. Not to mention how quickly their bearings wear out. Go will Millway instead.

[pablom2c]

I tried this fix on my 2020 M2 COMPETITION (only 8,700 miles), I adjusted 3 lines on the steering rack and it did seem to fix most of the rattling I experienced over cobblestone type roads. Normal driving on flat roads I never had any noises. The side effect as others mentioned was that steering became a bit heavier, specially at low speed and on small steering angles it did not want to return to center as normal, it kind of seemed to get stuck where I left it. I did not like this side effect, so I backed off the steering rack to only 1.5 lines, again this improved the steering feeling a bit but still something was off. In the end I now decided to leave it were it was stock and just live with the noise which appears to be normal from the steering rack I guess since my suspension components are fine and don't make noise on flat roads.

[Jhanksm3]

I don't want to keep reviving and old theead, but I appreciate all the information I read. It help me diagnose and fix the clunking issue. Background story is I changed my suspension to the eibach v1 euro and immediately after getting things back together I got the clunking from the drivers side.
I found this thread and went to adjust the steering bolt. The clunking didn't go away. The steering got tighter so I know it was adjusting. Read in a thread to preload the suspension to put on the swaybar endlinks. I did this and torqued everything to factory specs and what do you know, no clunking.

I suggest whomever have this issue try that first before adjusting steering rack bolt

[NORAGRETS]

Fucking a blessing I found this thread...but also kind of hating that I found it...FML. I have the exact same issue right now, it's been driving me fucking bananas for like 2-3 months. Tried everything. Knew it had to be steering related. Regardless, taking the car apart this coming weekend and praying to whatever it is I can pray to that it ISNT the $5000 go fuck myself bill...