Bouncing clunk type noise after Koni Special Active Install

[MattM24]

Back at the end of March, I installed Koni Special Active shocks on my otherwise stock 2020 Model Y Dual motor.
I have this clunk, bouncing, bump sound over small bumps coming from the front end. I can hear it at low speeds, but this could be because of other noises at higher speeds (not sure).

I have checked all the torques related to the install and they are all tight. I have had a shop look at it as well and come to the same conclusion.

I have recently replaced all my front lower control arms and they look good.

The upper control arms do not have play or make any noise either. For good measure, I replaced both the nut and the bolt on the connection to the upper control arm ball joint.

I removed the end links completely from the car and the sound remains. They also do not have any play.

The upper strut bolt was installed holding the rod in place with a 5mm Allen key on a ratchet.

Has anyone else come across this before and possibly have a solution?

I have a few videos of the sound, but am not sure how to upload it.

One video is from the steering wheel, and two more from each of the front wheel wells. I can hear the bumping sound in both wheel wells.

 

[ngng]

Is it metallic, or liquid? Does it happening only going straight, or only when turning? Could it be a incorrectly seated spring?

 

[MattM24]

Is it metallic, or liquid? Does it happening only going straight, or only when turning? Could it be an incorrectly seated spring?

It doesn’t sound so much metallic. Maybe more wooden sound, but it follows the shock movement.

It happens when going straight and when turning.

How could I tell if the spring is incorrectly seated?
The springs are both seated right against the bottom rubber seat and are in the same indent in the top seat.

Here are some images I found.

 

[ngng]

Spring looks OK from those pics!

I ask about the fluid noise because the fluid noise has been reported with some aftermarket suspension installs. I can sometimes hear it with my Ohlins. Hard to tell without hearing it. You can always use YouTube to dump videos!

 

[MattM24]

Spring looks OK from those pics!

I ask about the fluid noise because the fluid noise has been reported with some aftermarket suspension installs. I can sometimes hear it with my Ohlins. Hard to tell without hearing it. You can always use YouTube to dump videos!

That worked! Thanks!

 

[ngng]

That worked! Thanks!

Do you feel anything in your steering wheel? Did it only start manifesting itself after the suspension?

 

[MattM24]

Do you feel anything in your steering wheel? Did it only start manifesting itself after the suspension?

Car drives really well. Steering is fine. I only noticed it after the front suspension was done. This was a week after the rear suspension was done.

 

[MattM24]

A couple videos from in the wheel wells.

 

[ngng]

A couple videos from in the wheel wells.

Looks like it's on compression. The car doesn't feel like it's bottoming out or anything? Do you see any rubbing anywhere? What about the backs?

 

[MattM24]

Looks like it's on compression. The car doesn't feel like it's bottoming out or anything? Do you see any rubbing anywhere? What about the backs?

The car is going at most 30kmh (20mph) in the videos and the bumps are pretty shallow. Filled it cracks kind of bumps. Does not feel like bottoming out at all.

Oddly enough, if makes none of this noise over train tracks.

I don’t see any rubbing marks anywhere. No issues with the rear shocks.

 

[MattM24]

It sounds like something is loose, but I can’t find anything loose and the noise isn’t over all surfaces.
For example, I can’t mimic the sound by pushing on any corner of the car or even by jumping up and down in the frunk.

Has me thinking it’s an issue internal to the shocks. I am leaning towards sending them in for warranty.

 

[Pianewman]

How many miles on the car?

 

[ngng]

The car is going at most 30kmh (20mph) in the videos and the bumps are pretty shallow. Filled it cracks kind of bumps. Does not feel like bottoming out at all.

Oddly enough, if makes none of this noise over train tracks.

I don’t see any rubbing marks anywhere. No issues with the rear shocks.

Are you able to have somebody bounce the front of the car while you listen? Or does it need more load to trigger the noise?

 

[MattM24]

How many miles on the car?

About 35k miles

 

[MattM24]

Are you able to have somebody bounce the front of the car while you listen? Or does it need more load to trigger the noise?

That didn’t trigger the noise. I also had a local Tesla shop look at it and put it on the rack. They heard the sound while on a test drive, but couldn’t re-create it in the shop.

 

[BUCKM3P]

Have the same issue on my model 3 performance. I have been chasing it since I got them installed. Everyone saying something is loose, I just live with the noise now. I believe its the valving in the shocks.

 

[Goobers]

Have the same issue on my model 3 performance. I have been chasing it since I got them installed. Everyone saying something is loose, I just live with the noise now. I believe its the valving in the shocks.

If you did the install yourself, did you try swapping back to the original to see if there's still noise?

If there's noise and you're fairly confident you tightened all the right stuff, then it could be something else that coincidentally failed (bushings tend to be mentioned alot).

If there's no noise and you swap back to the aftermarket parts and again, fairly confident everything is correctly tightened, then I would guess either a defective part or possibly there's another part that needs to be added (spacer/shim/etc) that was somehow overlooked during install or at worse, during packing of the product.

That didn’t trigger the noise. I also had a local Tesla shop look at it and put it on the rack. They heard the sound while on a test drive, but couldn’t re-create it in the shop.

Last time I had clunking noise from the suspension, it was on my 2010 Honda Fit. I could hear it on bumps and sometimes in turns. I would then lift it with a floor jack to look for anything that might be loose by shaking the parts, but not find anything.

Eventually, I was doing something else while the car was on the ground and noticed that the very top nut that holds the strut from falling out was backed out almost to the end. It turns out that, when lifting the car, the strut pulls down so you wouldn't notice that the nut was backed out. But when sitting on the ground, the strut pushes UP through the strut tower showing the huge gap. During the shaking, most people are unlikely to shake it vertically due to the sheer weight making it unlikely to move even if it was loose.

And in case anyone is wondering why I couldn't see something so "obvious"? That's cause you can only see the top of the strut tower if you remove a panel cover (or the whole plastic hood trim) to see it... and you're likely already lifting the car up if you're doing work relating to the strut. So, unlikely to see the strut tower when the car is just sitting on the ground.

 

[MattM24]

If you did the install yourself, did you try swapping back to the original to see if there's still noise?

If there's noise and you're fairly confident you tightened all the right stuff, then it could be something else that coincidentally failed (bushings tend to be mentioned alot).

If there's no noise and you swap back to the aftermarket parts and again, fairly confident everything is correctly tightened, then I would guess either a defective part or possibly there's another part that needs to be added (spacer/shim/etc) that was somehow overlooked during install or at worse, during packing of the product.


Last time I had clunking noise from the suspension, it was on my 2010 Honda Fit. I could hear it on bumps and sometimes in turns. I would then lift it with a floor jack to look for anything that might be loose by shaking the parts, but not find anything.

Eventually, I was doing something else while the car was on the ground and noticed that the very top nut that holds the strut from falling out was backed out almost to the end. It turns out that, when lifting the car, the strut pulls down so you wouldn't notice that the nut was backed out. But when sitting on the ground, the strut pushes UP through the strut tower showing the huge gap. During the shaking, most people are unlikely to shake it vertically due to the sheer weight making it unlikely to move even if it was loose.

And in case anyone is wondering why I couldn't see something so "obvious"? That's cause you can only see the top of the strut tower if you remove a panel cover (or the whole plastic hood trim) to see it... and you're likely already lifting the car up if you're doing work relating to the strut. So, unlikely to see the strut tower when the car is just sitting on the ground.

That was the first thing I checked. I’ve experienced that on other cars. It was not the case here.
I also replaced the top hats with KW Suspension top hats.
They are quieter in general, but I still hear the bump.

I lowered the air pressure down to 36 psi and the sound is quieter or almost gone.
So, at this point, I’m attributing this sound to the shocks moving quicker and now hearing all of the small bumps that maybe were skipped over before.

Not sure if true, but I’m over it. I’ll buy new tires next year, so maybe I’ll find something quieter at that point.