I thought after installing headers, USRS bushing, replacing the starter motor, and engine mount, I would be done toying around with the F; alas another obstacle. Starting to hear a clicking (?) noise that's coming from the front driver area. It could have been there right after the header install, but it wasn't as loud.

I've replaced both front driver and passenger ball joints, replaced the stock lower control arm bushing with USRS and have gotten an alignment since. I suspect it's one of the bolts that's barely loosening up the components and it's making that clicking noise. Any other thoughts?

Video: I can hear it mostly when I'm braking, or taking a corner. Doesn't happen every time. Without fail, I can always make the sound appear if I go forward, brake, reverse, brake (noise appears).

 

I hear a similar noise from inside and have replaced the same components as you have. It bugs me too!

 

You probably did this already but was everything tightened down to spec? It sounds like something might be lose and rubbing somewhere because only when the car is moving is when you hear it. This is all based on this video though.

 

At the time of install for the USRS and ball joints, I made sure that all bolts/nuts were tightened to torque spec, but haven't re-tightened since the install and 2 alignments; would not be surprised at all if they have come just loose enough to cause that rubbing sound.

Once I'm able to get underneath my car, I'll re-tightened all the bolts and see if the noise disappears.

 

Probably a long shot - but that sounds a lot like an issue I had after hitting a huge pothole. I would hear it when reversing and when going up steep driveways or anytime the chassis flexed like when turning wheel or going from reverse to drive.

You should check if you can recreate the noise by jacking up the car on the affected side and lowering it very slowly.

I chased the noise for a long time and finally figured out my fender had moved slightly when I hit the pothole and all I needed to do was pry a small section of the fender support away from the chassis where it was rubbing. Maybe something shifted when you had the car jackup up while working on it?

Thread: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...e-trouble.html

https://youtu.be/N5T1Gneyb1w

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Hey Vervish, I followed the thread you posted, but I'm having a hard time finding that section that you circled in red. It looks like the front portion of the door? I tried matching that bolt that's in the picture to what I see, but to no avail.

Can you give me any other pointers where I could find the red circled section?

 

Sure - if you open the door (mine was passenger) fully, there is a black rubber seal on the top portion of door jamb. You have to pull out the rubber seal, and it will expose the front fender support. Super easy, no tools required to remove rubber seal...maybe needle nose pliers to pull it out.

I would also jack up the car from the front driver's side jack it up high, and then slowly lower it. As the chassis flexes you will hear the creaking if it is the same issue that I had.

 

Hey Rainheart, just an idea but check your engine mount again. It can probably be that the engine mount bolt is a little loose and is causing that the engine move a even a little bit every time you brake because of the sudden motion. Which is probably causing that sound. just a suggestion. hope you can find the issue

 

Thanks Vervish to providing more detail on that. I'm going to take a look at it to see if there's enough clearance.

@gs30, wasn't originally thinking that, but it would make sense. I'll re-tightened everything when I get a chance to get underneath the car. The local garage that I go to (includes a lift and all the tools) are closed due to COVID19, so won't be able to get underneath it until they re-open 5/18 (tentatively).

 

Thats cool..!! @Rainheart

What do they charge per hour.. ?? I have to check around SoCal to see if we have those down here..


Joe Z

 

I had a noise like this and it ended up being the tie rod nut not tightened to spec. These kinds of problems are best addressed from the perspective of "I don't trust any bolt in the front suspension" and literally loosening and tightening each one until they're all retightened. It's a painstaking task, but when the noise goes away, you'll breathe a huge sigh of relief and go back to enjoying your car. AMHIK.

 

Joe Z, the place I go to charges 47/hour. A link if you're interested: https://stewsgarage.com/ I've been going for a few years now. They keep everything super clean and easily accessible. The guys that work there are super laid back to and more than happy to brainstorm issues. The owner owns a sleeper a BMW E39 (judging by the body style), but it certainly doesn't have a BMW engine, sounds like an LS1.


@lobuxracer , it's certainly starting to look that way. A good chance that I'll torque every bolt/nut I see while I her up on the lift. Thanks for pointing out the the tie-rod nut experience!

 

Finally got her up in the air. Followed Lobux's comment of not trusting any single suspension bolt so undid then re-torqued all the suspension bolts to spec (and took a while it did).
Checked Vervish comment on the body panel; got quite a bit of gap there. Gap was the same on both driver and passenger side.
Also re-torqued the engine mount bolt from the bottom; didn't do the top one since that would require undoing quite a bit (admittedly, could still be the culprit).

And there's still the same noise

But, I did find something interesting. It looked like the protection sheet that RR supplied to be installed with the engine mount doesn't have enough clearance for the driver side header. My working theory: every-time the PPE header moves with the engine when braking, it's rubbing against this sheet and making the noise. After re-tightening all the suspension bolts, I'm fairly confident in saying that it's not tied to the suspension, but it's because of the rubbing between the sheet and PPE headers. It looks like I may need to remove that particular area so I could get enough clearance for the headers. Not sure how I'm going to do it just yet, since I have ape-like hands and it's a small space to cram in any tools. The passenger side has lots of clearance, and the header isn't touching anything.

 

Looks pretty likely. There's more motion in that spot than you might like to imagine. Your installer should have shimmed under this spot before they tightened the nuts holding the header to the head to give maximum clearance. It's going to be challenging to address this now without a whole bunch of disassembly.

 

@lobuxracer , wanted to understand which part they should have shimmed? The engine mount itself to the subframe? or the headers to the engine?

I'll get her back-up on a lift this Friday. Going to see if I could fit some cutting tool, to cut away some of that sheet.