Sti suspension
 

Without wanting to sound really really really stupid, I've been looking for ages to try to find Shock Absorbers and the related bushes kits for both the front and back ends of my car (2005 STi Blob) as the shocks on mine are making the knocking noise from pretty much every corner :-(

This might sound like I've done absolutely no research at all, but I have! Would anyone be able to point me to pages on the web where I can see the required products that I need for sale?!?!

Cheers as always!

What mileage do you have? Yours is the wide track car so the same suspension as the Hawkeyes like my 06 car.

If you want a cheap fix, you need to take your car to a garage and instruct them to strip the struts and regrease the damper rods and re-assemble. The standard suspension has inverted dampers inside an outer tube. The inner part of the shock, (chrome bit) is hidden in the lower legs and when the grease ages, it hardens and allows the shocks to knock.

A better fix is to dump the O.E. shocks and get coil overs. The standard shocks feature very soft springs and rely on the bump stop rubbers as spring assisters in compression. The dual rate this gives clashes with the single rate damping on the dampers.

The next result is it's over damped on the inside in corners and under damped on the outside with the complications of anti-dive and anti squat forces at the front making it just plain harsh on bumpy roads.

My car has the Whiteline anti-lift kit and 22mm rear ARB mods, plus BC custom long travel coil overs and is a revelation on our roads. It sits more or less at standard ride height. and can be rigid or soft and bouncy depending on what I dial in. At least I get travel and compliance.

Anyway, what you need is a re-grease!

Isn't there some grease nipple modification you newage owners do ???

im always greasing my nipples,











i just threw my newage shocks in the bin though and bought coilovers

Yeh you can drill them and add a nipple to repack with grease, Not bacon butty grease though like tommy puts on his nips :lol1:

Thanks everyone for the advice, especially Markyscoop that advice is excellent cheers! I'll pop down to the garage tomorrow and see if the bloke there can do it for me. If not I suspect I'll be getting a set of coilovers (expensive!).

Thanks again!

If your shocks are already worn from lack of grease, then the grease nip mod will only temporarily hide the knocking; ideally the mod should be done before the problem occurs.

Nah, that's wrong.

The knocking won't do any damage, not unless you do 100k miles on the shocks with it...

The grease nipple mod allows you to ram the chamber FULL of grease after the shocks are reconstructed. It's impossible to fill the chamber with the shock in pieces so you'll always end up with a void to cause knocking in future.

Alot of people think the nipple is to allow frequent top ups, but if you do it properly - you'll never have to regrease again after the first time.

Greasing the struts is only a workaround.

What causes the knocking is the metal bushes that hold the piston in the shock's body get worn, as a result of which there is lateral play of the piston in the shock's body.

Replace the bushes (which cost peanuts) and you can get going for tens of thousand of miles again.

The reason I say that grease nipples is a workaround is that people who do this basically try to take up the slack caused by the worn bush with grease that'S why once the problem appears you have to keep greasing them regularly, the grease moves and causes the piston to have lateral play again.

Attack the problem in the root by replacing the bushes and get done with it.