So after about 1000 miles or so on the M7's, a creaking started to develop in the rear. Mostly in the right rear but occasionally left too. I took off the right rear wheel to check bolts and nothing is loose. I have H-sport lower rear control arms(which incidentally I just realized I did not grease), 19mm Alta RSB(which I greased and was installed 6000 miles prior to the M7's & H-sport's) and the M7 coilovers.

What are possible causes of the creak? Would the lack of grease in the lower control arms be an issue? It never was for 1000 miles, why develop now? Could it be the coilovers?(I went ahead and put it to softest setting for now to see if that'll help). RSB maybe?

And if it helps, the creaking only comes around when I am hitting bumps or turning(basically when there's changes in load).

 

Mine are brand new and the rears are not quiet. One reason may have been the lower bolt that attaches to the rear trailing arm. I will recheck all torque settings and drive for a bit to see what happens. The COs seem to be high quality, were packaged very well and installed easily. I am sure problems will be solvable.

 

I rechecked and it seems nothing is amiss but the grease on the control arms. Jacking up the Mini also seem to cause similar creaks. Bleh, I won't be able to do anything more till tomorrow probably.

 

If you can duplicate the sound by jacking it up, get some one to do it while you lightly touch the parts that may be creaking. You can often feel a slight vibration from the friction. .....or not.

 

I have had the M7 coil-overs on my car for 2 years, the only squeaking I ever had was solved by lubing the rear sway bar bushings.

Bill

 

I just received an email from M7 today about this issue. Peter @ M7 says I should lubricate the bushings on the rear sway bar which I switched out. Bought the grease today and will do it next week and report back.

The sound was there from day 1, but a sound developing after 1000 miles is strange!

 

Lubricate again? It was lubed during installation. Both around the bushings and inside the little lube attachment. How often are we supposed to lube the bushings?

 

No clue in your case, but mine were not lubed on installation.

BTW, what do you mean by little lube attachment?

 

There are little attachments where you can attach the packet of lube and squeeze it into the bushings. I'll just lube everything and see if it helps.

 

I didn't get any packets of lube with my sway bar. I'll lube up everything in sight and report back.

 

The attachments are not on the sway bar. I meant for the control arms. :X Regardless, your Alta sway bar should have come with couple packets of lube.

The sway bar will only need lubing on the insides and outsides of the bushings. I just finished mine 10 minutes ago. Taking the stuff apart was a pain because of the small space but it took slightly less than hour for both sides. Just a note, when you undo the two bolts on the bushings, the bolt holes will go out of line and putting it back in is a pain. This is easily fixed by raising your whole suspension by jacking up under the rotors. This puts the bolts and the holes into line.

I tried to lube the control arm bushings using the packets of lube via the little attachments but it's a no go. I believe I need a lube gun of sorts. Anyone with input?

 

I was going to take the suspension out to lube the sway bar bushings, but if you were able to do it without then I'll give it a shot tomorrow. Whats the torque setting you used on the bolts?

 

I didn't torque the bolts. According to Alta's tech support, making sure they're tight is sufficient. I usually check it a week later to make sure nothing came loose. Nothing came loose the first time and when I uninstalled the bolts today to relube, it was tight but didn't feel overtorqued.

 

Lubed the bushings (inside and outside) and the sound is virtually gone! Finally I can enjoy my car without worrying about that nasty sound..

Problem is one of the bolts will not untighten.. its tight and it turns within itself and can't be removed.. did my best to lube that bushing with a q-tip.. overall, I'm very happy :D

 

Mine is still present. I'm going to drive around sometime tomorrow with the sway bar unattached and see if it goes away. I have a feeling it's not the sway bar though.

 

As an update to the above post, I sorted out the noise issue with my M7 COs and it was my fault for not tightning the nylock nut tight enough when I assembled the struts with the M7 and reused factory parts. As a result, they "thumped" on bumps. After removing, tightning and reinstalling, there is no noise. After they break in and I get an alignment and a corner balance and mess with the adjusters a bit, I'll post my impressions.

 

What nylon nut are you referring to Terry? The retaining nut at the top of the struts that hold the whole strut together? I had to use an impact wrench to tighten that all the way so I'm not sure how that could remain loose.

 

Yes, that nut. I didn't run it all the way down when I assembled the struts. Last night, I used the impact wrenct to run them all the way down and that got rid of the thump. The difference was about 1/8" of threaded shaft, but that was enough to make them thump over bumps.
Nylock, not nylon.

 

Yea I'm pretty sure I ran it all the way down-I actually thought it was supposed to go lower than allowed. The sound is definitely getting more pronounced after I lubed the RSB. I won't be able to do anything until Sunday though. :/

 

Well, Sunday came and gone and I didn't have an opportunity to attempt any repairs. The sound however, is getting way too pronounced since lubing the RSB. After pondering it a while, I'm suspecting the bolt holding the control arm to the rear sway bar. I called Alta and one of their techs said with the lowered M7 CO's, I could be putting too much pressure on the stock control arms. I don't believe this is true though since I'm barely dropping it from stock height and no one else has made mention of this issue. I will however, have an opportunity tomorrow morning so will attempt it then. I'll write back after.

 

Have you disconnected the sway bar end link? That alone, will narrow the search for the problem. It is not likely that the strut is making the noise.

 

That will be my first thing I'll try tomorrow. Unfortunately, I just checked the weather and 50-60% chance of rain. So I'm going to wake up early, disconnect them while in the garage and drive around. How safe is it to drive around with the sway bar end link disconnected(or rather how cautious should I be)? Should I be disconnecting just the sway bar end links or do I disconnect the bushings that's connected to the sub frame at the same time?

 

Just one side to start with. Yes, it is safe, but not for aggressive driving.

 

Ok, I unbolted both before I read your post but the sound remains regardless. I went ahead and retightened all the bolts including the subframe which was removed for the sway bar. Nothing was loose but some I was able to tighten another half a turn. There's a slight improvement- the sound is now only isolated in the left rear instead of both left and right rear. I might have the same problem as you did-the nylock nut not being tightened all the way. I used an impact wrench but remembered that the rears were done in a little bit of a hurry because garage time was running out. Since everything is lubed and tightened, my last idea is the struts themselves. Now I have to go rent the impact wrench yet again to do the whole thing. -.-

 

I also forgot to mention that the sound comes about more consistently now-only when I hit bumps or imperfections in the road(when the vehicle has vertical movement)