Replaced the shocks on the Tardis with Bilstein "Touring Class" equipment. Am confused about the foam washer, foam bushing, and metal bushing that are shown (and included on my OEM shocks) but are NOT shown on the BMW/MINI tech drawing below. It appears that the foam washer goes below the concave washer and above the upper mounting plate and then followed by the foam bushing and metal bushing. But again the tech drawing does not include those components.

Also - which way does the concave washer go on the Bilsteins? On the OEM it seems the concave washer faced upwards but i have been told that I need to flip that on the Bilsteins.





Rear shock components

 

CLICK HERE and then press on the "tech info" tab at the top. Scroll down to Suspension and then click on Rear Shock and Spring Replacement (2nd one down). The images for the replacement should help you with the correct placement of all components when reassembling.

 

Large bushing on bottom, small on top, and concave side of the washer faces up. What shock you use doesn't change how the assembly was designed.

 

Thanks to PelicanParts and nkfry for responses. I thought the same NKfry about the orientation of the washer. Seemed a bit non-sensical to me but at this point I will try anything to get the confounded rapping and tapping from the rear end to go away. Thought it was the missing exhaust hangar brackets so I got those replaced. Still doing it. Driving me absolutely insane...to the point of wanting to sell the Tardis. May remove and reassemble the rear shock components again next weekend to see if I missed anything.

 

You're welcome. After installing the rear shocks you are still getting a noise from the rear? Did you check over all suspension components and even sway bar links? If those are loose they can definitely make a noise. Does it sound like it's coming from the upper rear mount area or under the car?

 

I believe everything was reassembled properly and tightened to spec. Embarrassed to say Im not sure what the sway bar links are () so I'm not sure if they're tight.

To me, it sounds like what a loose exhaust system tapping against brackets or itself sounds like. Best description I can give. But exhaust brackets are all secure and the rubbers back there are fine.

 

No worries. It connects to your rear sway bar ends. The sway bar end link looks like this:





Most of the time when they're look is more of a type of clunk noise. Is it maybe a squeak or sounds more like something tapping on metal? Might try, while the car is stationary, popping the hatch and sitting in the boot and bounce up and down. See if you can replicate it that way. Might give you a better perspective of where the noise is coming from.

 

I'll give it a shot. I'm sure the neighbors will wonder wth I'm doing bouncing up and down in the rear deck/hatch area. LOL.

 

It would be funny to peak out the window and see that.

Get a chance to do this yet?

 

Bounced all over the rear hatch area and could not make it make any noise what so ever. No clue what to do to eliminate the tapping noise. It even does it in a smooth parking deck at low speed. At a complete loss.

 

Are you able to have someone record a video of it while you drive slowly forward?

 

I'll see what I can do. not sure if the sound will be picked up by the phone mic but we'll see. Also just replaced the rear sway bar bushings in hopes that might help but it didn't stop the problem.

 

Ok I managed to record the sound while driving in the neighborhood. This is at about 20 MPH.

 

ok so question, I hear the noise gets more pronounced at some points, are you're hitting bumps when that happens? Did you replace the upper strut mount bushings when you did the struts? I'm thinking it might be bushing related. I'd suggest getting under the rear and looking at all of the bushings under the rear there. Was this noise there before you replaced the rear struts? I'd make sure to go back over everything to make sure it's tightened down properly.

 

You do hear me hitting some potholes or whatever these horrid streets of Atlanta have. For the struts I replaced the strut mounts entirely and both the struts and shocks front and rear. At this point I can't recall if it made the noise before or not.

 

I just tried to call your office to chat with you guys about this on the tele but didn't know to whom I was speaking. Yikes. Figured it might be easier to have a conversation in real time than via the forum.