[arathol]

The rod should extend fairly quickly when compressed fully. If it is not moving at all something is wrong. Quite odd that the Konis would do that after only 12k miles. Usually Konis are good for far longer. You might be able to get that replaced under warranty.

 

[amati5]

From what I read and also from the guy at Koni, it’s only completely blown when there is no resistance pushing down or pulling up. So I am not sure if they will cover, and didn’t they stop making FSD? I might just submit the warranty form and see.

Thx

 

[amati5]

just an update: I hesitated to make a warranty claim because the car was doing better, much less noise but I decided to anyway. They tried to contact me but through a wrong email address so I finally got the advance replacement sent to me after about 2 months, a Special Active strut. They insisted it’s the same as the FSD. I am glad I made the claim because 3 days before the replacement came, the bad strut got much worst, so loud that I didn’t want to drive the car. 2 hrs after i received the package, it was installed and the car now drives like new. Now I have a gold strut on the left and a red one on he right But at least the red one matches with the RB spring. Pics show the leaked FSD and the new SA

 

[GTeyes]

Your guess might be the answer here. So I ordered 2 new bearings and did the installation today. Looking at both assemblies off the car, the right one (problem one) has a 3/4 inch long tear on the electrical tape I put on. The left one has some light scratches. This tell me the right spring hits the bearing harder than the left, thus the noise. After disassembled everything, I push the right strut piston down and it just stayed down. Wasn’t sure if it was normal, I did the same with the left strut, it rebounded with decent speed. Both still have decent resistance when pushing down and pulling up but the right one require less force pushing down. After did some reading, seems as it quite normal for non-gas charged strut to not rebound and still function. But if compared to the left which still rebounds, the right one probably lost some of the damping power and allow the spring to move more freely during light compression. The hard plastic bearing doesn’t help absorb the noise. So I think that is what happening. I don’t think the new bearings do anything.

Anyway, with new bearings and the spring isolators put back on, I am not getting the clunk anymore but several light popping noise.
...

Is there any way you can record and share the popping noise you mentioned?

 

[amati5]

sorry but i installed the new one. It was quite bad, like loose panels flapping against each other in the wind when driving straight at low speed on even small bumps and of course loud clunks during turns. At highway speed, it became super loud ambient noise and I thought it was from the tires. I guess the spring was bouncing freely at low compression. All this started from the clunky noise that only happened when making a left turn in parking lots.

edit: oops! This is just before i removed and installed the replacemen. You asked about the popping noise before it got worse.

 

[Martonis]

Chased this front end clunk noise for nearly a year! Fixed it tonight.
Tighten subframe bolts, with a big bar.