Remote reservoir dampers. What's your experience with noise?

TURBO2GO

TURBO2GO

Illustrious Member
Joined
8 March 2006
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Guys ever since I have installed my KW competitions, I have been blown away by the performance, handling, and at the compliant ride quality. In some areas better ride than stock and handling that is 5x better. I am in love....

But I have had this squeak everytime I go over a bump. Eee-ee... Eee-ee... It's not there on smaller bumps but there are anything medium/large. In talking to KW, they sadly told me this is "normal" and is the sound of some check valve or something in the damper under super high pressure.

I am just wondering, anyone else that has similar dampers, do you have the same issue? Say with moton or jrz 3-ways? And how do you deal with it? Will this change if I change damper settings?
 
I had a friend with Motons, the rears were mounted inside his hatchback. and he would say the same thing.

He cored out a 4x8" block of high density foam and covered that in dynomat then riveted it to the floor with aluminum bands. Apparently it worked.

I say just take out the cats and run a louder exhaust ::wink:
 
The question is, is this noise coming from the canisters? From the lines? Or the dampers themselves? Is this pressure valve in the canister? If so, that would make me happy. Because that is the easiest to fix. I can build a little hush-box for them like your friend.
 
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No more responses? No one else has had this issue? I guess there aren't too many people with remote reservoir dampers. :frown:
 
Check your sway bars bushings or turn up your stereo and it won't matter.
 
stuntman said:
Ee-ee isnt too descriptive because it can be numetous things from your springs binding, monoball top hats, swaybar end links, etc...
Click to expand...

Billy here is a couple of videos I made for George at KW:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzXzoiierBA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gmswKPv7oY

Sounds like birds. I WD'ed the crap out of the springs, helpers, couplers, made no difference. I am going to remove the sway bars completely on Wednesday and see if that's what it is but I did spray them to no avail either.
 
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illwillem said:
I had a friend with Motons, the rears were mounted inside his hatchback. and he would say the same thing.

He cored out a 4x8" block of high density foam and covered that in dynomat then riveted it to the floor with aluminum bands. Apparently it worked.

I say just take out the cats and run a louder exhaust ::wink:
Click to expand...

I am surprised this helped him when I talked to KW they said the noise is more from the damper than the cannister, they didn't think that would help. I am not sure they were sure though... I got a lot of "probably"
 
It should be normal for those. My Penskes would do it too depending on the internal configurations I set up and when you cause large piston displacements on rough sections. For the track it doesn't matter of course, but it can be annoying on the street.

Don't crank them down full stiff rebound and compression, but start tightening them up until the noise goes away or it is a good compromise between ride and noise.

Dave
 
LOL... So the softer I set them the more noise? I was kind of hoping you guys would say it's not normal.

It's not terrible, but it takes away from the refined nature of the car. And I never heard anyone mention this before I installed my setup. Everyone talked about how great they ride and handle, which they do, but I didn't know I'd be carrying a few small hungry baby sparrows in my dash. LOL....

Well I guess now I know I can stop worrying about it because nothing can be done.
 
Well word just came back to me from KW that they looked at the video and it is fluid shock valve noise. They said sorry but they made those dampers for performance only, and that I can stop being a p*$$y and live with it, or switch to clubsports or something with less performance and drive around like a girl instead.

They didn't use those exact phrases but that's what I got from it. :biggrin:
 
TURBO2GO said:
Well I guess now I know I can stop worrying about it because nothing can be done.
Click to expand...

No, you can try what I recommended in my post, and that is stiffening up the compression and rebound until the noise is reduced to an acceptable level, or the ride becomes intolerable. You may be able to find the critical point where your displacements are less (less noise then), but the ride isn't completely shot. Or maybe not. Try it - what do you have to lose?

Dave
 
What should I stiffen up? The low-speed or high-speed compression?
 
You'll need to play around with all settings, individually at first and then different combinations.

This is all part of properly setting up a suspension. :smile: Make one change, thoroughly evaluate the response while driving, log it, and set it back to baseline. Repeat process for a different adjustment. When you think you know what you're doing, try different combinations and observe the response and become totally confused :wink: It's time-consuming at the beginning, but you'll learn and ultimately become a better driver too.

Oh, this is just for the street. Once you get this down, write down your settings, and then start playing with minor adjustments for track use.

Dave
 
Ok but which would you start with evaluating the noise. High speed or low speed?
 
biscuits said:
Seriously? You've got a racing suspension underneath a lightned car probably voided of some sound deadening and you're complaining about noises?
Click to expand...

Did you watch the video? It's a little on the annoying side when you're out on a date. It's cramping my style but now I have to tell them the whole racing damper story. I have all my sound deadening by the way and quite a loud exhaust.
 
TURBO2GO said:
Ok but which would you start with evaluating the noise. High speed or low speed?
Click to expand...

Low speed. Think about it, big bumps the rod moves a large amount but slow. High speed is going over imperfections in the road where the rod moves up and down a small amount but very quickly.
 
CL65 Captain said:
Low speed. Think about it, big bumps the rod moves a large amount but slow. High speed is going over imperfections in the road where the rod moves up and down a small amount but very quickly.
Click to expand...

Do your JRZ's do this?
 
CL65 Captain said:
No, I was smart enough to know I wasn't building a race car.
Click to expand...

LOL... its just a phase I am going through. First puberty, then mid-life crises, and now the desire to get a bunch of race parts. I was actually considering Movit Ceramics until Ravi saved me with an add for a new set of Stoptechs.

I'll be at the racetrack like those dudes that show up at the driving range with a set of $5000 golf clubs, then hit the side fence with their shot. Stylin' it's called.
 

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