Option for coil spring twist/flex and noise

[Lane]

We've talked about this issue in the past (in this thread a bit) and I know that some people have opted to add a torrington bearing setup on the suspension springs/perches.



Some noise recently snuck back into my rear suspension and I thought I'd end up going with a set of these torrington bearings as well.  What concerned me though was how open these bearings are.  They seem highly susceptible to road grime, sand, dirt, mud, etc. - especially if a person greases them up before installation.  I'd prefer to not need to take apart the suspension just to give them the periodic cleaning they should have.  I searched a bit for something better in that regard and found this option -



These appear to be OEM BMW suspension pieces.  I doubt that they're truly "sealed", but they look pretty darn close and should provide a much greater resistance to debris.  Add that to the fact that they're meant for heavy street driven cars that are meant to see all weather conditions over a very long life, and I think they'll work well.  I picked up a set from Vorshlag Motorsports.  You can't beat a price of $22.50 for a set of 2.  

There are a few millimeters of play between the bearing inner diameter and the spring cap so I picked up a few rubber o-rings from the local hardware store to fill the gap and keep the bearing centered and prevent it from moving around and un-centering the spring.  I'll report back with thoughts once I get a few miles and track events on them.

Edit: I can see from the pic that mounting them with the green side down exposes a upward-facing gap between the rotating parts that may allow water in.  Looks like flipping them around to mount this gap facing downward would be the better way to go.

[positron]

Lane,
Great find! The (torrington) bearings definitely make the suspension feel more alive and after indexing one to another they definitely migrate from the start position. I like this version  and will most likely follow your lead once you report back.

[silver]

LOOKS PRETTY AWESOME.


the torrington bearings have slop in them b/c the internal diameter is about .25 inches too large.

Question, on mine I added that bearing at the bottom, so I know it would be better with the bearing at the top and the bottom of the spring perch, have you installed 8 total bearings?

[positron]

My car is a fair weather princess but I have wash and debris concerns about the (relatively) open bearings. However I'm satisfied with the theory test results.

I added mine on either end of the assembly.

After the last event the main spring did not move, as expected because it's tight to bottom. The red springs rotated about a quarter turn. I think before it wanting to work but couldn't so eventually it would build enough rotational force to jump to relieve itself, so to speak.



*edited for content, must have been the NyQuil induced stupor.

[silver]

Should have specified I removed the red springs as they didn't "help" anything

[positron]

Then I'd say at minimum one per spring set should suffice. That would relieve the spring from fighting the perches.

I'm remain contrarian by running the red spring and in the top position.. I have to leave something to blame my lack of driver skill..

[Lane]

I added these to the rear suspension only (for now), and added just one to each shock/spring assembly.  I removed the red helper springs from the rear quite some time ago because the red/black combo was deflecting enough to have the spring & aluminum spring separator rub the housing in several locations (more info & pics in this thread).  Prior removal of the red spring (which compressed way too easily) allowed me to make adjustments to gain an appreciable amount of additional travel in the rear before hitting the bumpstop.  Details on that are in this thread.  The picture I posted above with the red spring in it were using spare parts out of my parts bin to mock it all up.

While the removal of the red spring and the alum spring perch connector did take away the majority of the noise, some noise recently returned and that's why I finally tried these bearings.  I suspect that one will be sufficient on each shock/spring assembly to get rid of the twist so I only installed one per.

An update on my install - I ended up digging the aluminum pieces out of the parts box which acted as connectors between the two springs.  On the bottom threaded perch, I placed a spring bearing, and then placed the connector on top of that.  The connector's lip which is meant to sit inside the spring diameter allowed the spring-to-bearing contact point to remain centered and will prevent the two from moving relative to each other when the whole thing's in motion.

The ID of these spring bearings is very very close to the OD of our top and bottom perches, and that aluminum spring-to-spring connector.  While I thought I'd be using O-rings to take up the slack against the top spring perch/cup, all I needed was a tiny bit of silicone RTV when I instead placed them against the bottom perch.  The fit was outstanding - better than it would be with torrington bearings that seem to be 1/4" larger than they need to be.

[Lane]

The spring weather was finally suitable to take the Atom for a nice drive.  After some street driving on some rough roads, I'm happy to report that these spring bearings added to the rear finally got rid of the last of my rear suspension noise. 

[silver]

thanks for this update, I've now ordered 2 sets. This past weekend I also was able to go for about 100miles, and I heard issues in the front shocks with binding so I'm going to do all 4 corners  ;D

***edit*** damn it, just realized they are local..yet I paid $8.77 for shipping...whoops.

[Lane]

UPDATE - Vorschlag no longer appears to have these upper spring bearings on their site, but a quick search revealed a thread posted by Vorschlag in the past identifying these as BMW E46 M3 upper strut perch bearings with a 60mm (2.36") ID.

I found what looks to be the same bearing based on its distinctive neon green color as part of a spring seat assembly (BMW part# 31331090612) available at several places selling BMW parts:

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