Which OME coils do you have? 886,885,884? Do you also have an after market bump/winch? It could be your stock upper A-arms are hitting the coils or the front struts are topping out from being to short. The 886's are very stiff and would cause the front to drop quick in those situations

 

Make sure the top nut on the front strut is re tightened after you put them on, mine was loose after the first day and had to crush em down on the top front bushing

 

I had the same problem. Front coils were facing the wrong direction. This made the coil perch contact the sway bar during the conditions you are describing (always on the drivers side).
Make sure the bottom of the coils face the rear of the vehicle (correct). If the coils end toward the front of the vehicle (incorrect) then they have been installed 180 degrees in the wrong direction and must be turned around.

 

Thanks for the input...I have the standard coils the 884's. I need to inspect the coils and see if they are backwards like suggested.

 

i have that same noise going over bumps, i just checked the coils and they are facing the right way and the sway bar doesnt look like it could hit. any other suggestions? i have the 884s in front btw

 

I can't tell from your FJ's photo, but are you running a winch bumper?? Some aftermarket bumpers (like my Warn) have been known to "clunk" against frame and/or body when going over bumps, and it does sound like it's coming from the front suspension. Matter of fact, Warn just sent me a set of different mount brackets to correct this particular problem on their bumper. And, I've heard similar stories about the ARB bumpers as well.

Or . . . . I'm wondering if the tops of your springs are hitting against the bottoms of the spacers. Did you make sure all the bushings got put in during the installation??

 

I have the same issue. I will check the springs too and let you know what the setup is.

 

No banging from my OMEs. Once everybody gets these problems resolved make sure to post the solutions!

 

Well, it is the UCA's making contact with the coil springs on full drop. Please clarify: are the bottom coil spring ends suppose to face towards the rear or towards the engine?

 

Please clarify: are the bottom coil spring ends suppose to face towards the rear or towards the engine?

The bottom ends of the coil springs should be indexed at the 6 o'clock position facing the the rear of the truck.

 

ok I'll bite ..I went out and looked at my springs I have the OME heavies all around. one points @ 4:00 the other @9:00. when I pulled the factory springs off they were not "INDEXED" to the back they were point in odd directions as well . If the top of the spring is flat and the bottom is in the stock spring cup and it is directly level why does it matter where the spring end is pointing?.

 

The lower spring cup on the OME shocks is slightly larger so they do need to be positioned properly or the swaybar will contact the spring cup. I can email you a PDF file from OME if you want to look at the positioning.

 

the OME strut and spring use the toyota factory bottom cup it slides over the OME strut so..........

 

The OME front strut ( it is actually a coil over shock) use's the OME lower spring seat included with the shock. The Factory spring seat would not fit on the OME shock because the shock is a larger diamater.

 

i have the same noise, i noticed my springs are rubbing against the upper control arms at full droop when the suspension is unloaded... is there a fix for this?

 

total chaos upper control arms should do the trick??

 

Mine clunks too when going up or down down the whoop dee doos (more like stair steps) that my snow plow leaves in the sloped portion of my drive way. My springs (OME heavys) are indexed appropriately, and I can see no evidence that the UCA are contacting the springs.

Feels like the suspension is bottoming out and the wheels have dropped as low as they will go. During the install, the struts seemed to be longer than the full droop of the lower control arms as some prying and compressing where required to get the struts into position for bolt up. Also, the UCA's were not touching the springs during this and the suspension is as low as it can possibly go during this.

The limits of the control arm arcs are not changed when doing the OME lift (unless limited by the UCA's hitting the springs). What the lift does change is the resting angle of the control arms to give lift, resulting in more room for compression but less for droop.

 

I read all these same problems from people on this board, prior to installing my OME Heavies on.... So, I called ARB and spoke with a technician about this, to make sure that the lift was installed correctly... He stated that the "factory" spring cup faces towards the ground, and the spring rests on top of it.... He said the "OME" spring cup, should face up, and the spring actually rests inside of the cup... If you installed the OME spring cup on the same way the factory spring cup was installed, it will be upside down.... The ARB tech sent me a picture of the correct configuration if anyone needs it. I would have posted it, but its a high resolution picture so its too large. So if you need it, just email me and Ill send it to you...

I paid to have my lift put on, and the well recognized shop didn't even know that the OME spring cup should be put on opposite than the factory one.... My lift has been on for 2 months, and I have yet to hear a clunking noise, so I think that is most likely the issue....

Hope that helps!!!

 

My spring cups face up (i.e. they will collect dirt). The tech who assembled the struts for me originally did it with the cups down but I was able to have him correct this prior to leaving the shop.

 

Okay...the clunk is still there. It occurs while going up and down my driveway and over speed bumps, during full droop of the front suspension. The driveway is a disaster that only Idaho can deliver. More or less 30 yards of speed bumps/stair steps going up an incline, thanks to Mother Nature and a '78 Ford plow truck. This thing is test track material.

It goes away if speed/front tire droop are decreased. It really feels like my suspension is bottoming out and the front tires are losing contact. Prior to the addition of an OME Heavy/Medium, ARB bumper and winch, it took a lot more speed to to cause the front wheels to loose traction. Is this just the result of a stiffer suspension or have I installed something wrong?

It goes in for a front end alingment tomorrow AM and I don't want to get the alignment if something is wrong. I will be requesting an alignment per the sticky.

The front coils are clocked correctly, the cups face up to cradle the coils. The upper front strut bushings are compressed nicely. No extra hardware is evident. Everything tight and torqued appropriately. No sway bar rub. Bumper and winch are tight and torqued. Jacked up front end and no contact between springs and UCA's during full extension of the suspension. Am I missing something?

My Jeep TJ did the same thing after repacing the stock suspension with med OME all around. The see-saw would start swinging and the front end would clunck during droop and lose traction.

Am I bottoming out the suspension and I just need to slow down or AM I MISSING SOMETHING?

 

I have DR's up front freshly installed...went offroading and now here a clunking noise up front on the drivers side when I hit bumps at moderate speed. Sounds like somethings hitting the bottom of my floor (from underneath) I can feel it on my feet.

Taking to dealer on Friday.

 

Did you figure out what the problem was? I seem to have the same issue. I can feel it on my feet - beneath the floor board.

Thanks!

 

Check your wheel weights on the inside of the rim. I noticed a thumping noise on the passinger side when I would brake for a stop. The wheel weights were hitting on the knuckle at the top.
This may not be your problem, but it's worth a look.

 

This may be a trivial (but maybe obvious) thing to check:

If you're using the stock wheels, double-check the torque on your lug nuts. Mine worked their way loose after working on the suspension, and made a clunking sound when running over speed bumps. I didn't check the torque, and relied upon the air impact to snug them down (shoulda known better; always check the torque!)...

Anyway, just another obvious thing to rule out...

 

this is happening to my fj also. just did the lift last sunday...didn't notice anything on the initinial test drive, but when i took it out the second time to get dinner it was really bad. i can hear it on every bump.

i'm running 883's/spacer with the orginal "all-terrain packages" bilstein shocks. Been afaid to drive it since and is park at my friends house now. Will examine the suspenssion tommorow. I'll let you know what I find.

Does anybody have the same setup and could you take a picture of it so i could verify the installation was done correctly. had to take the struts and springs over to pepboys to had it swap out (didn't have a spring compresso)r.

thanks,
Tony
2008 4x4

 

inspect your inner tie rods. i have the same symptoms and mine are clunkin...

 

I'm doing much better on the roller coaster driveway. Slower speed is the way to go. I found that all our vehicles were doing this clunk thing. Seems the amplitude of the driveway waves increased while the FJ was up on stands for a week during install.

It drives great now after the alignment.

 

Mine clunks after DR install. I am having the dealership inspect my inner tie rods...I will let you know if that's the issue and how much.

$84 for initial look over...since it isn't warranty work.

 

Just one more post, relating to my own OME installation:

1) As mentioned elsewhere in the forum (search for OME installs): Make sure that the coil springs are clocked correctly in the lower cup. If the coil spring's end is facing the tire, then the sway bar end will strike the coil on compression. If this is indeed the case, then the strut will have to be removed and the spring re-aligned correctly and the strut re-installed.

2) My own passenger side coil clunked a couple of times, then stopped within a short while after the install (noticed it when running over speed bumps). It stopped clunking after compression and decompression of the coil springs a few times. I attribute this to the coil spring shifting and settling in the spring cup (which is not fixed in place, and could shift to mate with the spring).

Settling of coil springs can happen, so don't sound the alarm bell immediately after an install, unless the noise is excessive and constant over time. Give your coil springs a chance to settle...

Edit: I should really drink more coffee before posting first thing in the morning. I just re-read where it was stated that the coil springs were clocked correctly. Disregard comments mentioned above pertaining to so.

 

Not sure if this will help the OME people...but this is what happened when I brought my FJ in for the same "clunk" I was getting with my DR's:

Got the call for the FJ. Absolutely NOTHING wrong with the truck. I had them check the tie rods, inner tie rods, and anything else that could be causing the problem. NOTHING. They referred me to Big Johns Performance for further inquiry.

I went there and they said that the clunk could be from the pivot that is on top of the coil over. The coil over can be "twisted" left and right...so it could be twisting while hitting bumps and hitting the stops.

They also said that a Transfer Case drop kit is a good idea. They said about $150 for me. Is this a good idea?? Any input on the drop?

I am going to bring in the FJ next Friday to Big Johns and they are going to do another check over on the FJ...just incase the dealer missed something. I will be standing right there...so I will know if they actually looked at it or not.

 

If there's a 'twist' to the coil spring, it will shift and settle on its own (it should, as the only place the spring has a stop is on the lower cup). After a couple of shifts the spring should rest against the stop and go no further (that's what mine did on the passenger side).

As far as the drop kit install, I would hold off and get a second opinion. With a 3" lift I don't think it's necessary. With a 6" lift, yeah, you might consider it, due to the steep angle of the CV-joint alignment. Again, I would seek out opinions of others...