[hov333]

from what I remember (its been a while since I visited the forums) it was reported that the chirping was caused by the spring rubbing on itself when driving over bumps. I had the car on the lift recently and checked the passenger side spring and the coating on the spring in between the coils had rubbed off on one of the coils. So based on this I think that it is indeed caused by the rubbing.

Why is there still no solution for this??? We paid so much for these and our car sounds like a POS...cmon

[SGxi]

My chirping went away as the weather warmed up.

[Ferg]

Mine hasn't and it's normally warm all year round here. I wish you the best and it doesn't come back.

[SGxi]

Originally Posted by Ferg

Mine hasn't and it's normally warm all year round here. I wish you the best and it doesn't come back.

Did you managed take you car to a shop to have it looked at?

Hope you can get it sorted out soon.

[Ferg]

I have been to three different shops including the dealership and everyone says it is fine. KW did call me up and offered to look at the car if I could drive to their shop, which was over 4 hrs away and they are not open on the weekend, so never made it there.

[SGxi]

Originally Posted by Ferg

I have been to three different shops including the dealership and everyone says it is fine. KW did call me up and offered to look at the car if I could drive to their shop, which was over 4 hrs away and they are not open on the weekend, so never made it there.

Hmmm, did they actually took them off and reinstall them or just "looked" at them? I'd imagine everything will look fine the way it is?

[Ferg]

I don't believe they took them off.

[Tiago@VRSF]

They probably haven't fixed the issue because these are bound/rebound adjustable shocks that are meant for the track. People who know this should understand that things don't perform the same on the track as they do on the street.

I'd be happy to only have slight chirps every once in a while compared to some other problems I've dealt with in the past with adjustable coil overs.

[ukdub]

Right first off, hi guys, this is my first post this mainly because I drive a MK5 Golf GTI and not a BMW. I came across this thread many months ago because I was having the exact same problems with my KW V3's. It took a long time to get KW to admit there was a problem. To cut long long story short, I will give you the basics of the whole event.

V3's fitted and within a week started to chirp. This was in November of 2008 in the UK, so it was quite cold 5C (41F). I compained to my installer about it, so they checked the install and found no problems. They then spoke to KW UK who in turn spoke to KW Germany. They said that they dont know what the noise was because they couldnt replicate it on their test bed. So, I left it for a few months and just thought that i would have to live with it as it seemed that some cars did it and some didnt. It was then in the summer months 20C+ (68F+) that I noticed that the chirping had almost gone and on hotter days gone altogether. I should add that I tried all the things you guys have tried over the months on this thread I.E lubing everything, checking top mounts and greasing the spring, I even disconnected my front swaybar to see if it was the swaybar bushes making the chirping noise. Non of the above made any difference whatso ever.
Then one day I got a phone call from my installer to tell me that the KW sales rep was there, and to come down and make a complaint in person. Got there and took him out in my car, which because it was a warm day hardly chirped at all. So he still heard the noise and said straight away that it wasn't a spring noise, he said the noise was coming from the shock. He blamed it on the 'O' rings inside the shocks and said they would replace them under warrenty. Great I thought. Anyway, months went past and no new shocks arrived from KW. Lots of phone calls where made to the sales rep who said he forgot and would have them made up and sent out. More months went by and one last phone call was made, this time not to the sales rep but to the engineers of KW UK. There reply to what the actual problem was is still a surprise. The problem is that they have been filled with the wrong fluid simple as that. So new shocks are fitted and no more chirping.

[jgalaxy]

Originally Posted by ukdub

Right first off, hi guys, this is my first post this mainly because I drive a MK5 Golf GTI and not a BMW. I came across this thread many months ago because I was having the exact same problems with my KW V3's. It took a long time to get KW to admit there was a problem. To cut along along story short, I will give you the basics of the whole event.

V3's fitted and within a week started to chirp. This was in November of 2008 in the UK, so it was quite cold 5C (41F). I compained to my installer about it, so they checked the install and found no problems. They then spoke to KW UK who in turn spoke to KW Germany. They said that they dont know what the noise was because they couldnt replicate it on their test bed. So, I left it for a few months and just thought that i would have to live with it as it seemed that some cars did it and some didnt. It was then in the summer months 20C+ (68F+) that I noticed that the chirping had almost gone and on hotter days gone altogether. I should add that I tried all the things you guys have tried over the months of this thread I.E lubing everything, checking top mounts and greasing the spring, I even disconnected my front swaybar to see if it was the swaybar bushes making the chirping noise. Non of the above made any difference whatso ever.
Then one day I got a phone call from my installer to tell me that the KW sales rep was there, and to come down and make a complaint in person. Got there and took him out in my car, which because it was a warm day hardly chirped at all. So he still heard the noise and said straight away that it wasn't a spring noise, he said the noise was coming from the shock. He blamed it on the 'O' rings inside the shocks and said they would replace them under warrenty. Great I thought. Anyway, months went past and no new shocks arrived from KW. Lots of phone calls where made to the sales rep who said he forgot and would have them made up and sent out. More months went by and one last phone call was made, this time not to the sales rep but to the engineers of KW UK. There reply to what the actual problem was is still a surprise. The problem is that they have been filled with the wrong fluid simple as that. So new shocks are fitted and no more chirping.

It's been two and bit years and just when I htought I might be in the clear I'm starting to get chirping on my v3 as well.

Interesting that KW UK replaced the coilovers. Who picks up the tab to remove the defective ones and installing the new ones?

Was there an official process you followed to get them replaced?

[ukdub]

Originally Posted by jgalaxy

It's been two and bit years and just when I htought I might be in the clear I'm starting to get chirping on my v3 as well.

Interesting that KW UK replaced the coilovers. Who picks up the tab to remove the defective ones and installing the new ones?

Was there an official process you followed to get them replaced?

Even though I made the complaint within weeks of them being fitted, I dont think anything official was recorded. The shocks only (not springs) were agreed to be replaced after I had already covered 25k on them (13 months) I believe they only agreed to replace them because they knew that it was their fault by filling them with the wrong fluid. Which is something the sales rep wouldn't admit they had done. As for who picked up the fitting tab, not KW UK . Luckily enough, I have a great relationship (i.e spent lots of money) with my installer and they fitted them FOC. Not sure about KW USA though, it maybe different over your side of the pond.

[Ferg]

And the plot thickens!!

[ukdub]

I should have added, that if I had my compression setting on FULL SOFT the chirping almost went away. I guess because my shocks had been filled with the wrong fluid, running on full soft helped the fluid move though the valving.
So think the chirping is/was coming from the valving and too thick a viscoscity fluid trying to pass through it. Thats why people who live in colder climates seem to have more of an issue with the chirping because the fluid thickens up when cold.

[PhantomMaxx]

I ordered my KW V2 from authorized dealer two weeks ago they have not arrived yet because of backorder. Hopefully they are trying to fix the problem. I wish I would have found this thread before. Maybe I can still cancel my order.

[NM_BMW]

I still to this day have not ran into this problem with my XI KWv3's. I live in extreme cold weather and still would never here this chirping. Hopefully I was able to get the correct fluid (if that's the real problem) when I received mine.

[da1nonly]

Originally Posted by hov333

from what I remember (its been a while since I visited the forums) it was reported that the chirping was caused by the spring rubbing on itself when driving over bumps. I had the car on the lift recently and checked the passenger side spring and the coating on the spring in between the coils had rubbed off on one of the coils. So based on this I think that it is indeed caused by the rubbing.

Why is there still no solution for this??? We paid so much for these and our car sounds like a POS...cmon

that's exactly what i think the noise is...bought my kw v2's used and noticed some of the paint on one of the bottom rear coils had peeled off + the sqeaking sounds like a metal to metal squeek....i been thinking if i could rap the lower coil in some kind of rubber/plastic then i could possible eliminate the noise, but haven't put much thought into what kind of rubber/plastic would work, obviously i'd need something that's heavy duty, and i'd also need some way of securing it...any ideas...i'd love to give this a try and report back

[HighQ]

I must say I am really shocked this issue is still unresolved and the way KW handles this issue. It's simply not acceptable.

I feel for everyone involved

[jgalaxy]

Originally Posted by da1nonly

that's exactly what i think the noise is...bought my kw v2's used and noticed some of the paint on one of the bottom rear coils had peeled off + the sqeaking sounds like a metal to metal squeek....i been thinking if i could rap the lower coil in some kind of rubber/plastic then i could possible eliminate the noise, but haven't put much thought into what kind of rubber/plastic would work, obviously i'd need something that's heavy duty, and i'd also need some way of securing it...any ideas...i'd love to give this a try and report back

Rubber radiator grade hose split, slipped over the spring and epoxied with some tie-wraps.

[da1nonly]

Originally Posted by jgalaxy

Rubber radiator grade hose split, slipped over the spring and epoxied with some tie-wraps.

thanks, i did something like this over the weekend, used some hose i found in the plumbing section at home depot, and instead of tie wraps i used stainless steel wire...i gotta admit it looks a bit ghetto for now but who the hell sees it anyways.

Initial impressions - squeeking has been reduced considerable....i only did the top coil and i didn't do a very good job b/c i didn't remove the spring but just worked around it while it was in place. Now that i know this is working (kinda) i'm gunna take off both rear spring and wrap both the top and bottom coils, y squeeking seems to be coming from the back mostly

i noticed this product available from tein, so i guess a common problem

http://www.tein.com/products/silencer_rubber.html

which would be cool if i could find a retailer closeby

[thwgw24]

Originally Posted by da1nonly

thanks, i did something like this over the weekend, used some hose i found in the plumbing section at home depot, and instead of tie wraps i used stainless steel wire...i gotta admit it looks a bit ghetto for now but who the hell sees it anyways.

Initial impressions - squeeking has been reduced considerable....i only did the top coil and i didn't do a very good job b/c i didn't remove the spring but just worked around it while it was in place. Now that i know this is working (kinda) i'm gunna take off both rear spring and wrap both the top and bottom coils, y squeeking seems to be coming from the back mostly

i noticed this product available from tein, so i guess a common problem

http://www.tein.com/products/silencer_rubber.html

which would be cool if i could find a retailer closeby

will that silencer rubber from Tein fit the KW V3?

[dinosaur12]

Any update on this subject?

I was looking to purchase some KW v2 but will probably stay away from them now.

[BTM]

This thread may provide some relevant info for this noise...commonly referred to as coil slap:

http://www.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=447902