I've gone through and completely replaced the front and rear suspension, springs, and bushings on my V70. I still have this nasty creaking only when turning the wheels lock to lock at very low speeds from the front wheels.

I removed the wheels and discovered that the springs are actually rotating in the lower strut mount. I've verified that both ends are seated appropriately, and I have new HD spring seats and plates in the tops. It appears that from lock to lock, the lower portion of the spring rotates about 20 degrees back and forth in the mount, which is a metal on metal contact, and thus makes the noises I hear.

To test this theory, I took a chance and put a bit of JB weld on the lower spring ends, effectively fusing them with the lower spring seats of the struts. This actually fixed all the creaking...for about 1 week, after which the bond broke loose and the noises have returned.

So, I can consider a similarly unnatural solution to fuse the spring to the lower strut mount again, or I can figure out why these springs want to rotate in the lower mounts.

Has anyone experienced this issue? I'm so sick of the creaking...and I can't figure out why they want to rotate in the bottom seats. They are free to rotate freely on the top mounts and bearings, and don't twist in those at all.

The lower spring mount, metal, is supposed to have an indented part that the end of the spring fits into and keeps it from turning. Plus the upper spring mount, rubber, is also meant to keep the spring from turning.

When you put the strut assembly back together, is the star nut torqued to 50lbs? Not having access to a star nut 'wrench' and fitting for my 3/8 torque wrench, I took a reasonable guess as to what 50lbs felt like for both the star nut and the large nut on top, practicing on a lug nut.

Klaus
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Always willing to listen, just not able to take direction.

The lower mount does indeed have an indentation for the spring to sit in. The spring end fits perfectly in this groove, and I made sure the end of the coil was butted up against the end of the groove as well.

When I raise the car and extend the strut assembly, I'm actually able to reach in and twist the spring with a forceful jerk, rotating the bottom in the lower mount myself. I can then jerk it back into position. The top of the spring always stays in place in the rubber upper mount, although that's probably because that mount is designed to rotate in the bearings of the backplate.

I have the star nut tool from IPD, and tightened both it and the large nut on top after assembly to what I approximated to be 50 lbs. However, I was under the impression that would just eliminate the vertical play in the assembly. How could tightening that upper bolt decrease how much the spring wants to rotate, especially if it always freely rotates in the top assembly?

There is supposed to be enough tension in the spring to keep it from rotating. Are you sure you didn't put the spring in upside down? Could the spring be cracked?

Klaus
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Always willing to listen, just not able to take direction.

These are actually sport springs, designed to lower the car about an inch. They have markings on each coil designating which way is up. During assembly, I actually tried to put them in upside down just to see what it looked like, and it was pretty obvious it wouldn't work. Also note that these springs are the same length as stock when unsprung, so they must just have a different spring constant.

I see where you're going. Perhaps I didn't tighten the star nut down enough while the struts were out of the car? At the time I remember thinking that it wasn't clear how far down to screw them, so I just tightened them down to where the spring was compressed with the compressors still installed, then I removed the compressors, allowing the spring to tighten up into the upper mount. My only guide for how far down to screw the star nut onto the shock piston was making sure I allowed enough threads on top for the big washer and final nut.

My logic at the time was that it didn't matter how far down I tightened that star nut, because it would only dictate the compression of the spring (and its force against the bottom mount), in an unsprung state. The real forces that would prohibit the spring from rotating in the bottom would be when the car was sitting on its own, compressing the spring even further to the resting state.

So to that end, I'm still confused as to how the star nuts tightness has any bearing on the compressive forces on the spring when the car is sitting on its own wheels.

If these are 'new' springs, I wonder if one of them is bad. If you decide to remove a strut, scribe the outline of the strut with a pencil so you put it back on exactly where it came off.

I measured my strut shaft tops, about 1/2 inch exposed. Which equaled 2 threads on one side and 3 threads exposed on the other.

Klaus
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Always willing to listen, just not able to take direction.

My "R" has sport springs. When I replaced the shocks with Koni Sports, I compressed the spring to about 10" - much too much, but that left the star nut ample room to go all of the way down to the end of the threads. I do not know what the specific problem is with your strut, but the spring should not be able to move when unsprung.

If you want, I can measure the top of the strut shaft on my car, the portion that sticks up through the large bolt. They should be the same on both sides of the car.

Klaus
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Always willing to listen, just not able to take direction.

Thanks for the feedback. I just raised the car and messed with the springs again. While the driver's side is the worst of the two, I should point out that both sides in the front make the same creaking lock to lock. That points to user error more than bad springs.

There is more like an inch of thread above my top nut on both sides, about 5-6 threads. Further out than yours, but my star nut is no where near the bottom of the strut shaft threads.

I got underneath and physically torqued the spring around. It does not appear to be broken loose in the bottom mount at this time, at least on the driver's side, which started making the noise again a day ago. I can get the beginnings of the creaking noise myself when I do torque the spring with my hands, although it will only rotate as much as the top bearing plate will allow; not much. The creaking sounds like it is coming from the top of the spring.

I feel like the only remaining thing I can do is completely remove the strut and stare at it blankly.

As a sanity check, the order of installation is as follows:

1. Bare front strut, push compressed spring down around shaft and seat bottom in strut seat.
2. Push on upper spring seat (IPD HD in my case), seat properly on spring top.
3. Push on bearing back plate, which fits snugly over the neck of the upper spring seat.
4. Screw on star nut down to an appropriate level.
5. Install large washer, ridged edge down.
6. Install final washer.
7. Decompress springs and put tension on the whole system.
8. Install entire strut assembly on car.

Did I somehow get the order of operations wrong?

http://members.shaw.ca/heeeeee/strut/

Go to Step 7 for reassembly. Step 8 has a great picture.

Klaus

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Always willing to listen, just not able to take direction.