HELP!!! KNOCKING SUSPENSION

Okay...Let me start by saying that people in here will trash the lift I have on the truck and automatically point to the lift components as the issue. Yep you guessed it-they are Rough Country parts. And your negative comments on RC are understood, I too have read plenty of negative post about them. With that said I bought their high end kit, 3.5 Vertex lift kit from front to back (vertex coilovers, UCA's, leaf springs, vertex shocks rear, diff drop kit etc). I actually have been impressed with the kit UNTIL...more on that in a sec.

The lift comes 3.5 inches out of the box and I installed it on the truck myself. I am mechanically inclined and know my way around a suspension. I know what you're thinking...then why did you install a RC lift on the truck. Well, after doing a lot of research on the new vertex system that RC offers, the price point and the reviews, I decided to give it a try. I beat the crap out of the lift in Colorado this year and it performed well until the knocking started!

My dilemma: I have a knocking sound coming somewhere from the suspension. I only hear the sound when going over bumps or dips. I can mimic the sound by jumping up and down on the bumper or pushing up from under neath the bumper (bench pressing the bumper). I can mimic the sound from bouncing on top on the rock slider or pushing up from underneath on the LCA. I have done every thing to chase the knock! And I mean everything for the exception of replacing the entire lift.

You can feel the knocking in the UCA at the ball joint. Although this is not the issue and here is why. I called RC initially about the knocking and they sent me out new UCA's. This did not fix the issue. After consulting with a toyota engineer, I found out that the tapered angle on the UCA bolt could of been the issue. I ended up buying brand new UCA's from JBA off road hoping this would solve my problem...nope! knocking still persist. After speaking with JBA rep in great length we determined that the issue maybe coming from my steering knuckle. Our suspicion was that the soft metal in steering knuckle, where it connects o the UCA ball joint stud was hollowed out, causing the ball joint stud to not seat properly. So I bought a bran new OEM steering knuckle. Guess what...this did not fix the issue. There is a laundry list of other parts I replace trying to chase this knocking sound. Including parts that wouldn't affect the up and down motion of a suspension. I have replaced the cv axles and the needle bearing in the diff, end links, UCA's, and wheel hub assembly. I had a reputable 4x4 company here in Austin TX put the truck up in the air. I had 3 mechanics and myself all trouble shooting the sound (again I am mechanically inclined and I speak the language). They did all the proper test, they checked the lower ball joint, bolts for torque, UCA, etc...They diagnosed the truck as possibly having bad strut, but I could tell they were perplexed as well.

What next: Im going to replace the long bolt that goes through the UCA. I have replace the UCA multiple times and the bolt looked fine to me every time but that is the last ditch effort I have before removing the lift.

On a positive note RC has offered me a 100% money back return. So a big thank you to their customer service.

I wish I post some vids but the forum doesn't support HEVC. Any idea at this point are all welcome. And yes I am changing the entire lift unless someone out there has an idea of something I am over looking.

 

Welcome to TW

 

Your knocking noise is probably coming from the front shocks topping out.

 

Vertex seem to have decent reviews. Get a vid of the knocking. It could be any number of things. At 3.5” lift you will have very limited down travel, could it be topping out. Other possible things could be body-mount bushing, motor mount broken etc. if you beat on the truck in Colorado, you could have broke or damaged things that could make noises. Some have even found errant noises were the result of spare tire being able to move around under the truck.

 

Does the noise sound like this by chance? This is the noise I had when rocking the truck side to side HARD from the sliders.
December 19, 2022 - YouTube

 

Great idea on posting on youtube! I will do that first thing in the morning. Yall correct 3.5 lift will basically bring the down travel to negative but I thought of this and adjusted the coil overs to 3 inches. All angles were even visibly corrected when looking at the cv axles. I even used a digital level to confirm the angles. The knocking did not subside after adjusting the lift. @Technique It does not sound like that. Its a softer thud to knock. I will post a vid!

 

I would check to see if your LCA bolts are torqued. And if possible swap back to your stock suspension to see if the noise is still there.

unless you jumped 10 feet in the air, id skip replacing the UCA long bolt

 

Here is the knocking. Im bouncing on top of the rock slider. I know some all yall will see the abnormal seperation between the ball joint and the knuckle...trust, the ball joint is not the issue.

Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSO3rkHEgUw

 

@fatfurious2 LCA are torqued to spec. Have done this with both the truck in the air and on the ground. I agree! I think changing the UCA long bolt is pointless.

 

I want to believe you/RC, but i cant

 

@fatfurious2 I know! Me too, but I now have JBA off road UCA's on the truck and its doing the same thing. You can see the JBA's in the pic I posted, they are red. The RC are silver color.

 

Did you try greasing the JBA's?

 

That balljoint just looks wrong! Almost as if the taper is wrong. Post vid with JBA's.

 

Have you looked at the lower mounting bushing on the struts? That's what was completely toast and the cause of the noise in my video. Took me forever to find that out. Maybe yours are starting to go bad too...wouldn't hurt to check.

 

Just for fun have you tried leaving the control arms and just swapping the stock coilovers back in.

From that video I’d swear it’s the ball joint because it looks like the control arm vibrates with the popping. But you’ve pretty much eliminated that when you swapped arms and knuckles.

 

+1 on changing out the coil over and seeing

 

I know a guy that had the same issue you’re describing. He replaced almost every component uca’s ball joints, complete lower control arm, sway bar links/bushings and the knocking noise was still there.
Turns out the issue was the coilover’s shock. he removed the spring and the shock had a lot of play, he could press in the shaft of shock a few inches without any effort.
He never thought that was the issue because that coilover was a replacement he had just installed. He got a replacement because the first one started leaking

 

I like the idea of switching out the bushing on the coil overs. I have taken out the coil overs several times to inspect and also to adjust them to 3 inches in height. The knock is on the up travel. I can mimic the knock with the lightest push up on the bumper from underneath. I agree with a lot of y’all on just swapping the coil over-unfortunately I don’t have an extra handy. I know that in the video it looks like a bad taper and you can even feel the knock in the ball joint but it’s definitely coming from somewhere else. I have physically lifted the ball joint boot and put my finger on the stud while having someone bounce the truck and there is no play nor can you feel the stud move-it’s seated solidly. I’m gonna get more video up today. @chuymoreno @erok81 @Technique

 

What about the front body mount? Worth a shot...

 

Run to O riellys and buy a Rancho quicklift strut/coil (fully assembled and ready to go). That's what I ended up doing lol, actually really like them too compared to my Bilstein 5100s I had .