[fourdegrees]

Here are two pictures of the strut itself. First, notice the broken dust shield cover the bottom thread. Note also how damp it is and covered with grime. You can also see some of the grime/dampness on the strut shaft itself.

[4banger]

Is it just me, or are there some serious impact marks on the springs? It is hard to tell in the pic, but it looks like there are at least a few places where there is some paint missing. I think Stretch is right on.

[DuncanG]

I had a set of the Powerstation ASTs way back. I suffered them for 6 weeks, tried 3 different spring combos (50/40 and 60/50 rates, not the 'street' 40/30) to try and get rid of the bottoming before admitting to myself I'd been sold a pup and that Powerstation didn't have what it takes to fix them. What a difference there is between Powerstation and TIC!

The guys on Scoobynet are clueless, and be aware that the chief pimper of the ASTs gets his free of charge.

Fourdegrees, maybe you should cut your losses and replace rather than repair these. They are not a well developed product.

[fourdegrees]

Thanks Duncang, I believe I've read about some your travails with the Powerstation ASTs. I've been in contact with AST-USA, and I think we're going to do a revalve at the same time as the rebuild.

[fourdegrees]

Okay, I finally have everything resolved. The original problem was loose swaybar nuts. That was the cause of the noise. However, the struts was leaking fluid, so I went ahead and sent it in to AST. Serendipity I guess. While I had them off I talked to Clint from TiC and I went ahead and replaced the soft rear springs with some high quality Swift springs at 4k. It's not a huge bump, but I didn't want to over power the front springs.

When I got them back I put them on the car and immediately I had a clunk again. I was going crazy since I had just fixed the real problem, the sway bar nuts, but now I had another noise with no apparent source since the struts had just been rebuilt and everything was put back together nice and tight. Clint and TiC fielded probably 30 PMs and four or five phone calls over three months trying to track down the problem. It finally came down to the struts being outgassed. I sent them back to AST and they came back good as new. I'm now back to a silent car.

I can't say enough about the support that I received from Clint and the boys at TiC. They treated the problem as if it was their own, which I think all of us can appreciate. It just further cements my desire to work with them for all of my suspension needs in the future.

Even though AST-USA did miss the nitrogen refill during the rebuild, they did do both for free even though the coilovers were bought before they had taken over here in America. I think this shows how much they will stand behind their product in the future. The turnaround was very quick and professional both times they had the coilovers, so I have no complaints there.

[kursplat]

Originally Posted by fourdegrees

...Clint and TiC fielded probably 30 PMs and four or five phone calls over three months trying to track down the problem. It finally came down to the struts being outgassed. I sent them back to AST and they came back good as new. I'm now back to a silent car.

I can't say enough about the support that I received from Clint and the boys at TiC. They treated the problem as if it was their own, which I think all of us can appreciate. It just further cements my desire to work with them for all of my suspension needs in the future.

Even though AST-USA did miss the nitrogen refill during the rebuild, they did do both for free even though the coilovers were bought before they had taken over here in America. I think this shows how much they will stand behind their product in the future. The turnaround was very quick and professional both times they had the coilovers, so I have no complaints there.

sweet

[4banger]

Did you get them revalved as well? I wish I would have spotted this thread earlier.

[Turninconcepts.com]

Originally Posted by 4banger

Did you get them revalved as well? I wish I would have spotted this thread earlier.

Hey Wes - I can answer this. No he did not. He kept the WL valving, but we have a gentleman's agreement that if he would like to go to our valving in the future we'll more than happily let AST do that for him.

BTW, remind me when you guys are going to be out this way so we can take the two of you out to dinner.

[Rain]

Interesting thread as im suffering the same thing! Taking note on those loose bolts, around what torque did you do them up to?

Ive got the exact same clunking as you had, but my shocks are fine, ive done the Clint test of taking the spring off and pushing them down, haha i could only push them so far very stiff but the shot back up pretty good!

+1 for TiC and RCE both great companies!!

[4banger]

I was going to say that he would be an excellent candidate for the valving that I have, so that it would better match the softer front springs. (But he might even want softer valving).

I'll shoot you a pm or call you soon about meeting up. We should have our schedule all worked out soon.

Originally Posted by Turninconcepts.com

Hey Wes - I can answer this. No he did not. He kept the WL valving, but we have a gentleman's agreement that if he would like to go to our valving in the future we'll more than happily let AST do that for him.

BTW, remind me when you guys are going to be out this way so we can take the two of you out to dinner.

[fourdegrees]

What spring rates are you running 4banger?

[4banger]

Originally Posted by fourdegrees

What spring rates are you running 4banger?

I am running 7/6K springs, but I could go as low as 5/4K.