Tein + GR-2 woes... Options

[phokur]

Ok, so I finally made the plunge and picked up some KYB GR-2s and Tein S-techs since my rears went out. The installation was pretty smooth until I lowered the car. (I should add in I got strut cartridges for the front that just replaced the shock, the rears were full strut assemblies.) The car made very odd rubber-on-rubber sounding grinds and pops. I put it on the lift and watched the springs, they torqued with the top half rigid and the bottom half turning. I figured it must be the upper bearings so I put a healthy amount of axle grease on them and reassembled the struts. Then popping is much less now, but still noticeable going into and coming out of left turns. I know my driver front axle is bad, so I will be replacing that next; but I think the sound is strut related. Any ideas?

[Galcobar]

The bottom need to be fully seated in the correct groove in the lower spring seat, and the rubber isolators also have to be correctly seated on the seat in between.

Also, did you ensure the upper spring seats were correctly aligned prior to tightening the gland nut?