While I haven’t taken an FL2 suspension unit apart, the dampers that I have looked at have normally either expanded or stayed in place when taken out of suspension units. I don’t think that the shock stud is going to drop but that is just a thought rather than knowledge.

NoDo$h wrote:

Solved it! Or rather, my dear wife did. Albeit indirectly. She knows I've been over everything with a torque wrench and was giving me a hand bouncing the car while we tried to figure out where the movement was. She asked "you've not missed out any washers, have you? It feels like it's only a couple of mm of play that causing the knock"

Now I know there are no washers anywhere in assemblies I've replaced, but it got me thinking about the top mounts again. I popped the scuttle cover off and checked the 3 mounting bolts (LR008026) by slacking them off and re-torquing to 30Nm per spec, then checked the strut top nut (LR000055) using an "open" 18mm socket, ratchet wrench and a 6mm Hex. It was fully torqued down.

I left the (bright yellow) 6mm Hex in while I scratched my head and gave the car another bounce. Sure enough there was still the knock and play..... and out of the corner of my eye I saw the yellow hex key bobbing up and down.

I popped the nut (supplied with the BWI shock absorber) off and peered down through the keyhole in the strut turret. The thread on the shock shaft stops about 1.5mm *above* the strut top mount, so there was no way the nut could snug down on the top of the strut top mount.

So off I went to dismantle the original, worn shocks to compare and would you believe, the OE nut has a recess/shoulder of about 1.5mm that allows you to snug the nut down over that small unthreaded section.

I fitted the old nuts to the top of the shocks and all knocking has now gone.

Pic shows the original nut with the recess (left) and the new, flat nut that came with the shocks (right).

If you decide to replace your front shocks, make sure you order a couple of genuine LR nuts (LR000055) and throw the ones that come with the shocks in the bin - you'll save yourself a LOT of grief.

Click image to enlarge