Finally, after a whole afternoon of crawling around, I've got a quiet(ish) car again. I dismantled the "noisy" strut assemblies and reassembled them without springs to check all the alignment of everything, then marked it all up and reassembled them. All the loud clunks are gone now!

The drop links are very worn, but they are just making quiet grumbling noises now that they've been filled up with WD40 until Wednesday when I should have the Whitetline ones.

Toying with replacing the front wishbone bushes, as these looked a bit off, and the steering feels a little imprecice.

Happy Dave again!! Until he remembered that he should be playing with central heating, not cars...

[Edited by dnb - 8/2/2003 10:32:08 PM]

 

I've got some nasty suspension noises to go with all the other noises the car makes... A metalic clunking noise that seems to come from the back of the car and sometimes the front as bumps are enountered - never on smooth roads

I've had a reasonable look around the car - the CV joints all seem solid where they should be, as do the wheel bearings.

I've looked at the spring seating, and this seems OK too. I'll give that one more check at the weekend

This leads me to suspect the suspension bushes (and the old drop links that I've wanted to replace for ages!) and the front wishbone ball joints.

I'd rather not spend too much time and money on this at the moment - as long as it's safe and quiet. What do worn ball joints feel like when you've crawled under the car, and where can they be bought from for a sensible price?

Thanks

 

Did you replace the anti-roll bars with aftermarket ones? I have Cusco replacements front and rear with Whiteline bar end links in the rear. It sounds like my car was doing the same thing. I had the rear bar set on 24mm and I finally figured out that the bar end links don't have enough of a bend in them and they were tapping on the suspension arm when I hit a bump. I changed the setting to 23mm and have had no problems since. Cartboy end links look like they would clear at the high setting, but my car handles great at 23mm (Nice and neutral). Hope that helps.