AndyMc

Hi guys

My car has been making clonking noises on bumpy roads for a couple of months now.It started off as more of vibration through the steering wheel but slowly turned into a knock/clonk.The noise was the loudest on fairly small bumps or when the suspension was only lightly loaded.Hitting a big bump while cornering hard produced no noise.I thought it was most likely to be the top mounts as I've heard of these failing before

At the weekend I finaly got around to taking the front suspension apart and found that the balljoint between the strut and wishbone was absolutely knackered,there is about a 1/4" play in it.

Typically my car is a couple of weeks out of warranty and the dealer would not entertain a warranty claim despite saying they have never had to replace a balljoint on a Subaru before. The car is a my98 and has done 35K.Has anybody heard of this problem before at such a mileage ?.

I have also run with an anti-lift kit for nearly two years now which has a much stiffer bush,I think this has been giving the balljoint a much harder time and was probably a contributory factor.The bushes in the Anti-lift kit also turned out to be very worn so I have removed the kit for the time being.My car has now stopped wandering on the motorway although it is understeering like a pig . What annoys me about all this is that it has only just had it first MOT and was only serviced about 6 weeks ago and neither the dealer or the MOT place noticed the balljiont,however the dealer did manage to notice that my front pads needed replacing.When I looked at them they were only half worn.Incompetent *******

PS The new balljoint was £45+vat

Andy

Rob D

Andy,

I've just had my front n/s balljoint on my RB5 (19,500 miles) replaced under warranty.
I had the knocking for about 2 months and also thought it was the top mounts.

My modifications since July this year have been:-

Eibach springs
Anti-roll bar on the rear
Bumpsteer removal

I also have taken part in a few track days, possibly the mods and trackdays have led to the ball joint wearing.

Regards,

Rob.

AndyMc

I fitted the new balljoint today, and that combined with removing the anti-lift kit has made the car so much quieter over bumps and on noisy road surfaces.
Without the ALK I can make it understeer more easily than before and it drifts wide if you power out of tight corners.Surprisingly there is more lift off oversteer now but it is more adjustable and easier to catch.

I also hacksawed the old balljoint in half to see what had worn.As it turned out there was no wear to the metal parts so it wasn't about to fail, and it was still full of new looking grease .What had happened was that the nylon insert that the ball moves in had been compressed so hard that it had been squeezed out of the joint allowing the movement a bit like the cartilage in my mates knee.

PS the new balljoint was actually £51 and it didn't come with a nut or a split pin,the bloody door hinges

Andy