Suspension Knocking?, which bit

becoming worse and worse now is a horendous knocking sound every time i pull away at low revs. it appears to come from the near side and is just terrible in traffic, i.e. v.low speed or pulling away.

my guess is something is worn (no shock to hear that bit). The roll-bar linkage has been replaced recently - with extreme wear visible on the old one. now i'm wondering what bit to attack next...

suspension arm bushes?
the driveshaft?
the engine mounts?

none of which appeal, so please nobody say all of the above, but is it any of these?

Sounds like a CV joint, symptoms : knocking increasing with speed and when cornering, quiet when driving in a straight line. The nearside driveshaft is the easiest one to change.

Peter.N.

I am not sure I understand exactly what You mean but a common fault is the bar between the antirollbar and the suspension. If that is the problem You should hear that if You open the door and rock the car with big movements with the door as a lever.
Jörgen

interesting common symtons we all suffer from - the first lot of knocking when i got the car was in fact the link bar for the antiroll which got replaced - the old one having extreme signs of wear on it.

but a different knocking now occurs!

the latest knocking is only at v.low speed. the great thing with torquy diesels is the ability to crawl in traffic without the throttle. its at this speed, especially on a slight incline when the engine is having to pull a bit, that the knocking is bad. it doesnt get worse when cornering and dissappears with speed.

despite getting the tracking done recently to eliminate wheel wobble on take off, i notice today that the NS tyre is STILL wearing down the outside edge. I think i can see steel now!

Mmm.. Have you checked the drive shaft and wheel nuts? The only other thing I can think of is the drive shaft centre bearing, but you only have one of them on the offside.

I dont trust garages with wheel alignment. I have a very simple home made alignment tool consisting of a length of conduit tube and a piece of threaded rod with two nuts, that slides inside. I never have trouble with uneven tyre wear.

Peter.N.

two things to check....

strut tops - make sure they are OK, one of mine had started to intrude into the bonnet and would clonk away nicely when going quickly round roundabouts!

wishbone bushes - front and rear bushes wear and will give a clonk when pulling away/stopping (and maybe when turning too).

both will affect the tracking and hence the wear on the tyres

regards
Dave

Hi guys,

Sorry to put a damper on such inventive possibilities but the most likely culprit is the exhaust. If the exhaust is close enough to any part of the underside of the car, when the negine rocks backwards as you pull away then the exhaust manages to touch the car. The engine vibrations are transmitted through the body and sound horrendous. Luckily its also the easiest problem to solve.

Please check this out and let me know. If that's not the problem then we can explore the alternatives.

Cheers

noz

yup, Noz is spot on.

and i'm not complaining because it is certainly way easier to fix than the bushes (which i have been putting off and putting off).

i am amased it manages to make such an awful knocking sound inside the car. the only place it touches is the joint behind the front box - which is of course directly under your derriere!

upon inspection there is a hole there too - in the exhaust that is.. dont panic! But a new (2nd hand) front box with flexy found (£35). Given the age of the car ('94) it isnt with an expensive converter which apparently were fitted to later 2.5's.

so i know the problem, have the bits... now i must bother to change it!

I remember from replacing exhausts before just how badly garages fit them, with such poor alignment. Inevitably the lowest point of the car ends up being one of the exhaust clamps hence gets dragged everytime you bottom out anywhere like speedhumps. thats what i am blaming my holed exhaust on anyway.

Hi, Noz,

Good to hear from you again, we were beginning to worry.

I really must contact you about your CD

Regards, Derek

Hi Gav,

I'm glad to hear it was the inexpensive problem - one of the rare times !

Derek,

thanks for your kind words. Just drop me a PM or a line to my e-mail address.

Cheers

noz

Hi everyone,

I'm having the same problem with my 2l inj 93 XM. Each time I'd take off, I'll hear a knocking sound. To me it sounds like it's coming from the top of the front struts. I changed a pair of the latter with second hand ones a few months ago. Please advise if any of you have ever met with a solution to fix it.

cheers,

XMotor

despite getting the tracking done recently to eliminate wheel wobble on take off, i notice today that the NS tyre is STILL wearing down the outside edge. I think i can see steel now! <<<<<<<

I must take you to task on your abov statement if you mean what you say!
Tracking check and resetting seems an odd way to eliminate wheel wobble. It may have done that, but if you are wearing tyres like that, You MUST get them laser-aligned as well as tracked. There is something radically wrong there.

slightly worrying reading this again after a year and a half. still got the problem though.

at that time i replaced the link rod and got a full laser check - with no ill report or adjustment required i hasten to add. this got rid of the knocking noise at the time but its now back again and i know the link rod needs replacing again which seems far too short a life. chap and easy though.

the wobble is on acceleration, esp. slow traffic type speeds. its not out of balance wheeels. at higher speeds there is no wobble or vibration.

i did get replacement suspension arm bushes but havnt actually fitted them yet! i only do low mileage in this car at the moment so i'm waiting for the spare steel wheel to loose its tread. if i still have the car when its worn i might replace the bushes - or get the tyre turned round and wait a bit longer!

To revive this topic, I am sure my car requires at least the left lower arm bushes replaced and I am about to order from GSF (works out at $12.50 AUS each plus freight from GSF rather than $44.95!). Now the big question... Has anyone here ever replaced the bushes themselves and if so how difficult was it?

I have a 12ton hydraulic press available so that may be useful.

It sounds from reading Haynes BOFT that getting the arm off is easy (remember we have no rust on modern cars here - no road salt!) but they mention that removing and replacing the bushes can be difficult.

So, any advice, as always would be welcome.

Thanks in advance

thanks for reminding me that i have not yet changed mine! kids and spare time dont go together.