Shake Rattle And Groan

Message

Warner Bigend · #1 Post by **Warner Bigend** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 9:45 pm

I\'ve been looking into my groaning when going over bumps with left
lock. So far I\'ve replaced the drag strut bushes, and the left bottom
arm (bought one with a new boalljoint, for less than have the old one
re-balled). Still got the groan. I noticed today, if I put left lock on
while stationary, then bounce the front up and down I can replicate the
noise after certain levels of movement (ie a few inches doesn\'t cause
it, but lots of bouncing and it\'ll groan). 
 
Looking under what\'s left of the arch (turned out the wing was full of
filler, which fell out hte other week) I noticed the spring seems to
sit very close to the rear of the turret, and slightly closer still
with teh wheel quite over to the left. 
 
The noise does seem to be coming from the spring area, so I\'m going to
have another wild guess and say it\'s rubbing the bodywork on hard left
at certain amounts of compression. 
 
Having come up with that theory, how the heck do I fix it!?

Bazzamech · #2 Post by **Bazzamech** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:08 pm

Warner,
If it were my car, I would change the complete suspension leg.
Regards,
Barry.
 

Warner Bigend · #3 Post by **Warner Bigend** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:13 pm

I forgot to say, I\'ve also replaced the struts a while ago to try and
cure teh problem with groaning and stiff steering (looked like the top
bearing had failed). Exactly the same symptoms as now though. 
 
I\'m wondering if the slightly random and stiff steering is part rack,
part geometry, and the groan is something not keeping everything in
place as it should. However, the drag strut looked fine when removed to
rebush, the bottom arm looked good, the drag strut body mount appeared
OK when I did the bushes (though I can\'t be sure it\'s perfect of
course, and don\'t want to think about it not being good!), so what on
earth is there left for it to be? 
 
I\'m half tempted to spend an afternoon with a couple of large washer
when i get chance, to shim the drag strut towards the front of the car,
thereby pushing the spring more central to the turret. But that sounds
like a bit of a bodge to me

Warner Bigend · #4 Post by **Warner Bigend** » Sat May 13, 2006 1:10 am

A small update on this - I still can\'t find any play, and with the wheel i nthe air or on the ground putting left lock on brings the spring closer to the turret. I suppose this is due to the geometry of where the strut pivots/ rotates. Anyway, I slackened off the top three strut nuts and levered the whole thing forward, then retightened the nuts while keeping pressure on the lever. I don\'t think t\'s anythng like perfect, but now I can\'t replicate the groan with left lock when stationary, and didn\'t seem to hear it going nto the carpark yesterday.. So I mght have found a workaround. There\'s not a lot of space either side of the spring so the slightest movement either way would appear to increase the chance of the spring fouling the bodywork under compression - The holes in the top of my turret look fine and at most I\'ve shifted the top mount less than 1mm, showing just how close it all seems to be! I\'m still not happy with it, but for now it\'s a little better