Hi All, I'm a new B owner in the Isle of Man seeking help with an annoying but hopefully not terminal problem. It's a silver 96 car, 39k miles, great bodywork (rear inner arches are fine), lots of recent work done including new variator and all belts, new wishbones including balljoints and bushes, ARB bushes, rear bushes, top mounts, track rod ends etc. But I still have an annoying rattle underneath which seems to be coming from the front passenger side. But then noises can travel of course so I suppose it could be from elsewhere. Engine mounts seem fine, no excessive movement, and so do shocks and springs. I can't find any heatshield issues beneath the car and all seems tight under there including rack mounts, subframes etc. I hear the rattle especially when the car is slowing down and taking a right bend, when there's less weight on its passenger side wheels, particularly on a gnarly surface. It's noisy under there anyway when going over bumps etc, it's just that I can hear the specific rattle when slowing down / turning right.


Are B's naturally noisy cars underneath? Is it just the effects of firm suspension and a light open car that flexes a bit ? I hate rattles and I'm probably over-sensitive, for all I know it may be normal but if anyone has any ideas I'd be very grateful ?....


Cheers, Chris.

Hello Chris, have you checked the manifold heat shield in the engine bay?.,they all tend to split and rattle.Is the radiator support ok?/maybe worth a look.David..

Many thanks, yes I checked the manifold heat-shield and radiator support after going through similar threads on the forum. Both are fine though the support is a bit rusty, nothing too bad though and no movement in it. Noise seems more like a front suspension knock, which is annoying as I can't think of anything else to change ! Either that or something loose up front that's out of sight. Oh well, I know I'm too sensitive about noises but I'll keep looking. Still love the car. Thanks again.

Cribus said:

Many thanks, yes I checked the manifold heat-shield and radiator support after going through similar threads on the forum. Both are fine though the support is a bit rusty, nothing too bad though and no movement in it. Noise seems more like a front suspension knock, which is annoying as I can't think of anything else to change ! Either that or something loose up front that's out of sight. Oh well, I know I'm too sensitive about noises but I'll keep looking. Still love the car. Thanks again.

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Hi Chris, don't worry, my one sounds the same and can't find anything loose.

The lower part of the front wheel arch, drivers side isn't secured too well , could be worh checking.

Thanks for that, yes I see what you mean... Mine seems loose on both sides but it doesn't seem to make a great deal of noise when I waggle those areas. Anyway I'll see if I can fasten them somehow even if just temporary with cable ties or something, to see if it makes any difference. Cheers.


I have another idea suspension-wise which I'll try and report back if it makes a difference.

Another area is the catalytic and the flexible part of the exhaust.
Keep us posted on your findings.

Thanks, I've spent ages crawling around underneath checking out all exhaust sections and heat shields, banging on the catalyst etc but there's just no contact or noises.


I'll float the suspension idea in case anyone's tried something similar. Years ago I had a Ford Puma which constantly rattled at the front no matter what I changed (we have a lot of bad roads here in the IOM). After a while it dawned on me that it felt like the front coil-overs were too stiff, that the front of the car was just jarring over rough sections rather than soaking anything up and the vibes were getting fed back into the chassis and causing the noises. So I tried second-hand softer Fiesta Zetec coil-over units from eBay (Puma being based on Fiesta) and it was an instant fix - a cushy ride, no more rattles and somehow there was no more roll than there had been, perhaps because the ARB's and rear springs were still the same.


I happen to have a set of standard front coil-overs from a Punto Mk1 that I also used to own so I'm going to try fitting them and see whether it does something similar. If not, there's nothing lost except a Saturday morning. The mountings are identical and they are the same length as the standard units so it shouldn't affect the ride height, only the springs look different.


A few years ago I test-drove a 5,000 mile late model B at a local garage and heard the same noise at the front over bumps. I didn't buy it because I thought the noise might indicate that the car had been clocked (it was also mega-expensive as you'd expect !) but now I'm wondering whether it was legit after all and the noise is just inherent, especially if others are saying that they hear it but can't find anything wrong.


Anyway, I'll give it a go next weekend and report back.

A little late to this but:

Our B - 2005 plate has always had a rattle/noise/clonking from somewhere underside.

I've spend quite some time with head and hands up deeply into to dash/windscreen area. I've spent time with MOT testers at several annual MOTs going beyond the official MOT testing looking for the cause. To date nothing has ever been found and we just live with it.

Put the hood down an the noise just disappears into the upper atmosphere

Cheers, at least I'm not the only one. Yes there is that option, but with my allergy to hypothermia I might just bump up the stereo instead.


I'll see if softer coil-overs make any difference. If not then I'm out of ideas and will just live with it. Of course it may just ruin the handling in which case I'll go back to standard and stick to smooth roads.

Mine has always clonked alarmingly at lowish speeds when driving along our bumpy farm track. It's fine on the road though. I spent ages after I first got it trying to track the source down, fearing that it was about to break, but 10 years on, I've stopped worrying about it.

Thought I'd update as regards the knocking from the front offside - I tried fitting the Punto struts I had lying about but although the fittings are the same, the Punto springs are wider in the middle and rub against the B's inner wings. So an obvious no-no. I would have tried the B springs on the Punto shocks but I couldn't break the B's shock top nuts no matter how hard I tried, so I couldn't swap the springs over. So I gave up on that idea.


I went back to tapping things underneath with a rubber mallet to see if I could find what was knocking. I was about to give up when the front offside caliper knocked when I hit it. Seemed to be coming from the pad spring clips area. I was really dubious as this didn't seem to be something that could possibly generate the level of noise I'd been hearing, but I've put plastic ties on the spring clips (not in a way that impedes the pads moving) and the noise is gone. I can see from previous posts that others have fixed their knocking only for it to come back, sometimes after trying new shocks, so I'm not going to tempt fate by saying the job's done for good but I'll just have to see.


Whilst doing all this I also noticed that my inward fuel hose fitting (where the hose joins the fuel rail) seemed to be permanently damp. I've had the fuel smell problem that others have reported (only when putting the window down, it's fine when stationary or when driving with windows and hood up) as well as the knocking. I've put an extra clamp on the end of each hose and touch wood the smell seems to be gone now and the hex fitting that was damp is completely dry now. But again time will tell whether it stays gone.


Anyway thanks to those who responded, if you have a knocking at the front that you can't trace have a look at the calipers especially the area of the outer pad and spring clip. It may be that my pad guide pins need greasing and the pads weren't staying near the disc when driving, leaving the outer pad loose to knock around, but I'll give that a go at the weekend and see about losing the plastic ties which can't really be a permanent fix.

Well just had an MOT and yet again raised with the MOT guys I know well the issue of knocking noise etc. and yet again we failed to find anything in the basic front suspension, track control, steering etc. that could account for the noise.

I'll make a note of the calliper/pads potential but the noise I'm hearing is far nearer to home/body shell and driver's side area.

Could be top turret bearings but as this noise has been present from new some 10+ years ago I'm left scratching my head!

All I would say is, try taking the wheel off on the noisy side and see whether there's any looseness in the outer side of the caliper / pad. It may need a good shake or whack with a rubber mallet or similar to reveal the noise. I really didn't expect that this would be the answer as the noise seemed like it must be from something more basic in the suspension, bodyshell or even loose subframe bolts. All the usual suspects had been changed on mine but with no joy. I've been out a couple of times now on stretches of road that generated the noise before and it does seem to be gone. Definitely worth a try !

Sound like a job well done!

Nice one

Do you have photo for "plastic ties on the spring clips (not in a way that impedes the pads moving)"?
Thanks!

Cribus said:

I went back to tapping things underneath with a rubber mallet to see if I could find what was knocking. I was about to give up when the front offside caliper knocked when I hit it. Seemed to be coming from the pad spring clips area. I was really dubious as this didn't seem to be something that could possibly generate the level of noise I'd been hearing, but I've put plastic ties on the spring clips (not in a way that impedes the pads moving) and the noise is gone. I can see from previous posts that others have fixed their knocking only for it to come back, sometimes after trying new shocks, so I'm not going to tempt fate by saying the job's done for good but I'll just have to see.

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Here's a lazy pic looking through the spokes - the ties go under each side of the pad spring clip and in effect hold the pad against the side of the caliper that it's meant to be in permanent contact with anyway. Before doing this I checked that the sliding pins in the caliper were well greased and allow the two parts of the caliper to slide freely. I've been driving with them in place for a few days now and the only difference is no more rattle.

Cribus said:

Here's a lazy pic looking through the spokes - the ties go under each side of the pad spring clip and in effect hold the pad against the side of the caliper that it's meant to be in permanent contact with anyway. Before doing this I checked that the sliding pins in the caliper were well greased and allow the two parts of the caliper to slide freely. I've been driving with them in place for a few days now and the only difference is no more rattle.

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Hello Cribus, How are you getting on with the rattle from underneath your car? Would like to see a better picture of your temp. repair with ties. David.

Hi David, I'll do a proper pic asap, weather is lousy here in the IOM at the moment. The rattle has stayed gone thanks to the ties. Since then I've also been buying and fitting a hardtop in an effort to get the car watertight, the windows are now adjusted and it's a big improvement over how it was. As a result the car is a lot quieter inside now which may be why I've picked up on a strange rumbling-whine-type noise from the front nearside when turning right (i.e. when the weight is on that wheel) which may be wheel bearing or CV joint ? It's pretty quiet at the moment but it will no doubt get louder so I'll need to look at that. Anyway I'll post pics as soon as the weather improves. Basically the ties hold the outer pad against the outer part of the caliper by circling that part of the caliper and passing under each 'arm' of the pad spring clip, hence there are two ties. Hopefully a better pic will make it clearer.