Hi Another couple of questions about my 'new' marea weekend 105 JTD. There is a slight knock when accelerating hard,or dabbing the throttle.It is definately front suspension area,lh side.Before I get under it and start my own search,is there a common problem that this sounds like?The car has only done genuine 61K.Secondly,the steering is very light,and very precise,making straight line steering a bit of a task as we are still getting used to the car.Is this normal,or could it be related to the other problem.? Cheers all.Paulg

The usual suspenion noise is the front anti roll bar bushes and drop links. However this is heard as a knock when you go over a bump and seems to come from the back. I did change the lower wishbones on my car at about that mileage. The effect when they are worn is that the car seems to "torque steer" a lot at very moderate throttle inputs, I did not get any clunkings. As to having to put a lot of input into steering the Marea, the car is a wafter on standard suspension, really effortless progress, beautifully weighted and very informative steering but not for tight slalom courses.

light steering is a common complaint, its a fiat thing.

a knock when hitting the throttle is often due to play in a CV joint.

Straight-line shouldn't be a problem. Bunny's bravo is much lighter than my Marea Weekend 105JTD was. Only issue I had was a worn lower arm which made the car weave under acceleration/braking and at constant speed would require constant corrections.

If it hasn't already had lower arms replaced then at 60k it's probably due. They're about £30 for the pair from www.buypartsbuy.co.uk

Hi Hellcat.By lower arm, is that the wishbone,as I can certainly see play in the front bush here.

Yep. Lowerarm/wishbone.

If you can see play then I salute you for keeping it on the road! Mine wasn't obvious but still would dive left and right on brakes/accelerator.

lol I must deserve a medel then, been driving with no bush!!!

Inherited a 2000 Marea from my Dad (actually that makes him sound dead!!), he told me it had a slight pull to one side. I picked it up and it was all over the road, pulling from side to side, like torque steer but obviously not!! Seemed to be worse on heavey useage roads like m'ways, I assume as the wheel was following tramlines in the surface.

Had a quick look under and there is obviously a bush missing, I assume it's the same one mentioned above (lower arm). My questions are: Can the bush be replaced or is it best to replace the lower arms?? And, how much of a job is it to do the lower arms?? I'm not a pro but I am confident enough to take a spanner to my cars if the job isn't too demanding.

Any help would be excellent!!

Cheers!!

Matt

Reet, had a look in the Haynes which answers my questions, yes it comes as a complete unit (do new ones include the ball joint?) and it doesn't look too hard a job to complete!!

So £30 a pair you say from that site above??

Matt

Hi Matt,

The arms come as complete units but it's just half of the truth. It is possible to buy bushes alone from manufacturers like OCAP, IMPERGOM and like.

However, the extent of work and costs related to replacing the bushes makes it unworthy. You'd need to tear off old rubber, cut the inner tubes to remove them and press or hammer the new bushes in place.

You may try to take the faulty arm out and after checking the ball joint for play decide on repair/replacement.

Should the ball joints be in factory state you may also consider installing performance bushes from Powerflex (same for Tipo, Coupe, Alfa 155). These cost a lot though.

And to answer your Q - yes, new arms unfortunately include a ball joint. Unfortunately as you can't replace the joint only.