Hi all. Myrtle has immediately started to misbehave now that her Warranty has expired. She is knocking at low speeds. It sounds like it is coming from the rear, but I am not sure. Could it be wear in the anti-roll bar bushes with the noise travelling through the car?

I have jacked up the rear and levered the wheels up and down, but I can't
recreate the noise. Odd.

While buggering about I noticed that the anti-roll bar drop link on the off side has a split rubber so I have purchased a pair of them and am going to replace them Wednesday. Looks relatively easy....

So when I release the drop links I guess I will be able to jiggle the anti-roll
bar to see if the bushes are worn. But what am I looking for? How much wear, or play, should I expect in the ARB bushes? Am I just looking for obvious movement in the rubber around the bar? Will they be slack as Alice if they are worn?

I just need to know what I am looking for reference wear in the ARB bushes and also whether a clunk/knocking, apparently from the rear, is indeed indicative of ARB bush wear?

Thanks all! Panda.

I had same prob loads of play in anti roll bar didnt make a diff when changed then realised a cable was knockin and the tray at front but listened to my girlfreind and had roll car changed waste of time that was have a play around with hand break cable or even jump around in the boot ya will prob find the sorce is not the rear antiroll

Monty, my 55 plate JTD, developed a strange knocking (Occasional "clang" - but more often a dull knock) at 60k that wasn't constant and proved really difficult to pinpoint. It totally eluded me and various workshops for the best part of a year (!!). Ended up that the rear track control arm bushes were worn. (Positive - After uneven tyre wear on rear nearside gave the game away) These can be replaced if you're a masochist and have muscles like Garth - or, being a wimp like me, I got the whole rear track arm replaced. Cost £££ but sorted.

Hey folks.
Got the same mystery knocking on mine ..... just been pretending it's not there!

Then turned out my sort of cousin-type-thing?? had the same on his....
turned out to be sub chassis rubbers/ bushes...
Dealer said can't replace just the bushes need whole sub chassis at a cost of: ...... You gotta be +*@%'in Kidding !!

So he found a friendly garage who fixed it with some cut up truck inner tube for a few beer tokens

...... still yet to do mine tho.

Hope this of some help?

Hello chaps. Cheers for the replies so far.

So far I have renewed the ARB drop links. What a job! Looks simple but you just can't get the nuts off. And the allen key recess in the end of the thread stem is next to useless as with just a little bit of pressure, the allen key just slips round in the hole.

After half an hour of struggling, I chopped the bloody things off with an angle grinder. Five minutes each side to put the new ones in after that!

(Incidentally, my ARB bushes seem to be ok. Couldn't see or feel any wear in them at all. That was the main suspect.)

It has definitely quitened down some of the noise but I am still getting an intermittent clunky/rattley noise from the rear at low speed. I am going to drop it into my local independent next week to have it checked out but I will scrabble underneath once more on sunday to look for things suggested in the posts above and another sugestion from the other forum that I may have a rear anti-roll bar (never looked, to be honest!).

For anyone else with similar problems, do check that the spare wheel is done up tight on the rachet (mine wasn't....) and that the jack is securely stowed in the storage area (mine wasn't....). Both can rattle like buggery (mine were.....).

I'll report back when I've poked about a bit.

Panda.

rear subframe bushes?

did you check the front ARB bushes with the car jacked up? if so most of the play will be taken out by the way the suspension hangs. ideally you need it on a 4 poster ramp or over a pit, then grab hold of the ARB both sides and give it a bloody good rocking!

other multipla favourites are the radius arms but these make more of a crack than a knock.

matt8772 said:

did you check the front ARB bushes with the car jacked up......

Click to expand...

On axle stands, Matt. I see where you are coming from. Will get my indy to have a look at them as well just to be on the safe side.

Oh hang on, I have a set of drive-up ramps at home. Should offer a similar feel if I stick it on them. Might have a bash at that on Sunday too! Cheers fella.

Panda

Local indy looked at it this afternoon. Rear shock absorber lower bushes both clattering away! Don't know how I missed it when I looked.

Went for two new shocks in the end. One's a bit misty anyway so having both replaced on wednesday. Could do it myself but have run out of time now.

Will report back after the job is done to confirm noise has gone. What a relief. Really thought it was going to be subframe bushes.

Ha ha! Just come back from having the rear shockers replaced and the vast array of rattling and knocking noises I was getting have completely gone! Also she feels tighter at the rear and now essentially feels like a new car again. Really pleased.

So to recap, before blaming ARB bushes, drop links, or subframe mounts, just wiggle your rear shocks and see if they clunk. Could be them instead.

Thanks to all who replied. All useful stuff.

I've done a couple of droplinks and went through the same grief that Pandabloke describes.
Get a good pair of mole grips and grip the balljoint HARD through the rubber cover, mole grips lock against suspension and both hands are then free to use socket to remove nut - Jobs a good un.

I can never work out why they don't machine a bolt head on the end rather than a pathetic hex socket that rounds out every time, costs must be similar.
Any bets of whether anyone has successfuly removed droplinks without rounding our the hex?

momoe said:

.....Any bets of whether anyone has successfuly removed droplinks without rounding our the hex?

Click to expand...

I managed to get the nearside one off using just the hex key and a spanner. The nut head size was 16mm. Why 16mm for god's sake, lol, no one uses 16mm nuts do they, except Fiat......

The offside one just wouldn't go though.