General Knocking sound.

[Amboyo]

I have an annoying knocking sound coming from the front end when I'm driving along. It sounds like something is loose and knocking against something. Ive been over the car, under thè car, taken stuff off but the knocking is still there. Its been into the garage with no joy and it passed its MOT yesterday with no advisories.
Suspension is all fine so its not that. Nothing makes it worse or better, it just sounds like something is loose. Has anyone got any ideas what it could be?

 

[eeeno]

Strut bearings need changing sometimes with Fiats. It's not easy to diagnose because sometimes it works and then it doesn't.

 

[RobHowdle]

Was the knocking happening before or after the MOT? Reason I ask is I had my tires changed in a service before an MOT and they had forgotten to balance them properly so as soon as I hit the motorway it sounded like my car was ready to fall apart.

 

[Amboyo]

Update on the knocking sound. I decided to go back to my first instinct which was it might be the drop links. I checked them again with a tyre bar and they seemed ok. But I decided to change them anyway. They were a little tricky to remove and replace but got there in the end. The ball joints were ok but a little soft. But the knocking has now gone and the car handles much better. So it was them all along but appeared ok during the usual checks.

 

[The Panda Nut]

I have had brand new ones that knock! Glad you have sorted it.

 

[Stoichkov75]

I have an annoying knocking sound coming from the front end when I'm driving along. It sounds like something is loose and knocking against something. Ive been over the car, under thè car, taken stuff off but the knocking is still there. Its been into the garage with no joy and it passed its MOT yesterday with no advisories.
Suspension is all fine so its not that. Nothing makes it worse or better, it just sounds like something is loose. Has anyone got any ideas what it could be?

Hello,
I've got something very similar to this which is proving hard to track down. The key thing with mine is that the noise only starts once the my Tipo has had a good run but even the run my garage gave it before taking a look it - frustratingly - failed to get it going despite this going on for about 4 months! Typical...

The garage has put it up on ramps and can't find anything obvious - it all looks safe. When it's noisy though - it sounds terrible! - as if the whole front end is about to fall apart . When I described the sound to a guy who's knowledgeable about car mechanics his first thought was droplinks like what you suspected and what it turned out to be.

I think I might have two different things going on because once the sound starts - turning the steering wheel creates a sound too but they might be connected?

So, that's a rather long winded way of asking if the sound was immediate or after a bit of driving!

Cheers

 

[Amboyo]

Yeah the sound would only start after I had driven for a few miles. But as the weeks went on the time it took for the knocking to start got less. It was worse when driving on a straight road between 20-40mph. But like you said, the sound was terrible at times. It was so frustrating as I could not pinpoint it. I was a qualified HGV mechanic many years ago so not finding the problem was driving me crazy!

 

[eeeno]

Some older Fiat models tend to have a problem with the strut bearings becoming stuck which cause tension on the springs that cause intermittent knocking. If the knock happens when turning the steering wheel and there is some noises coming from the top, then strut bearings are the next good suspects. I don't have any idea if the bearings have been improved in these later models.

 

[Stoichkov75]

Yeah the sound would only start after I had driven for a few miles. But as the weeks went on the time it took for the knocking to start got less. It was worse when driving on a straight road between 20-40mph. But like you said, the sound was terrible at times. It was so frustrating as I could not pinpoint it. I was a qualified HGV mechanic many years ago so not finding the problem was driving me crazy!

Cheers for the reply - sounds very similar.

I'll book it back in and ask them to swap them out if they again can't see anything obvious. They're a cheap enough part to take a punt on. I'm getting fed up with having to turn the radio up to block the noise out

 

[Stoichkov75]

Update to the above - I put up with the noise until its MOT in January.

I asked them to replace the front link rods while it was in (£50 for a pair according to the invoice) and the noise has - like magic - gone away !

 

[EUR0]

Hi guys, if your car has heated seats it's worth to check under them for an el. wire connector (pretty chunky) that might lose from its holder, dangling on wire and time-to-time banging on metal seats frame. Happened to me, I clicked it back into its holder, no knocking sound since. 67 Tipo t-jet.