Changed my starter motor (and 2 failed glow plugs) back in July. Surprisingly straightforward apart from forgetting to reconnect the cable from the alternator. Interestingly the display actually told me the fault instead of the usual "contact garage".
Anyway, aside from advising anyone doing this to buy ratchet spanners, and don't be shy about accessing the top bolts from the bonnet and the others from underneath, I have one more piece of wisdom. After the work, I noticed a slight clunky rattle from drivers side. Only happened at low speed when hitting a pot hole etc on one side. Nothing at high speed. Not loud enough to be anything serious, but still fecking annoying/:bang:
This has been driving me mad for ages.Every time I had a few spares minutes, I was under the car pulling at the suspension and steering to find the cause. Last week I noticed the tie rod ends were worn, and changed them. Steering smoother, but clunk still there. Arrrghhhh! Changed the upper engine mount too as it was a bit saggy. No improvement.
MOT is close, and I was on the verge of writing off the car (on the grounds there must be something wrong, and I may as well put the £54 towards a 'new' car). Then this morning, I noticed the clunk was also triggered when the passenger side wheel hit a bump. What links the two wheels? The Anti Roll Bar! Looked at it with the wheel off, and the coiled up metal pipe from the steering pump was resting on the bar! Jacked up the wishbone to see if it cleared when weight was on the road wheels, but it stayed in contact.
No idea what it is (yet) but it is flexibe and easily moved with a small bar.
The decider was realising that I removed the ARB last year when changing the bushes, and I definitely would remember the coil being there because I would have had to push it out of the way to refit the bar.
So here is what happened. When fitting the starter motor, I pushed the coiled pipe down to open up the gap. Shoving the new motor in, I pushed the pipe down even further, leaving it resting on the ARB, The ARB bushes are new, but even so, they move a little, which caused the mysterious noise and my stress on every drive.
Happy now. Just need to change the rear bushes over half term...
Anyway, aside from advising anyone doing this to buy ratchet spanners, and don't be shy about accessing the top bolts from the bonnet and the others from underneath, I have one more piece of wisdom. After the work, I noticed a slight clunky rattle from drivers side. Only happened at low speed when hitting a pot hole etc on one side. Nothing at high speed. Not loud enough to be anything serious, but still fecking annoying/:bang:
This has been driving me mad for ages.
Every time I had a few spares minutes, I was under the car pulling at the suspension and steering to find the cause. Last week I noticed the tie rod ends were worn, and changed them. Steering smoother, but clunk still there. Arrrghhhh! Changed the upper engine mount too as it was a bit saggy. No improvement.MOT is close, and I was on the verge of writing off the car (on the grounds there must be something wrong, and I may as well put the £54 towards a 'new' car). Then this morning, I noticed the clunk was also triggered when the passenger side wheel hit a bump. What links the two wheels? The Anti Roll Bar! Looked at it with the wheel off, and the coiled up metal pipe from the steering pump was resting on the bar! Jacked up the wishbone to see if it cleared when weight was on the road wheels, but it stayed in contact.
No idea what it is (yet) but it is flexibe and easily moved with a small bar.
The decider was realising that I removed the ARB last year when changing the bushes, and I definitely would remember the coil being there because I would have had to push it out of the way to refit the bar.
So here is what happened. When fitting the starter motor, I pushed the coiled pipe down to open up the gap. Shoving the new motor in, I pushed the pipe down even further, leaving it resting on the ARB, The ARB bushes are new, but even so, they move a little, which caused the mysterious noise and my stress on every drive.
Happy now.
Just need to change the rear bushes over half term...