Has any one else with a panda 4x4 twin air experienced serious knocking from their front suspension? It has been back to the dealer and it stayed away for a while, but it is back again now. Seems to be worse in cold wet weather. It is worst when going through small holes in the road, especially under braking or accelerating.
Tried to look for new shocks for the 4x4, but none of the main manufacturers seem to make them. Has any one found them, or is it an original part from the dealer job?

I get a clonk from the front every now and then in my 4x4.

It slaps back and forth, so if I reverse and apply the brakes, clonk!
Then move forward and apply the brakes, clonk!
As long as I keep driving forward, it'll shut up.

Every now and then over speed humps it'll clonk again.

I can't quite put my finger on what is actually causing it,.
It could be the pads slapping in the caliper, most likely.
Or the disc slipping on the hub and slapping the wheel studs (not sure if there's a small locating bolt holding the disc to hub).

Mine is definitely brake related as the clonk over bumps shuts up if I have my foot on the brake pedal and the back and forth clonk shuts up if the brakes are mad hot.

Can't say I've ever come across this ......and we have some seriously ****e roads here on the isle of Wight.......

Might not be brake related, my old Twingo used to do that and it turned out to be worn swingarm joints from the front right suspension. Basically, the lower suspension arms would move fore and after based on load, so braking hard after accelerating would clonk, and braking after reversing would also clonk, and rarely it would clonk if, say, I hit a pothole while accelerating (since the torque would pull it forward but the resistance from the pothole wall would suddenly push it back).

My old dodge had a clonk and it was the caliper carrier boltholes were oval.... but could be anything. Dodge used microphones on my chassis to find it.

ExBluebird said:

Dodge used microphones on my chassis to find it.

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Fiat'd tie Mario underneath and go for a drive down to the coffee shop

Just got back from the dealer following the computer upgrade for the lights (the recall mentioned in another thread), I asked them to give the car a once over in case anything needed doing under warranty. I had noticed a clonk from the suspension and it turns out that the nearside front track rod end has excessive play as does the nearside front drop link. They also found that one of the rear bump stops had dropped off and was loose in the spring and the other one was about to do the same as well.
To their surprise the Fiat warranty for post 2013 cars goes up to 100k, not 60k as they thought and to MY surprise it may all be covered under said warranty!

Quick update, Fiat have approved the repairs so now I just need to book it in.

Good news - but so they should! Why do Fiat make their bushes out of cheese?

gar074 said:

Why do Fiat make their bushes out of cheese?

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Cost. The business model is based around most new cars being sold on finance and traded away within three years. There is little incentive to engineer more durability into consumable parts than is needed to get the majority of new cars through the warranty period. For most, that's probably 40,000 miles or less.

A 100k warranty helps to sell the car, but the reality is that only a tiny minority of buyers will get anywhere near that in the first three years and it's cheaper for the manufacturer to swallow the additional cost for those vehicles than to specify more durable components.

Just got the car booked in an it seems that they can't just replace the track rod ends they have to replace the whole steering rack! I can't believe that they designed it with fixed rod ends but at least I'm getting my money's worth out of the £30 it cost to transfer the warranty.

julzgeraghty said:

Just got the car booked in an it seems that they can't just replace the track rod ends they have to replace the whole steering rack! I can't believe that they designed it with fixed rod ends but at least I'm getting my money's worth out of the £30 it cost to transfer the warranty.

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there is a ball joint at EITHER end of the "Steering shaft"
could well be the ball joint at the rack end that's failed..

http://eper.fiatforum.com/eper/navi...=3&WINDOW_ID=1&SGRP_COD=1&SGS_COD=0&DRW_NUM=2

as you say.. NOT shown as separate parts..

Yes, it'll be the inner ends that have failed if they're replacing the whole rack. This isn't just another Fiat quirk; they weren't replaceable on the original Ka either, and on that car are an extremely common failure item necessitating replacement of the whole rack (which isn't cheap, and it's an awkward job). Many Ka owners are on their third or fourth rack by now.

The outer ends are designed to be easily replaceable, though on older cars corrosion will sometimes do its best to defeat the intention of the designer. The previous model Astra was well known for this and many tyre dealers won't attempt tracking adjustment on them.

As an aside, if you're replacing the rack, it's considered good practice to replace the outer track rod ends at the same time.

Interestingly aftermarket inner tie rods are readily available for the Mk3 Panda, at reasonable cost.

Yikes!! I guess this is especially bad news for 4x4 owners who want/need to take their little beasts over rough ground on a regular basis.

On my Fiat 1.2 Pop they had to replace the stabilser arm bushes within the first year because they were noisy.

Work was all completed today and the clonk has gone.