70k mile..12 years in service

199 grande punto

Its got a thump type suspension noise..

Not always there.. aiming at drain covers and edges of speedhumps gives mixed results


So.. after it passed MOT without a mention I had a little experiment

Empty carpark: Tarmac roadways.. block pave parking bays

There was a small concrete kerb between them

Drove in square clonk from the front

Backed out.. nothing

Drove in at a 30' angle

Left wheel clonk.. right wheel clonk

BUT: left wheel was louder

Opinions?

Suspension arm bushes. Reaction seems to be when pushing the wheel back, not up.
Tie rod main bushes? As tie rod is pulled backwards?

On normal roads, does it clunk when hitting bumps, or when dropping into holes?

Might need to disconnect the strut and see if there's any sideways play in the piston rod, but I'd expect this to bring a leak.

Thanks
nearside droplink is 1st port of call..

Being loaded on LHS ..and part loaded on RHS seems to add up


And they are cheap.. and I have a pair in the boot

Stick the pair of droplinks on. See how that goes. I've had noisees on one side when the faulty droplink is on the other. The noise transmits along the roll bar. Great weather for working under a car.

portland_bill said:

Stick the pair of droplinks on. See how that goes.

Great weather for working under a car.

Click to expand...

Thanks

The weather will be fine.. when I do the job

My 500 (15plate) makes a very light knocking but I can’t replicate it. All I can find underneath is some play in the drive shafts at the gearbox end (just a slightly discernible amount) and also some similar amount of play in the off side driveshaft joint half way along the shaft.
Dunno if this is normal or not but my first inclination is to change the drop links anyway!
Doesn’t appear to be any play in the suspension arms......
As varescrazy suggests above - it’s a job for better weather!

Daylight has become more plentiful.. hopefully warmth might follow..

varesecrazy said:

Daylight has become more plentiful.. hopefully warmth might follow..

Click to expand...

Looking forward to complaining about the heat.
Too hot to work outside!