Technical Mk1 Punto Trailing Arms...

[Kalfireth]

Hey all,

Have been the happy owner of my Punto for a while now - but just recently it has started making quite loud clunking noises when the rear passes over any kind of bump... speed bumps, multi story car parks and pot-holed road seems to replicate the noise the best.

Obviously, I don't want to replicate the noise - I want rid of it.

Everyone has been chucking the term "trailing arms" around and I gather it's a type of suspension that's used on the back of my Punto. Given that, I'll have to get it sorted. I've looked up some guides and what have you but I do have a couple of more immediate questions:

1. Is it dangerous to drive with the car in this condition? I gather it'll fail it's MOT and that's fine, I'll fix it before that. But I need to do some travelling in the near future and can't afford to have the car off the road. That said, I'd rather be safe than dead. So can I drive on it?

2. Is it a pricey fix? Looking at Ebay I can get a new trailing arm for about £40 but I'd rather get it done properly than chance something like this to my own somewhat basic knowledge. That said - if it can be done safely on a cheaper budget than throwing 100s at a garage, thats' even better.

Cheers all!

 

[Chris@souls]

it'll either be the radius arms as you say or possibly the sumframe mounting bushes.

Where are you located?

 

[Kalfireth]

Worthing, down on the coast near Brighton.

 

[Phil]

Don't worry too much about the MOT, the rear suspension on mine sounds comprehensively knackered and I didn't even get an advisory (well not on rear suspension anyway ;o)

 

[firstcar-Y10]

on the danger question, when mine started clunking I was commuting about 500 miles a week and it was a good couple of months before I got around to fixing it. the worn part is usually only a rubber bush on the mounting so it allows a bit more movement than there should be on the rear but be gentle and you should be ok for a while, the wheels won't fall off or anything.
You can tackle changing them yourself but only really if you have decent hard standing or garage space, a couple of jacks (you'll need one to hold the spring while you get the shock off) an outlandishly large socket and beefy wheel wrench to get the hub nut off (32mm??? I think), a trusty Haynes by your side, and a bit of patience. It's one of those big but relatively simple jobs.
On the bright side, it should be a relatively quick and easy job for a garage, they get enough practice!

 

[Kalfireth]

Cheers guys, I'm glad to hear it's not crucially dangerous nor expensive. Obviously I've been sweating a fair bit over the horrible sounds coming from the car as it goes over every pot hole! At least it'll (hopefully) get me where I need to go over the next couple of weeks, then I can get it seen to properly.