General Noisy front suspension

[Scottish Weekender]

Can anyone shed any light on this one - when cold, the front suspension on my Marea Weekend 100sx is clonky going over uneaven road surfaces at low speeds. I have had the car looked over by a fast fit garage who could not see anything 'loose or about to fall off', to quote them! Has anyone else had this, it may be normal or perhaps someone out there knows more than a fast fit garage! Thanks

 

[Hellcat]

Lower arm bushes

or.

Drop links

or.

Anti roll bar bushes.


Jack the car up, give the wheels a good pushing. Best if you can wedge something between the arm and the subframe. The lower arm rear bush usually failes more than the front. If this has no visible play then look at the drop links next.

 

[LASSIE1010]

check as above thread
grab drop link and see if any movement
also common is anti roll bar banging on lower radus arm
quick fix for this is rubber tube tied onto ani roll bar at each end.

 

[Mackie Cross]

I have this problem as well sometimes on uneven roads.

You hear a knocking sound.

The car sailed through its MOT last week, but came with a advisory warning:

Nearside & Offside front anti-roll bar linkage has slight play in a ball joint.

Was told thats where the sound comes from.

 

[Migaard]

Hi.

My Marea 1.6 ELX did the same i had the anti roll bar bushes replaced.

Michael

 

[Renegade_8]

New anti roll bar and drop links cured this on my car. It passed MoT easily but the clunks were really irritating. It was not at all obvious under the car that they were worn, even putting big lever on them.

 

[Marea147]

After many trips to the garage with the same problem, it turned out to be a worn track rod end (slightly worrying that 3 garages had failed to spot it....), but the MOT picked it up in the end...

 

[Scottish Weekender]

Had my car looked over by a trusted independant garage. Its the anti-roll bar bushes that are starting to wear and causing slight movement. I have been assured that they have plenty of life left in them and not dangerous. If I can put up with the noise over poor surfaces, it can wait until needing done.
Otherwise it's a 2 hour job and about £80 in parts - I'll wait!

 

[rockhampton]

I had the droplinks only changed on mine, and the noise vanished for about 2k miles, but it's started to come back now - but less - some days it is worse than others. The small Fiat repair centre I use say exactly same thing - ARB bushes wearing, but completely safe, and good for many thousands of miles yet. Quote was £235 to fix it, so I'll live with it. On bad days I just put some Motorhead on and that sort of cures it.....

 

[Tomasso]

The point is that fiat sees one way of solving this problem only - replacing the whole ARB.

There is a solution, though. While in fiats B/B you can replace the bushes, Marea's clamps seem to be soldered together.

That is not true, actually - you can prise them open using a chisel and a hammer. No harm is done, as the bolt goes through the clamp and bolts it securely and tight.

The bushes can not be bought. Again, there is a solution. Iveco Nuovo Daily bushes are perfect - 16mm in diameter. All you have to do is file their bottom surface to shape, following the original bushes (different for gasoline and diesel bars).

Presto and cheapo!