Technical Panda 100hp metal tapping noise front end

[zeppelins]

Have had a metal tapping or rattling noise over rough ground coming from the front end ever since I got her 6 months ago.

Just had the drop links and anti roll bar bushes replaced and it's made no difference. The garage said the next culprit might be top mounts, however I had the shocks and top mounts done by another garage when i first bought the car. I mentioned this to the garage diagnosing it now and they said maybe the mounts were installed incorrectly.

Has anyone else had a sound like this and managed to identify it. Once the car is at speed the rattling is pretty much constant as there is no such thing as a smooth road round these parts. Attached a video is as close as I can get to replicating it.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[koalar]

Look at the suspension arm rear bush

Is it

A

Or

B

Owners often are keeping the 100HP running by using standard panda parts instead of the more expensive and unique parts

Arms, springs, bump stop, and top mount are different to the standard 1.1 or 1.2


@irc has converted a 100HP back to original, due to mismatch parts, not sure what was involved, some parts are quite difficult to tell apart, as far as I remember there was quite a big difference in the handling

 

[ZaphodB]

Sounds like the garage wants to slowly extract as much money as possible from the job.

A seasoned mechanic actually in front of the job should be able to determine precisely where it's coming from, rather than suggesting it could be this, or could be that .....

There are methods of elimination (if the job is in front of you) which will lead you to the culprit... not by chance, by deduction and a process of elimination.

 

[irc]

@irc has converted a 100HP back to original, due to mismatch parts, not sure what was involved, some parts are quite difficult to tell apart, as far as I remember there was quite a big difference in the handling

I have done two and I have kept back a full set of parts for a third which I will get round to starting one day.
Best way is to extract all of the correct part numbers from EPER, and then find OEM suppliers for each part.
Trouble is, some parts have been on restricted supply for some time, and are starting to become unavailable permanently now.
Something else to watch out for is that many of the "box shipper" type suppliers don't seem to understand that there's a big difference between the 100hp and any other Panda with a 1.4 engine (like the Natural Power), so will happily direct you to parts that are wrong.

I think the difference in handling and driveability from using the correct parts is worth the effort.

 

[koalar]

Right we know some things, such as some wrong parts have been fitted, but we haven't found the source of the problem, unless it's by luck

Loose springs at full droop will not cause a noise when compressed with the weight of the car pushing down on them

 

[ZaphodB]

Right we know some things, such as some wrong parts have been fitted, but we haven't found the source of the problem, unless it's by luck

Loose springs at full droop will not cause a noise when compressed with the weight of the car pushing down on them

Yeah you'd likely get the same noise mirrored on the other side

 

[zeppelins]

Sorry if i forgot to mention in the original post, yes the noise is present on both sides. Pssenger side worse, where the two videos I shared were taken from.

To me it does make sense to remove the incompatible AMTEX shocks and replace them with known OEM replacement (probably Bilstein B4s after a bit of googling) regardless. If that solves it all, the better.

They did look poorly seated, one was way off centre.

I do think mechanic is going down the wrong path with springs though, they look aged and possibly original to me.

Could the noise not be from the rebound of the spring against the strut?

 

[koalar]

Handbrake on, in neutral

If you push on the top of the front tyre as if you were rolling the car backwards

Is the any movement of the wheel in the wheel arch

 

[koalar]

To me it does make sense to remove the incompatible AMTEX shocks and replace them with known OEM replacement (probably Bilstein B4s after a bit of googling) regardless. If that solves it all, the better.

Same noise for 6 months

Same noise before and after

Top mounts
Struts
Anti roll bar bushes
Have been replaced


You'd be very unlucky to have a fail on fit part with the exact same problem

Could the noise not be from the rebound of the spring against the strut?

Don't see how there's over quarter the weight of the car pushing down on them, they are only loose when the car is in the air

Go back to basics, find the knocking and fix that first.

Post a video looking at the back of the suspension arm

 

[zeppelins]

*Update*

Noise is gone!

New springs and top mounts. Not sure which one did it. But the garage said the new springs had more (compression/pressure/can't remember) vs the old rusty bois.

 

[DaveMcT]

100 HP hardly squeezes the spring. A compressed spring can be loose when the car is jacked up. One of mine was like that but it never rattled. New springs fixed that issue but there was hardly any static compression on the springs.

Diesel had a rattle, actually more of a clunk after taking RH corners. It was hard to find when car was on axle stands. I eventually found the bottom ball joint pinch clamp was worn. The pin was stopped by the pinch bolt but sliding in the clamp. Fix was a new bearing knuckle.

 

[koalar]

*Update*

Noise is gone!

New springs and top mounts. Not sure which one did it. But the garage said the new springs had more (compression/pressure/can't remember) vs the old rusty bois.

Glad it's sorted

What the ride ride height

From the ground to the top of the wheel arch