Technical Rattling Coilovers

[foot2thafloor]

hi all, sorry if this has already been asked...but im a newbie with an annoying problem

i have a mk2 uno turbo, full engine rebuild with exterior styling as well.

its sitting on avo adjustable coilovers (already fitted when i bought the car)

i can hear a pretty loud rattle/knocking noise everytime i go over a bump or pothole in the road. the suspension is obv very stiff anyway and you can feel every defect iin the road

now ive tightend the topstrut nuts twice, which seemes to reduce the rattle for a couple of days but it keeps coming back. ive had it checked by a garage and the wishbones/balljoints/ driveshafts seem fine. the ratlling is considerably louder on the passenger side, the mechanic suggested raising the car to help solve it...but im not sure if that will have any effect

can anyone help me out because ive tried everything and im all out of ideas!

cheers
Jay

 

[circolo]

I don't think raising the car would help.

If something is rattling/knocking, having even more suspension travel won't reduce the noises. But maybe change the regularity and timing of them.

Rattling springs have quite a specific sound, almost like a chattering/tinkelling noise. If you're getting knocking, my guess is that your ball joints are failing. Which (as you point out) tends to wear quicker on the passenger side, than the drivers, (probably because of more sunken drains, and undulations closer to the kerb than the centre of the road - where the drivers side would travel).

With a standard suspension set up, it's sometimes very difficult to diagnose a worn ball joint, even when the ball joint is excessively worn. As the joint is under pressure, with the suspension components pushing down on it, even when the car is jacked up. I'd presume it would be even more difficult with a stiff uprated set up like yours.

The only real way of telling if your ball joints are worn is to remove the wishbone end, (where the ball joint sits in the hub - you'll need a ball joint splitter for this). You may be able to clamp up the spring enough to give you the room to split the hub from wishbone end/ball joint, and then you can check for play in the (now much more visible) ball joint. The joint should show some resistance against movement, and not be loose in any way. (It's that looseness which causes the knocking noises).

You can't just buy the balljoint. So you'll need new wishbones, if your ball joint has failed. You can get them geniune from fiat for around £15 each. Or someone like buypartsby for £8 each.

 

[foot2thafloor]

thanks for the post

ive bin told its probably my suspension bushes...as there is slight movement in the coil thread when the steering is being turned....is this likely?

and if so, does anyone know where i can get some decent bushes from?


:spin: