Why does my front suspension make a noise???

[rob jones]

Hi all,

messing around today, fitted a new brake master cylinder, replaced the road wheels and sheared a rear stud, i trust these are not to difficult to repalce, however the reason for this post, when turning the front wheels the n/s suspension makes a creaking noise, the same happens over bumps i.e. speed humps.

So any ideas would be greatly appreciated, not including a gallon of petrol and a match

by the way has anyone else snapped any wheel studs????

kind regards

Rob

[DJT]

It could be a dry top mount swivel. Remove the plastic plug and pour some light oil around the nut. It should make its way down into the top mount and lubricate the swivel.

Failing that, it could be a cracked drag strut. These can break where they join the radius arm. They are also prone to breaking where the drop link attaches.

Another possibility is a knackered bottom ball joint.

[SGN]

Mine creaked until I got caught out in the rain, creaks all gone.
(it had not seen water underneath in 20 years) Try a hosepipe underneath before you go looking for problems that might not be there. You might be lucky.

Cheers
Steve

[Andrew S]

Hi Rob, rear stud easy and cheap to fix, so no worries there. Check on the front that the anti roll bar drop link is not touching when turning and the camber changes. To test this, put a bit of grease under the link so if it does touch, it wont creek. There will be other suggestions and reasons but as I had this, it could be a quick fix.

Cant give you petrol, its too expensive, sorry

Andrew

[martin]

Strut top studs are known to snap, but wheel ones are unusual. The usual reason for creaking front suspension, is that after being disturbed (jacked up etc.) grit and small stones find their way between the spring pad and the top plate, or the spring pad and the spring. Sometimes they can make an alarming "BOING", providing a spring isn't actually broken it means nothing. Curing it means waiting for a wet day when it'll wash out, or taking both assemblies to bits and cleaning them, or replacing the spring pads (rarely necessary) Martin.

[aerosilver]

It could be a dry top mount swivel. Remove the plastic plug and pour some light oil around the nut. It should make its way down into the top mount and lubricate the swivel.

I suffer the same creaking (the Stag does as well). Will try the light oil trick tomorrow.

Cheers,

Bob
--

[grumpy2]

this is well known in Porsche Boxster circles (my other pet!). In this case it is a dry bottom ball joint and there are three fixes, 1; renew the ball joint, 2; remove the ball joint rubber and apply a mix of EP80 and LM grease (this worked well for mine) and 3; inject the same mixture through the rubber using a syringe. The noise stopping when wet is the tell-tale.

I've just renewed all the front bushes and the lower ball joints on the stag are very easy to work on.

good luck

[singapore stag]

I sheared off a rear stud last year, I got a replacement from rimmers. It was a bugger to put on,....needed to be pressed in, and I am talking about loads of poundage PSI!.
Sukh.

[StagnJag]

I have snapped a couple of studs in the past - trying to get to the 100lbf torque mentioned in the ROM - I use 80-90 now!

I had no real problem getting the new studs in. I initially thought the rear stud was slightly too long, but it just needed manouvering into position the right way. I can't remember how I pulled it into place, probably large washers to act as spacers and tightening a wheel nut onto it to pull it through. I bought mine from Wards - although it was three years ago. (I am far too fastidious with my record keeping!!!)

Rgds

Dave