Front Suspension Not Seating Properly

[Robbo 0]

I replaced all the balljoint, tie rods and ARB bushes a few months ago and have hardly driven the car. Now I've been driving it every day, an annoying 'clunk' from the front has become quite annoying.

 

I had a look at the suspension top mounts - when the car is on its wheels, the cupped washer on the top mount sits about 1-1.5 cm away from the rest of the suspension (hard to explain without pictures...)

 

I'm guessing this causes the clunk when turning at low speeds, as the strut tops move.

 

What explanation could there be for this? I know I've done something foolish when I was putting the front end back together. I'm guessing it could be:

 

1) front ARB adjustment? ie I torqued up the ARB bush nuts when the car was on stands.

 

2) front wishbone level (same deal, I torqued the nuts up when there was no weight on the front end).

 

Any other suggestions greatly appreciated. I have a 750km drive in the next few days so it will probably go to the local Pug spannerman if I can't figure it out sharpish.

 

-Dougs.

[KRISKARRERA 2 1 Cars]

I had a look at the suspension top mounts - when the car is on its wheels, the cupped washer on the top mount sits about 1-1.5 cm away from the rest of the suspension (hard to explain without pictures...)

That sounds like all the gubbins between the spring and the body work wasn't seated properly when someone put the springs back on at some point. Has it got lowering springs?

[petert1345402284 0]

Sounds like the rubber doughnuts on the spring mount. All the Mi16's I've seen recently have needed these replacing. It's just time. They don't last forever. The items you should have replaced are the wishbone mounts. They're also at that stage. Replace all the bits and the car will drive and feel like new.

[Robbo 0]

Sounds like the rubber doughnuts on the spring mount. All the Mi16's I've seen recently have needed these replacing. It's just time. They don't last forever. The items you should have replaced are the wishbone mounts. They're also at that stage. Replace all the bits and the car will drive and feel like new.

 

Peter - the problem is, this occurred *after* I replaced the rubber top mounts! I replaced all the rubber bits at the front except for the wishbone rubbers, which seemed OK.

 

I'm thinking it was because I torqued up the wishbone pivot bolts on the subframe before putting the front struts back in - the 205 did the same thing, but it's at the garage at the moment.

 

The Haynes manual says "delay tightening the inner pivot bolts until the weight of the car is on the suspension." I'm thinking this is where I went wrong.

 

@KRIS - standard springs. At first I thought I'd put the mounting kit back together incorrectly, but I pulled the struts from the 205 recently and put them back in after taking off the wishbones. I didn't take the strut tops apart - and the same problem. Hence my suspicion that it's the wishbones not seating properly.

 

I'll try and loosen the pivot bolts then reseat the suspension (ie put it on its wheels) and retighten. Which sounds like an absolute a*se, seeing I don't have my wheel ramps at the mo.

[Jer309GTi 3]

I'll try and loosen the pivot bolts then reseat the suspension (ie put it on its wheels) and retighten. Which sounds like an absolute a*se, seeing I don't have my wheel ramps at the mo.

 

It is a pain to have to put the car back on its wheels to tighten the bolts. I just jack the suspension up until the wishbone is level then tighten the bolts up, does the trick