Hi,

My car has been to a couple of garages trying to diagnose a seriously bad clunking noise. The first one couldn't find anything with two attempts at it, they suspected the steering rack.

A few things that might help narrow it down:

It's currently sat in another garage who've sent the rack off to be refurbished and refitted it and the problem still hasn't gone away.

• The steering wheel doesn't need to be turned - the mechanic said just driving onto the ramp made the noise
• If you take the weight off the wheels the noise goes away. The mechanic's had it up on a four post ramp today where he can reproduce the noise but still can't track it down.
• He (and the previous garage) have presumably between them looked at anywhere obvious

He says it's somewhere "up the back of the engine" but that he's never seen anything like it.

I asked what he'd do next for his car and he said he'd take the steering column out and take a look at that.

Does anybody here have any idea what the problem could be?

He's taking the steering column off today and if that goes nowhere he's going to phone the steering rack refurbishment firm and ask them if they have any ideas.

 

The "usual suspects" for front end clunking are the 2 anti-sway bar bushings. They sort of collapse with age and the bar starts hitting the mount. They are cheap and fairly easy to replace. They are located towards the front of the car, though, not the back of the engine. Also check the anti-sway bar end links, where the same bar attach to the control arm. Also dirt cheap and easy to replace.

The other thing to check would be the upper strut bearings. From the inside of the engine compartment, check that the shock top is well centered into the mount, and that you have no crumbling foam. Also check the ride height (too low, and the mount is likely shot), and the alignment (if out of spec for camber, same diagnostic). I suppose if the foam is completely gone, they could possibly clunk.

Also, check the lower shock bushing. It's been known to deteriorate.

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

When were the upper shock mounts redone? After missing sway bar mounts, front and rear shock mounts have to be the #1 cause of X100 clunking.


If the rack is mounted tight, and the mount rubber not missing, not much to clunk without visibly seeing movement.


Inner tie rods can clunk if worn/loose, but you will see/feel play. Same with ball joints.

 

+1 to both [Ungun] and [fmertz] . . . oh, and sack BOTH your garages.

This is NOT rocket science and each of the issues advised to check are well known here across dozens (if not hundreds) of threads. This is not a swipe at you . . . but your so called "mechanics". IMHO, automatically defaulting to a high cost "fix" that fixes nothing, smacks of either poor understanding of your model, incompetence or far worse.

Best wishes,

Ken

 

Is everything that's been suggested here a standard thing for garages to check?

The two garages I've used both have very good reputations - I have no reason to believe that they've missed anything obvious.

The garage who said it was probably the steering rack didn't want to do the work themselves, so there was no motivation for them to make it up.

Both are normal garages - not Jaguar specialists or anything like that, so I was hoping for suggestions for problems which are fairly unique to these cars.

 

A clunk is a clunk is a clunk, whether on a Jag or a Fiesta. Almost certainly somewhere in the suspension, possibly an engine or trans mount, but very unlikely. I'm amazed that they can't find it with a ramp and a pry-bar.

 

At this point, the best would be the spend a bit of time to try and describe to us what it sounds like, under what circumstances, and where it seems to come from. I am sort of confused by your first post between a clunking suspension and some form of dashboard noise.

The other option is to try and test this out. Engine in gear vs. Neutral. Steering straight vs. full lock. Loading just one wheel, vs. loading both wheels (taking a ramp straight on, or at an angle, one side at a time). Also, test with the windows up and down, to try and isolate the origin of the noise.

For the steering column, if the noise is coming from inside the cabin instead of the engine compartment, it should be fairly obvious. Try with the reach and tilt in various positions. Removing the steering column is not a small job, but it has been known to develop some play (mostly up-down) over time.

I find it strange that the mechanic can reproduce the noise, but not isolate the origin. Can you describe what the mechanic does to reproduce the noise? When all fails, take and post a video...

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

I've just spoken to the garage and they still can't find it. Their recommendation is to go to a garage with MOT shaker plates.

They're tracking down one for me today and I'm picking my car up ( and the details of the next garage ) in the morning.

I'll keep you updated.

 

Update: I've got my car back this morning and have been referred to another garage ( which has shaker plates ). They're going to try to diagnose the problem on Friday morning.

 

Sorted!

It cost me £54 for an hours labour. I'm told it was an absolute ******* to track down though.

From the receipt:

"Investigate reported knocking noise, tested for knocking noise, no obvious cause
Carried our further checks and found n/s/f upper arm suspension bolt loose
Tightened bolt and tested ok"

So about £400 in total for a loose bolt. I would complain about the first garage recommending the steering rack refurbishment but to be honest I'm ecstatic that it's fixed.

Thanks for your suggestions chaps.

 

Oh, if anybody else has a similar unfindable clunk, it turned out that the left front wheel would judder at the same point in either direction when you turned it ( I only found that out this morning ).

 

Hmmmm . . . more than ever, I stand by my earlier post that I would sack both garages. This is an obvious point to look, along with other front suspension and sway bar mounts, using pry bar if needed, before attacking steering rack. $600 bill? Arrgh! Anyway, glad to see your kitty is sure-footed once again.

Cheers and best wishes,

Ken

 

If a Shop says anything about replacing a steering rack for clunks and noises, find a new shop.

The parts on the rack that are most prone to clunking (the inner tie rods) can be swapped in less than 1 hour by a competent shop and cost less than $100 pounds for both.

 

Check the torque on the control arm mounting bolts and the condition of their bushings.

 

this thread helped me loads I checked the strut bolts, a few weren’t tight. After tightening, problem sorted. FREE! Thanks so much