I have noticed a new creak when going over speed bumps lately so had a look under the wheel arch, to be honest I didn't expect to see anything at all and did expect a slow tear down and rebuild to find the issue.


However I was surprised to see this, it looks like one of the thin castor shims has split and become splayed out. Just ordered a couple of new ones and will fit later in the week.


From memory the thin ones were colour coded red and the thick ones blue.

 

RD, good find and I would not have expected that.
Did you put those together with any kind of lub? Or anti seize?
Ours were black and doing a great job.

Wayne

 

Yes, plenty copper grease used when they were fitted, I was surprised how dry they were looking but maybe I did a good clean up at the time?

 

Make sure you use the proper torque on the bolt and nut when replacing to ensure you're not overstressing the thin spacers. (from all your posts I'm guessing you probably did, which leads to this: would the powerflex bushings require a different torque value?)

 

Yes it was torq'ed up correctly, probably on the lower end of the recommended band, however I remember that a couple of washers were not in pristine condition when I fitted them. If anything it may have been too low, which would have allowed the piviot bolt and washers to rotate causing wear to the washer next to the subframe. I will inspect closer tonight.


I removed the hub and loosened the pivot bolt last night, it came lose with only minor encouragement which was a relief as I didn't want to have to cut off another one. It's a pity that the large end washers that come with the poly kit are not stainless as you can see they are starting to rust.


Anyway I will rebuild with a lot more copper grease this time.


Tonight I plan to remove the shock also to inspect the top mount I rebuilt a while back to make sure its still holding together ok.