Hi all,
I got some TTE springs fitted last week and immediately after collecting the car, I returned to the garage to explain a rattling noise on the passenger side front of the car. They jacked it up and said something along the lines of "because the new springs are shorter, they are moving about more as they are not firmly in the cup..." This sounded a little odd to me if not somewhat dangerous. Anyway, the chap removed the wheel and calipers/brakes etc and then adjusted something on the spring. Sure enough, the noise had gone and all was well again. That is, until yesterday, when the same familiar rattle occurred on the driver's side. The AA have just been to have a look and they can't see anything drastically wrong, they think it might just be a wor shock or mount. They just advised to get it seen to asap. I'm sure however, bearing in mind the garage made an alteration in about 10 minutes for the passenger side and fixed it, that it cant be anything huge and perhaps I could do it myself. My questions are, firstly, does anyone have an idea what this might be? The rattling is not huge, but more of a knocking noise when slowing down or going over a bump and it's not directly related to the feel of the road, it seems to come and go as it pleases. The second question is, if I were to remove the wheel and the caliper bit (dont know the technical name) would I be in a whole world of pain or are there diagrams around to show me what I need to look for?
Cheers in advance
SJ
This happened to me, take the wheel off and check that the spring is sitting right against the end stop at the bottom of the strut, if it isn't take the spring in your hands and twist it so that it is, that should cure it.
what they say is true
spring being shorter, it's not compressed by the strut assembly
it's the same problem you have with coilovers
Thanks very much for the reply Liz! I just checked it however and it's definitely at the bottom with no give at all. I think the problem is at the top at the mount, it may just not be seated properly and thus rattling around. That was what my inital thought was and having just checked, that's what I'm leaning towards.
I'm going to take it back to RSARSE tomorrow and tell them how peeved I am.. get him to sort it out.
Thanks again!
on the top mount you have a silentbloc, so except if it's fitted REALLY bad, it cannot rattle there
Well I took it back and found out what it is... at the top of the spring, where it sits in the rubber mount, it had come loose from the mount as it wasn't securely fastened when they installed the springs. Thus it was moving around and creating the knocking/rattling sound. All sorted now, he jacked up the car, removed the strut and tightly secured the spring in place and the noise has gone. I paid close attention as he did it so that if it happens again I'll know what to do (in theory!)
He said it wasn't dangerous to drive with it rattling, just annoying. Fitting performance struts and shocks would obviously cure the problem completely.
he used old nuts right ?
if yes, this will happen again
the nuts are one use only
Quote from: "Slurpy J"Fitting performance struts and shocks would obviously cure the problem completely.
aren't they teh same thing?
Sorry... so excited about it being fixed that I'm clearly losing my mind.