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Mystery suspension noise...

Robertb

Yas Marina
Joined
1 Sep 2003
Messages
8,406
Any thoughts... on my 2003 4S Coupe.

When the car is warm and particularly at ambient air temperatures above 15c I get a noise from the front N/S of the car, over raised bumps in the road eg cats eyes, rumble strips, but oddly not when the wheel goes down into a dip, for example a sunken drain cover.

Sounds more like a rattle rather than a clonk or knock, like the rattle some plastic trim like an undertray would make, in there somewhere. I think its in the suspension, but it might be something else.

Coffin arms, drop links, top mounts have all been replaced and it still does it.

Any ideas gratefully received, obviously harder to diagnose now as its too cold!
 
Could be... I know one was done but I'll get the other checked.
 
dt4 said:
I have a similar issue, I described it as a knock but a rattle is perhaps closer to the noise I have as well
http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=131089&highlight=

Cheers- I'd read your thread hoping for ideas! Mines going in for service and geo next week so I'll get them to check it over and post up if they find anything which might give you some ideas too.

What's odd about it is that it's worse in warmer weather. Power steering related fault is one possibility as the fluid is pumped around and gets hot.

Maybe mods can merge the threads?
 
You do get noises that are temp related .. i always put this down to metal expands as it gets hot .. a small gap causeing a noise wont take much of a temp difference to stop .. or indeed start due to which part is expanding .

As ive often said im afraid .. a sound clip gives me and everyone else a chance to answer questions like this .. if not we just guess ..

Downside for me is ive seen noises from every component over the years so a guess is actually harder for me .

Even at work .. ive road tested cars and its a new noise on me .. we fit chassis ears so then 2 of us are out driveing and trying to pin point it .. this can be several road tests .

A recent noise .. and best if i dont say just how long it took us but its a Cayenne and behind the front hub there was a gap stones could get into .. pretty much wheel bearing area .. bitch to find that was ...

And it only happened at certain angles and certain speeds .. similar to temp noises ... hard to locate .
 
I had a similar rattling noise only occurred at slow speed when engine warm drove me nuts. Turned out to be rear tuning forks.

No play could be felt while on car but once removed you can the movement in the joint. I did take the rubber boot off to satisfy my curiosity and you could see that the plastic part of the joint had cracked.

Replacement is easy DIY.
 
OK... just chatted with Northways who have the car this week... when I described the fault he said tuning fork arm so credits to everyone above! Apparently you can hear a rattle even if there is the smallest amount of free play which you will barely feel even with the car jacked up.

As said above, the joint warms up under use, expands a bit and rattles, and also explains why its more noticeable in warm weather. 8)

Will confirm later in the week.
 
Think as most people have alluded too, its tuning forks.

I had a similar noise from the front right - only over unsettled road at low speeds but not over pot holes / speed bumps. Pretty sure there's some youtube links to vids with the same noise.

My local specialist did a health check and identified play in the front right one so I plunged in and changed all seeing as they were on similar mileage.

Changed all 4 as a precaution and the noise went away.

Hope that's the same in your case! :thumb:
 
Perhaps unsurprisingly, as suggested, the noise was indeed caused by a front tuning fork / diagonal arm. :D

There was no play when I shook the arm, but when I took it off the rubber joint was really loose.

Anyway, a really easy fix and all quiet now...
 

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