suspension squeak

D

darashen

Member
After some pointers as to possible causes of a noise on my P6, it is a 2000 sc series 1 with all original running gear and rubber bushes.

Under acceleration the vehicle squeaks but the noise stops as soon as you back off the throttle. It has been difficult to pin the noise down but I have now traced it to the rear offside suspension area. The noise stops completely if you have a passenger sat in the rear offside seat leading me to suspect it is the suspension playing up. The offside rear suspension also squeaks like old bedsprings after going over speed bumps but not sure if this is the same issue and not too bothered by this.

So far I have checked the wheel bearing which has no excess play and seems to turn freely. Top link mounts in boot are solid and free of rot. I intend to jack it up tomorrow with the wheels off and have a good poke about but wondered if anyone had experienced a similar problem and what the most likely cause is.

As a second point does anyone know where you can get the clips to hold the rubber gaiter on the front top ball joint at the top of the suspension strut as one of mine has gone awol leaving the gaiter loose but intact. I would rather get a new clip ion it asap before the grease gets in and does some damage.
 
Given the number of links involved, it could really be any of them, but interesting how the squeak stops when a person sits in the back. Load related,...shock absorber and the rubbers that secure it. This may well be where the problem lies. If not, try the following,..the process of elimination.

Silicon spray is an excellent product for lubricating and removing squeaks, and it won't hurt the rubber bushes should they get some on them. The links pivot on high tensile bolts, so give each a spray in turn.
Where the spring fits up under the base unit is another area where a squeak can occur, so spray some up there too.

The two mounts which support the differential, one at each end of the supporting plate will degrade over time and the metal sleeve within will eventually push through the bottom of the mount, leaving the differential a little lower than it should be. Typically though, it is the near side mount which gives way first,...that is certainly the case with the 3500 and 3500S.

The original sealed GKN Hardy Spicer universal joints in the half shafts will give sterling service with a life in the region of 120,000 miles or possibly more. The noise that they will make when they require replacement is not what you have described though.

Try the shock absorber and the rubbers first, and if not try the above.

Ron.
 
Thanks for your response.

Have been out looking at it this morning.

shock absorber bushes are all in good condition as i thought it might be this so checked them first. the outer driverside uj is very badly worn with a lot of play in it. I already knew a uj had gone somewhere as the car clonks when taking up drive but had not got round to working out which one. the bottom link bushes look frayed on the ends but no play in them so they may well go for a while yet. I will replace the uj and see if the noise changes.
 
darashen wrote,...
the outer driverside uj is very badly worn with a lot of play in it
Click to expand...

Just be careful as you may well run into problems here. The original GKN Hardy Spicer universal joints are sealed units, offering no provision for refilling with grease. Once all the grease has been expelled, which will take many years and something like 120,000 miles, the needle rollers will be exposed to the ingress of dust and moisture. Very quickly rust will occur and normal movement will be impaired resulting in deep scoring of the cross, possible broken cups and damage to the yokes retaining the cups as the joints break up.

When you remove the cups, if you find rotation marks within the yokes, it is more than likely that the new universal joint cups will either be a loose fit, or when the cups are fitted the cross will bind. Either can happen and this occurs due to the damage sustained by the yokes as the old universal joints were breaking up and the cups start to actually turn within them. In either case, depending on the severity of the damage, the half shaft and the hub yoke shaft will normally require replacing.

Ron.
 
thanks for the warning, waiting for the parts to turn up at the moment but shes off the road temporarily having thrown a strop the other day which is either the coil on the way out or fuel evaporation as it seems to be heat related ie will run perfectly all day with bonet open but within minutes of closing the bonnet it plays up and starts stuttering and stalling. Coil seems very hot when it does this. Was due for an ingnition service anyway so will chuck a new coil on at the same time. Still 5 days off the road in a year is still not bad going for a 44 year old car and considerably better reliability than several modern cars i have owned over the years.
 
Just to update on this suspension noise all fixed it was the outboard universal joint on the drive shaft new one went in today after much cursing and now drives quietly again. Hope I never have to change anouther on one half of the joint took 3 hours or more the other half took 20 minutes. In response to the previous post re failing uj destroying the yooks I guess i got lucky as the bearing caps were still a good fit on the yooks and had not done any damage, the rubber grease seals had failed allowing the needle rollers to rust and fall out completely.

Also managed to sort the fueling issue, fuel pump and float chamber have been stripped and reconditioned which fixed the issue, very happy I did not need to resort to an electric fuel pump as I want to keep it original where possible. Thanks for the advice.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top