After an encounter with a pothole, I am getting a knock from the rear suspension as the left rear wheel goes over bumps in the road. Car is 1999 Mondeo hatch.
Bouncing the car to cause the knock, it is clear that the knocking noise occurs as the car rises back up after compression. Knock only happens when you bounce the car quite hard. Sounds like a fairly heavy metal-to-metal contact to me, the sort of noise I would expect from a badly worn balljoint, only there aren't any in the Mondeo rear suspension as far as I can see. I have had the car on ramps while the wife bounces the car and I can clearly hear the noise and feel it, especially near the hub area, but I can't see anything wrong. All the bushes look intact and the joints and bushes on the left side seem to have about the same amount of play as on the right side. Got me puzzled really.
The pothole was bad enough that the front wheel and tyre were damaged by the impact, at about 40mph. Rear wheel OK, but took a pretty hefty knock.
Any ideas from my brilliant description of the symptoms?
Thanks in advance
Andy
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Mondeo's of that ilk have been known to break suspension springs and its often difficult to spot depending when the break is. If there's nothing else obvious, it would be worthwhile giving the springs a thorough check.
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Thanks for the idea. I didn't mention this before, but I also had the car up on jacks and stands, with the culprit wheel off. Inspected the spring as closely as I could and seemed OK. Unless anyone has any other ideas, I think a friend and I will be taking out the strut to either find out if the damper is damaged or help narrow down the fault elsewhere in the suspension.
Any other ideas of weak points, or other comments?
Thanks
Andy
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Busted spring. Photograph hole in road and send copy and strong letter to local authority then send bill for repairs when fixed. Regards Peter
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Ta for comments so far!
1 - Would I really not have been able to see that the spring was knacked with the hub hanging free and the wheel off. I did consider this and looked pretty carefully with a torch.
2 - I was going (and probably still will) post this separately, but I did take photos and intend to claim to the responsible authority for the terrible state of the road. To whom or where precisely should this claim be directed?
Thanks
Andy
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1 - Not spring, as I thought. Eventually decided had to be internals of damper, as everything else was OK. Took strut off, removed spring and clearly the damper was knackered - clunked horribly! All good now with a new pair.
2 - Phoned council. Very helpful, claim form will be in post tonight and carefully took details of the location of the pothole so they could get someone to look at before they got a load more claims!
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2 - Phoned council. Very helpful, claim form will be in post tonight and carefully took details of the location of the pothole so they could get someone to look at before they got a load more claims!
::WOOSH!::
That was me passing out at this paragraph, not a pretty sight!
H
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what u mean sombody from the council was actually HELPFULL??
where do u live mate?? i wanna move in
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>>Phoned council. Very helpful, and carefully took details of the location of the potholeso they could get someone to look at before they got a load more claims!
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Surrey CC are always most helpful when I report to their pothole repair dept.
They come and fix them very promptly.
When I have indicated that a pothole is an added risk to cyclists and they accept that, they normally have it sorted within 2 days. I think they are very good.
I am convinced I am the only person in my area reporting potholes to them.
I suspect most folks expect no action so sadly they do not call them.
Surely it is always worth a try calling your local council?
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Councils dont do road repairs.all they do is complain to contractors..A certain company was recently fined for not conforming to regs.even doing jobs that council new nothing of..
It is always worth the effort letting council know of these problems. As they pay contractors. which gives them greater clout..Too many complaints contractor losses contract
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Steve
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