MOT wednesday! cant find noise! bottom balljoint removal?

[seismic22]

Right, got mot due wednesday and have got a few things to do on the car:

1. Fit the new cv joint to sort the missing abs ring. ( to do)

2. Adjust handbrake (to do)

3. Check rear brake binding and condtion of pads and disk (done, all fine, binding - pretty sure normal amount, can spin the wheel and itll at least rotate 5 + times one side and bit less other side)

4. Check the noise coming from the rear when going over bumps that has progressively got worse ( CHECKED AND CANT FIND!!!)

Had rear of car up in air check the rear link rods/stabiliser bars (whatever their called) and couldnt find anything at all, tugged exhaist inspected all other bushings cant find. Took the car to the friendly ats gargage who will happily put the car on the ramps and let me have a look at stuff for free and we couldnt find anything at all even whilst on its wheels. We looked all at the front to check that no noise was being transmitted to the rear, nothing! Have taken everything out the boot etc etc etc and still there! Any ideas?

My only idea now is to take it to mot station and if they fail it then least they will have to tell me what its failed on and i will have 7 days to sort it in.

On a side note where do people jack the rear of their car up? i followed haynes book of lies and jacked up on the lower arms because i couldnt see anywhere else but the jack head didnt feel like it was very planted.

Cheers

[legoless]

Top of the shocks tight? or shock absorber itself knackered perhaps?
Can you do a drive by and have some listen from the kerb to narrow down the side etc

[steve_earwig]

Welcome to mystery noise corner I suppose whatever happens in the MOT place will be a result - either they'll diagnose it and you have a chance to fix it -or- they'll pass it and you have another year to suss it out

[jasper5]

This will most likely be the rear anti roll bar "D" bushes worn out.

[seismic22]

Well im hoping its just going to pass, i can put up with a bonking noise if its going to pass, im skint!

Ill check the top of the struts tomo, i dont reckon the shock should be knackered the cars only got 47,000 on it and it doesnt seem to have dead shock feel to it! etc etc, checked springs obv too.

If i can hear something i would often rather go and have a look and go "oh sh*t thats going to cost a bit" rather than "oh sh*t ive looked everywhere, cant find it and not knowing what it is is going to bug and worry me for ages"

[seismic22]

ant roll bar D bushes?? could you explain them to me a bit more and how to replace, what to look for??

Thank you

[jasper5]

There is metal bar running across the under floor from side to side, it has 2 brackets with rubbers inside shaped like a D, each bracket is held on by 2 bolts.

You check them by getting hold of the anti roll bar and trying to move it up and down, it will be obvious if there is up and down movement in them.

[seismic22]

Okay thanks, ill have a look tommorrow, hopefully it isnt raining. I know what an anti roll bar does etc etc and didnt see any movement before but then i wasnt specifically looking at that with the belief it would probably be that. From info gained off here i was guessing it was more likely to to be the rear link rods/stabiliser bars.

Thanks jasper ill have a gander and write back my findings!

[teamster1975]

This will most likely be the rear anti roll bar "D" bushes worn out.

Seconded. When I replaced mine the existing ones fell apart as I removed them!

[Welly]

This will most likely be the rear anti roll bar "D" bushes worn out.

Seconded. When I replaced mine the existing ones fell apart as I removed them!

Thirded. I had this problem, it still passed the MOT though and changing the O/S one requires the fuel tank to be dropped a little including the filler neck etc

[TopDonkey]

It couldnt be the something in the spare wheel well like the towing eye fallen out of its holder and vibrating between the tyre and the metal floor could it ?

[seismic22]

well didnt get round to looking at the anti roll bar today, it was sunny for once so throught i would tackle the cv joint. The usual thing happended, simple job turned into a pain in the arse. Did get some pictures of whilst removing the off side shaft and then the cv joint etc etc though so could post them later for anybody a bit unexperienced.

One caliper bolt was stuck absolutely solid, even when eventually managed to squeeze a breaker bar in postion it was tough, somebody had gone all put on the nyloc!
Then managed to damage thread on bottom ball joint (have no idea how it happened still, hoping its not too bad and that the nut will be able to cut the thread back.
Then couldnt remove cv joint of end of drive shaft so had to remove the whole shaft .
Then saw the inner boot had come loose and was oozing grease.
Got lift to get new one, looked at it, told the bloke it looks a little small, no sir its the correct one, took it home, maybe it needs a stretch, hang on a minute those clips are never going to fit round that. Yeap the wrong one. Kicked up a fuss and theyre going to deliver the correct one tommorrow morning.
Wasted day.

Hope its sunny tommorrow, hope the bottom ball joint thread isnt screwed and hopefully the "simple job" will be finished and ill jack the back up again and feel the anti roll bar!

Anyone got a good method to remove the ball joint if it is too bad for the nut to go back on? I hear they can be a real bugger to get out. ??????

Cheers

[v6saloon]

do you hear it under heavy breaking, if so i am sure it would be the rear subframe bushes, my friend had the same problem and eventually it was found to be those and they are only a fiew quid from a motor factors, hope this helps.

[seismic22]

Hi there, no not under braking at all. In fact i took it out for a spin early this morningwith everything out the boot etc and found that it was more likely to do it going around bumpy corners than if i was just driving over bumps in a straight line.

Thanks for the suggestion though, ill investigate further tommorrow if the driveshaft gets done!

cheers

[jasper5]

The thread has got damaged on the bottom ball joint? If the nut is not damaged or you intend fitting a new one (ideal), take a small bladed hacksaw and cut a groove in the damaged part of the thread. Use a small file if you haven't got a hacksaw to hand.

I keep trying to persuade people to leave the bottom ball joint connected if you are taking out the driveshaft, a much easier way to remove it is to take out the nut and bolt at the bottom of the strut, squirt loads of WD40 around the bottom of the strut, knock a chisel or something to spread the gap where the nut and bolt fits then knock down on the hub assembly, this will remove the strut allowing easy removal of the driveshaft/cv joint from the hub.
You can use this method to make it easier to replace the bottom ball joint as you can stand it up or fit the hub assembly in a vice.