Movement

[Henry]

Don’t know why I haven’t mentioned this before now but I’ve been chasing a movement noise from the rear left of the car since I put it on the road 1 year ago. It’s inconsistent, but will happen on heavy braking then random. I’ve checked every nut and bolt 10 times, ruled out bushes as their new. As these suffer the cracked floors I’ve been over that with a magnificent glass even though it has the welded plates on. Taken the boot interior out to check the radio equipment and mounting bracket, rear speakers, today I decided to take the rear door card off, hoping to find god knows what inside. Side note, inside the doors are like they came from the factory. Anyway, dropped a screw which rolled under the car, while retrieving it my shoulder moved something. The bloody fuel tank. Straps are in good nick, no rust, just not holding it tight. So took it off and cut some rubber strips to pad it out a bit. Only just finished so will test tomorrow but I’m confident.

[Henry]

No, still there, search goes on.

[Adwo]

For me the term 'movement' is not clear enough. Also, only on heavy braking? Or randomly after heavy braking? What sound does it make?

There is a difference between 'on' and 'after' AFAIK..

So, a bit more clarification would come in handy!

[Henry]

Movement,hmm, like your spare wheel is loose, hard brake and it hits up against the well, like the caliper is loose, like if you brake hard enough after the wheels have stopped the gearbox moves the driveshaft to take up the play in the cv joint. Needlesss to say but the spare is solid even padded to eliminate even the off chance. Calipers is tight, really tight, there is some slack in the cv joint but not excessive and there is some slack in the diff. Been out today and nothing, no noise, but was doddling, never makes a noise on accelerating. I know it’s difficult to give an opinion but I’ll listen to any suggestions. With new bushes ball joints and bearings the car is brilliant, quiet, squeak free and this is unbelievably annoying.

[Henry]

I have dragged this post back up to show how easy it is to look a fool or incompetent or both. Yesterday I spent 2 hours under the rear of the car (on ramps) checking every nut and bolt, had the wife swap from d to r looking for unusual movement/clunking, nothing not a squeak. For illogical reasons I started removing the front wheels to check knowing the noise was coming from the back of the car. Only, it wasn’t, the front r/h caliper sliding pins were loose. These obvious are now tightened and the noise from the REAR has now gone???

[Rav]

What a result! It could have been a lot worse and a lot more expensive.

I have a similar issue. I have a noise from the rear of the car and i suspect its the coilovers, but cant be 100% sure. I spent three hours with my mechanic trying to find the noise, but nothing.
Its still there and I am worried that it is somthing serious.

Well done on finding your noise, odd how it came from the front though....

[Henry]

I remember years ago on the wife’s 106 I would have layed a months wages on a rear wheel bearing noise only to find it was a front one. Some noises must just resonate to different areas.

[jolls]

I remember years ago on the wife’s 106 I would have layed a months wages on a rear wheel bearing noise only to find it was a front one. Some noises must just resonate to different areas.

I had the same on a Fiesta I owned only the other way round. Changed the front and expected the noise to be gone...

[bobbly]

Some noises must just resonate to different areas.

Not quite. Noise is vibration. Every component has a resonant frequency. To resonate though, it requires excitation force from a component which vibrates at that frequency. Think about a car fitted with no dampers or no engine mount rubbers (they isolate these huge excitation forces from the car body and interior). The isolating effects of the mounts/dampers are there to protect you and the car, not the engine or suspension. So, a noise within a car can be anywhere and a completely open mind approach used to find the source, not the resonant component.

Cheers
Bobbly