Introduction and already advice needed...

Introduction and already advice needed...

Author
Discussion

kennman

Original Poster:

5 posts

107 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
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Hello all, my name is Igor, I'm from Slovenia, and have been lurking around for a long time over PH.

I am writing you also about a problem that's been eating my nerves... I have the 2008 120d e87 , its a great car, track oriented, with B12 Bilsteins, Eibach Prokit springs and HR sways front an rear, M3 subframe parts and polyurethane bushings.

The sound:
Lately i experience the never-ending metallic clunking when going over small bumps or cobblestone road... it can be felt in front left side (around the strut) and can be felt throught the steering column and steering wheel.
not a clicking sound when I would turn the steering wheel, but a rattle up front, and sometimes in the rear back...while driving.

but it gets better in wet weather, in rain... I have 2 theories I suspect - whether the rubber somewhere hardens when its rainy outside, or - the water "lubricates" something, and the sound /feel is not so "rattly" anymore...


The feel:
The other thing I noticed is when driving in a corner fast on a bad road. The front and also the rear feels really wobbly and maybe jerks (not slides) in direction of centrfugal force- outside of the curve.
When I drive straight and I hit a larger hole with my left tyres, the car jerks to the left, feeling unstable. When driving straight!


Does this fact directs you in any way towards some other cause for the rattle rather than upper strut mount?

It has never been in an accident, and the wheel alignment is dead on. Camber in the rear and front is a bit larger (handling oriented). Tyres are new and centered.
The rattle has been worse with putting summer 18" back on.

I've read all possible forums and some suggest swaylinks (which are fine), other to change the whole suspension(checked 3 times by 3 different specialists, everythin tight), the to check the upper strut mounts (which optically are okay), I havent tested them for play yet. Then again some suggest the washers and the central nut in the upper strut may be causing the rattle.... i dont know any more...

thanks... sooo desperate... ( it used to be a really tight car, and now this....)

dacouch

1,172 posts

128 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
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Welcome.

Your written English is better than many people who were born in the UK.

kennman

Original Poster:

5 posts

107 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
dacouch said:
Welcome.

Your written English is better than many people who were born in the UK.
haha smile thanks, I guess wink
You should hear me speak then! smile
hehe

kennman

Original Poster:

5 posts

107 months

Sunday 19th April 2015
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but regarding the problem...?

Jonboy_t

5,038 posts

182 months

Sunday 19th April 2015
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Not sure if it's the same setup on your car, but my old M3 had a similar issue (but on the rear) and one of the springs had sheared off at the top coil. Apparently quite common and not overly expensive to fix, if you jack it up, you may be able to just get a torch in there and see if that's the case.

And, welcome to PH wavey

Rickyy

6,618 posts

218 months

Sunday 19th April 2015
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No where near the same car, but I bought a Ford Ka that wandered all over the road and made a hideous metallic clunking noise. It was down to a broken coil spring, part of it fell out when I jacked the car up!

Al U

2,311 posts

130 months

Sunday 19th April 2015
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kennman said:
When I drive straight and I hit a larger hole with my left tyres, the car jerks to the left, feeling unstable. When driving straight!

Does this fact directs you in any way towards some other cause for the rattle rather than upper strut mount?

It has never been in an accident, and the wheel alignment is dead on. Camber in the rear and front is a bit larger (handling oriented). Tyres are new and centered.
The rattle has been worse with putting summer 18" back on.
Can't help with the rest but by the sounds of it you have a hatchback with stiff suspension running on big wheels. When I drive my girlfriends car that is a 2009 Cooper S with 18" wheels and low profile tyres, I get the same thing when you hit a large hole in the road with only one side of the car. When you are cornering around a long bend doing 70mph+ if you hit a bump/hole in the road it unsettles the car (I notice the bump when I drive my car but it does not unsettle it at all) and because the suspension is hard it takes a few moments for the car to settle itself again.

Getting some smaller wheels with larger profile tyres will help with this, although it may not get rid of the problem totally.

Also something like hitting a single large hole in the road can be enough to knock your wheel alignment out. It's an expensive lifestyle keeping a car's wheel alignment correct.

kennman

Original Poster:

5 posts

107 months

Tuesday 21st April 2015
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wow, thanks everybody! I'm inspecting the whole sub - side of the car during the weekend and will let you know what's going on.
Thanks again!

kennman

Original Poster:

5 posts

107 months

Monday 27th April 2015
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wow, checked everything... and everything looks perfectly tightened... dont know what now...

oh and another thing - as my plan is to fit a 3.0d turbo to my hatchback e87 120d, I need a 3" exhaust which is 75 mm...

So I guess the 130i and also the 123d exhausts with 63.5mm outer diameters are both too small.

But - the 135i has the outer pipe diameter of 75 mm which is spot on.

The only problem I see is this:
the 135i was made as E88 and E82 only. I have a 120d E87 hatchback. I have heard from some that a E88/E82 rear muffler won't fit the hatches...
Am not 100% though...

Can anybody confirm this?

Thanks!!

parabolica

6,703 posts

183 months

Monday 27th April 2015
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Springs, drop-links then any play in the suspension arms is where I would start. Another thing it might be is if your exhaust has a heat shield? almost all my cars experiences corrosion around the nuts and bolts that held this on and it would drop onto the pipes and rattle. That wouldn't explain why it doesn't happen as much in the rain however.