Refurbished suspension, but there's a rattle! Coilovers?

[zed4]

Hi,

Over the winter I refurbished my Chimaera’s suspension. Partly because I found some cheap Powerflex bushes from a club member who had sold his car and never got round to fitting them, and partly because I wanted to repaint the wishbones. This involved the following:

Removal of all wishbones, removal of ball joints and bushes
Strip wishbones of paint, have them zinc coated and painted
Fit new Powerflex bushes
Fit new ball joints
Fit new track rod ends
Send Gaz Gold coilovers away to be serviced by Gaz
Refit everything with new nuts and bolts sourced from RT Racing
Send the car to Neil Garner to have it completely setup and corner-weighted.

However, there’s still a rattle! In fact, a few rattles. I think they’re coming from the front and the back. There’s no play in anything, the steering seems fine, no knocks, no play in the wheels or wishbones anywhere. I asked Neil Garner’s to check everything, make sure everything had the correct spacers and washers and that everything was torqued up properly.

So where could this rattle be coming from? It’s apparent over really bumpy roads, upon vertical suspension movement. When driving fast and pushing into corners, there’s no play or knocks. It’s more apparent over bumpy roads at slow speeds. It’s also more apparent when the car has a light load (ie. just me and no luggage). I’m wondering if it could be the coilovers. Is it possible they have the wrong bush, causing them to rattle up and down?

Or should I just send the car to someone to check for me?

Thanks,

Dan

[OleVix]

Ive done the same and identified two rattles.

One is the brake pads, if there is no coat hanger'ish clip from the caliper to the pads, they rattle a lot.

The other had nothing to do with the suspension, it turned out to be the radiator. When RG changed it 2 years ago they did not fit the two rubber grommets to the bottom pins.

If anybody else has sources of rattles and squeeks, please tell

[QBee]

Anti roll bars can be a good source of rattles IMHO, as can brake pads as described above. Pad rattles tend to disappear when you brake.
Always a good idea to check everything is fully tight. I didn't fully torque up the wheel bolts on one side of my trailer (impact driver only) and a wheel came off 120 miles later.

[phazed]

Rattling from the rear was one of the problems I had with my Pro 46s, never with my Monos.

Try and source a pair and swap.

[Twistygit]

Try a trick I seen the master Ed China doing, gently tap things with a rubber mallet

[phazed]

You could hear one of my rattles when I pumped the rear up and down.

I taped a mobile to the damper set on record, it was then obvious!

[OleVix]

phazed said:

You could hear one of my rattles when I pumped the rear up and down.

I taped a mobile to the damper set on record, it was then obvious!

haha you're insane Peter

[Englishman]

I had a really annoying slow speed rattle, most obvious at <10mph on bumpy roads, on my Griff.

Two good garages both thought it would be bushes so I had all the bushes changed in stages and everything tightened up, but it was still there!

Nothing else left, so took a gamble, spent the money and changed the dampers, although nothing was obviously wrong with them.

Pleased to say that finally fixed it! I must admit I was nervous it'd be a waste of money.

[phazed]

My rattly dampers were new.

[domV8]

Englishman said:

Nothing else left, so took a gamble, spent the money and changed the dampers, although nothing was obviously wrong with them.

What were the original dampers..?

--- Edited to add: +1 for Anthony's suggestion about the drop links, had that on mine multiple times with rose-jointed ones ---

Thanks,


Dom

[Englishman]

domV8 said:

Englishman said:

Nothing else left, so took a gamble, spent the money and changed the dampers, although nothing was obviously wrong with them.

What were the original dampers..?

Dom

They were Bilstein's. I replaced with the latest spec Bilstein's too after looking at and trying cars with most of the usual aftermarket options. Great for road and occasional track use IMHO.