We live up a forestry track which is a bit bumpy but our 2007 Suzuki Jeep is silent suspension wise going up and down the track it has done 58k miles.
The Impreza has done 84k miles and is noisy going up and down the track, but Impreza’s have a name for the dampers in the suspension struts rattling as the grease put in during manufacture dries out. That is a spring job to repack with grease.
We got the MK3 Sport, 2008 car two years ago with 11k miles and it was silent suspension wise going up and down the track but in the past year and it is now at 32k miles it is noisy suspension wise and had got to a point it was rattling from below even on smooth roads.
Had it up on the 2 post and the following have been done recently.
New discs and pads so not pads rattling about.
Drop links checked and no play but on the 2 post the wheels are hanging down so should I check it over a pit with the suspension compressed.
I will check again for a broken spring but nothing looked broken.
Is there any talk in the trade of the top suspension mounts going but looking on MX5parts they look pretty simple.
Do the Bilstiens have a name for going.
There appears to be a great number of suspension components does any of them tend to fail bush wise.
I did find a heat shield loose at the weekend and tightening that up has sorted the smooth road rattle.
So what is the best way to check for loose suspension parts, 2 post or pit.
What are peoples suspected culprits suspension wise on the back it also causes the noise on big surface changes not on smooth surface changes.
Mine has a bit of a rattle/thud from the rear, especially like yours over bumps/uneven roads. I’m not so sure about the suspension though, everything seems ok but I have no way of doing a proper check. It was checked over when the alignment and lowering springs were fitted and only done around 6000 miles since. Doesn’t mean to say it’s still ok.
I’m more inclined to think it’s something else other than suspension. I’ve got some foam trapped between the rear shelf and body work, a known rattling point but it’s still there, more of a thud though.
Anyway apart from the above I have no idea about whether wheels off or on the ground to check for problems, sorry.
I’ve found with mine that if the upper mountings of the rear drop-links aren’t up to the maximum torque spec (e.g. they have been tightened up to the minimum) they can sound as if they are duff.
I’ve also found that driving over bumpy roads with a fully laden car can slightly loosen them - not enough so they don’t feel perfectly tight when you check them, but just enough to be noisy.
On mine it comes from just the tiniest bit of movement in the mounting.
So try tightening the upper bolts (the bit that goes into the antirollbar).
If you keep turning the nut and it just doesn’t seem to get any tighter, neybe the shoulder on the threaded shank has failed so you are just pulling the bolt through the hole!
I have the same sort of thing on my 2006 PRHT - with Bilstiens & OE springs, on mine there is a “thud” from what seems to be the left rear when on rough roads as if the suspension bottoms out. It went through its MOT with out any issues and I asked the MOT guy to check the play in the rear suspension arms but they all were ok, although I have since changed the Rear upper trailing arms (non adjustable ones) as I felt there was too much play in the bush at the body end. This has not made any difference to the noise.
I did remove everything out of the boot - including all the plastic trim panels - and the rattling/Thudding seemed to be less but not gone completely. I lso find that if the roof is down then then the car is a lot less rattly.
I am having to replace the rear discs over the Easter Hols so I will check the ARB drop links and the ARB brackets for tightness suggested above.
just a thought, it maybe nothing but i knew someone that had a loud knocking on their car and they found it was a rock under the car stuck up in the metal under tray, might be worth a look if you see nothing else?
I’ve got exactly the same thing on my '11 PRHT, definitely from the rear left. Oddly it only seems to do it when it’s fully warm- a kind of metallic thump that sounds like two bits of hollow metal knocking together.
I’ve had a good look underneath a few times now as it’s driving me round the twist (on / off axle stands) and couldn’t see anything loose, even when I had a go with a pry bar. I did wonder if it was a loose baffle in the exhaust but I suspect that’d be constant, and it’s got a newish Cobra backbox on it anyway.
Mine has the non-sport shocks which I’m hoping to replace with Bilsteins at WIM in the coming month or so, so I’ll get the mechanic to have a more detailed look whilst he’s down there.
Mine had a banging noise from the rear when going over undulations and speed humps - it was worse when there was more load in the car ie passenger and / or boot full. After a bit of searching I purchased a pair of rear suspension units - Bilstien dampers, std springs, top hats etc all assembled which were taken from a scrapped 2007 mx5. I dis-assembled them to check the condition of the various components - all seamed fine to me. So I set about removing the offending suspension unit - rear passenger side - and fitted the re built “new” unit. Then dis assembled the old one to find that the bump stop - which is hidden within the aluminium top hat mounting - had split thus allowing the damper’s piston to bottom out thus causing the banging noise. The damper itself was in good condition as was the spring.
After fitting I’ve had a run out over the roads which caused the banging and bingo! all sorted
Photo shows the old bump stop at the top and the “new” at the bottom.
Just seems a bit odd- mine seems to happen even when the bumps are pretty minor, so I wouldn’t have thought the shocks would be bottoming out. Don’t suppose there’s an easy way to see if they’re split without dismantling the shock unit though?
I’ve experienced the same split bump stop as Nick1970, although I don’t think that the damper bottoming out was the cause of the noise. I think it was the split bump stop knocking on the damper rod that caused it.
a bit of an update - I’ve just come back from 2400 mile a road trip around Germany, Austria & (2 hours of) Italy driving on various types of road & road surface with a fully laden boot and passenger and absolutely no knocking or banging of the suspension!!! so I believe it was the split bump stop.
Robbie, the way I checked for the bottoming out was to dis-assemble the spring from the damoper and then refit the bump stop onto the end of the piston rod and compress the damper - the split bump stop, as it hit the top of the damper, then spread its way over the damper and the piston hit the end of its travel.
one way to try and check the bump stops is to jack the car up remove the wheels and try get a photo looking up through the rubber “skirt” of the suspension…
I replaced both rear drop links and now no noise from the back of the car. offide rear droplink was not worn but when I used a long breaker bar on the droplink nuts to look for play the nearside top joint was faulty.
At the front the nearside drop link is original, 7 years old, 34k miles and the offside one was changed at 4 years, 10k miles. It has recently became noisy on bumps but did not appear to have any play.
Changed the offside front drop link and the top joint was worn.
one way to try and check the bump stops is to jack the car up remove the wheels and try get a photo looking up through the rubber “skirt” of the suspension…