Front knocking

[Patrick050289]

Hi,
I've had my 2.0CDT SRI Astra J for about a month now and it is great, but...

I have already developed a knocking clunking noise coming from ( what I think ) is front pasanger side. It can be heard at slowish speed up to 40mph. There is no knocking when turning the steering wheel/pulling off + going over spead bumps doesn't make it any worse.

I have so far tried the following:

1. Rock the car from side to side
2. Push down on the bonet ( top of the struts )
3. Push/Pull the wheels
4. Push/Pull on the ARBs & arms...

Admittedly, I haven't had the car jacked up/wheels off yet but from looking into the wheel arches the bushes ( that can be seen ) seem to look well and don't feel broken to touch, there are no apparent cracks etc.

I have read somewhere about the break callipers being known to rattle and when slowing down on a bumpy road it doesn seem to be as bad, but definitely doesn't go away

Coming from a Vectra with several ARB links replaced that was my first idea, but they seem solid ( no movement at all ).


I am lost for ideas, anyone?


Thanks
Patrick

[Big Dave2]

I recently had a rattle that sounded similar to two hammers being knocked together. That was coming from the passenger side too. Local tyre garage had it for over an hour, checked over everything and couldn't find anything loose or wrong.

I noticed it disappeared when I touched the brakes. Turned out one of the brake pads was rattling about in the calliper. The anti rattle clips weren't doing their job properly. I remember when I changed the brake pads and discs a couple of months ago that the rattle clips had got bent in transit. I straightened them out but obviously not enough to secure the pad from rattling.

I couldn't believe something like that could make that amount of noise. when rattling the brake pad by hand, it could hardly be heard.

[Patrick050289]

Thanks Big Dave,

I will have a look when the weather is better, but...
I havent changed the pads/done anything so doubt they would have bent themselves.

Patrick

[daymo92]

Hi Patrick,

Did you get to the bottom of these noises in the end?

I bought a 12 plate 1.6 Astra J Elite around 14months ago. Its been completely plagued with problems from day 1 but I just love the car. Luckily I bought it with 2 year warrantee so jokes on them as its already had around £4000 worth of repairs.

Back to the point, over the xmas period mine also developed a knocking noise from the front passenger side. It only seems to be heard when I'm driving over "rough" terrain [broken tarmac, potholes, poor roads etc]. It can be heard from 0mph-70mph but ONLY when I am coasting, if I am accelerating or braking the noise seems to stop. Again, going over speed bumps doesn't make it worse but can still be heard if I let go of the brake or ease off the gas before going over.

I took a look at it with a family friend who owns a small garage but told him if it was anything that would mess my warrantee about then I would just take it back to where I bought it from, just wanted to make sure it wasn't something daft like something loose and easy to fix. He thought it could be the track ends, but after "inspecting them VERY closely" the noise was still there so I've booked it in next week.

Oh and another thing, the car was only in for an oil cooler replacement 3 weeks before xmas and the complimentary health check came back with everything fine in regards to suspension and brakes, if that makes any difference.

I've had suggestions that it could be the dampeners, drop links or as mentioned the Calliper carriers??

Cheers,
Damien

[Iaintruten]

The best way to test for any movement on anti roll bars and suspension arms is using a pry bar as when my drivers droplink started clunking, pushing and pulling etc wouldn't replicate the fault it wasn't till I put a prybar inbetween the antirollbar and sub frame that I was able to replicate the fault on the droplink. Same applies to checking the the bottom suspension arms for any movement in the bushes.

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