After my most expensive couple of months of stuff on car hitting at same time, it seems it may not be over yet.
In the last week or so I had a couple instances of a clunking noise from the car. I thought it was from the rear, and it varies with moving speed, sometimes (not always) happening at low speed and seems to go away at higher speed. Yesterday it sounded a bit worse, and I now think it might be from the front. Going really slowly, there might be a little scrape like feeling to the clunk. Any ideas? Will try to get it into a garage soon anyway, but more concerned if this may become a safety issue or cause more damage if I drive on it.
Recent stuff I had done on the car include 4 new tyres, with the rear pair showing excessive wear on the inside edge, so I had the alignment on them done again. Also had new brake pads all round and timing belt change. Car seems to handle normally apart from the noise.
My check list is usually Exhausty things 1st / Cat / Heatshields then Droplinks on Rollbars / any stone guards around rear brakes that may have captured a stone or something / and mountings for suspension.
The noise when it happens is repetitive and seems proportional to the speed. I’ll have another look although so far I can’t see anything unusual around the wheels, not that I know what to look for.
Stuck my head underneath, and as suspected, I haven’t got a clue what I’m looking for. Nothing but a lot of rust.
New clue though. No noises on drive in to work this morning, nor most of the trip home. I had some as I was turning into my drive. This is a sharp-ish double right I have to do to get onto my road and then almost immediately onto my drive. Think tomorrow at work I’ll be doing small circles in the car park while I get a mechanically minded co-worker to have a listen too.
Suspect you have a high spot on your brake discs and the new brake pads are catching it when the wheels rotate. If it is that, don’t worry as long as your car is braking OK. Usually this sounds like a chirping sound.
Brakes could be a secondary factor, but the noise I’m worried about is definitely a clunk. Was relatively bad on way in to work this morning although of course it stopped doing it just as I grabbed someone from work to have a listen.
Think I’ll have to see if the boss will notice if I disappear off to a garage this afternoon… at least for a diagnosis if not a fix.
And… sorted! Apparently there’s a plate that keeps the brakes clean. When they changed the pads they bent one of them enough that it can rub on something at times. All seems to be good again now.
“They bent one of them”??? You might look around their shop… if the only repair tools you see are hammers and the occasional pry bar you might consider a different shop.
Ah, the old bent stone shield fault.
I wondered where all the Hartwell Rover techs ended up, they did the one on my 420 twice, I bent it back myself the second time.
It looks a bit like this one Egad (Just behind a tiny rear disc in this picture) a bit of flimsy tin better suited to holding baked beans on a supermarket shelf
Always do things like breaks myself… hate paying someone to do something that I can do and would be royaly pissed if I paid someone to do it and they broke something like that!
But when money is tight do you leave a safety critical component like brakes until you can afford the garage rates or do it now for half the price and keep the vehicle roadworthy ?
I co do a set of brakes in less time than it would take to drive to the garage
If you’re all set up and already know what you’re doing, great. I don’t. So for me to do the job, I’d need to look up and buy the correct replacement pads. I assume I need to take the wheels off. I assume there’s a jack in the car somewhere as well as the thing used to remove nuts. Stop me if I get too technical. If they’re not up to the job, might I need something a bit meatier? e.g. in my previous car when I went to change the wheel after a slow puncture, the supplied tool was useless as you just couldn’t get enough leverage on it even standing on the thing. What’s the cost for me to faff around doing all that compared to getting a garage to just do it? I’m sure I can figure it out, and it may not be that complicated. But I’ve already got countless unfinished projects to do it isn’t going to make my priority list.
Nothing wrong with that. As much as I love to work on my truck, I don’t have the time or the place to do anything major with it. So, when something needs replacing, like the water pump last year, it goes into the shop. I don’t have a problem paying for the service provided the service is good. If it’s only once in the shop for any particular repair, then they keep my business.
Obviously there is only a certain amount I would do to my car. Everything I needed to change the break pads is in the boot… in fairness I did use an alternative jack but only because the ones that come with the car’s scare me.
For harder work I wouldnt bother either…(well id try then decide it needs to visit a garage )
and would be royaly pissed if I paid someone to do it and they broke something like that!
)