Ford Fiesta (1995 - 1999) - 19 1.3 Suspension now knocking at rear and steerin | Technical matters | Back Room Forum

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Thu 8 Oct 2009 16:40

19 1.3 Suspension now knocking at rear and steerin - Rattle

My dads Fiesta passed its MOT in August and needed some advisories doing these included rear bushes and new front wheel bearings. A couple of months before this he spent a fortune having the rear brake cylinders and shoes replaced as well as new tie rods at the front.

We have spent around £400 on these repairs and now its clonking everywhere

1) There is a clock from the front, the lower wishbones were last replaced 15,000 miles ago by us so it may be the bushes on this have worn again.

2) It makes a knock from the rear, I checked all the obvious exhaust, spare wheel etc and its all fine.

3) It makes a clicking noise everytime you do a fairly sharp turn. The steering itself seems perfect with no play and its not pulling.

I've checked the springs and shock absorbers and they are all fine.

Anybody have any idea what this could be? Could it be that the replacment parts are just not that great quality and thus noisy? I've checked the bearings and they all seem fine, e.g there is no wobbles from any of the wheel.

The problem is I checked it underneath and there is little rust, the engine sounds healthy too, we know we need a car new as this is not going to last but decided financally the best thing we can do is keep it until next years MOT providing this clonking noise is nothing too serious.

So where do we start? We are worried taking it to another garage in case they charge a fortune just to look at it but should these noises be easy to spot whats wrong?

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Thu 8 Oct 2009 16:52

19 1.3 Suspension now knocking at rear and steerin - DP

Rattle - knocking from the front in my experience is usually the anti roll bar bushes. They are about a fiver a pair from Ford, and fitting is about 30 mins a side if you ignore Ford's procedure (and the Haynes manual) and don't drop the front subframe down! Each bush is held in with a U shaped clamp with a bolt each side. The rear bolt fouls the inner wheel arch, and is impossible to remove with the subframe in situ.

What I have done successfully on several occasions now is to remove the front bolt (easy), slacken the rear as far as you can (a couple of turns usually), then lever the front end of the clamp upwards until it gives you enough room to slide the bush along the anti roll bar towards you, and remove it. The bush is split so it can slide over the bar - i.e. it doesn't have to be fitted from one end. Jiggle the new bush until it sits snugly in the right place, lever the clamp back down and do up the bolts.

The clicking noise on lock could be CV joints. Drive it very slowly on light throttle on full lock and see if the noise stops as you wind the lock off, or back off the throttle.

Not sure on the rear knocking - mine never gave trouble here. The front suspension on Fiestas is a pain in the wotsit as it ages though.

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Thu 8 Oct 2009 17:23

19 1.3 Suspension now knocking at rear and steerin - Rattle

Thanks will try that.

The CV joints and boots have all been replaced this year :(.

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Sat 10 Oct 2009 16:42

19 1.3 Suspension now knocking at rear and steerin - Rattle

Just had it looked at it, its a CV joint, it turns out only one of them has been replaced this year. The rear knocking will be checked out while its on the ramp.

Ford Fiesta - It never rains but it pours :) To be fair the car does to do 12k city miles a year so its to be expected.

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