Were they certain that was the problem? Could they see the movement?
A pair of half decent control arms is £80 for your car. Plus £150 fitting I'd say?
Suspension issue - garage can't find anything
- Thread starter Solus
- Start date
A pair of half decent control arms is £80 for your car. Plus £150 fitting I'd say?
I spoke to a receptionist rather than the mechanic, so couldn't tell. Needless to say I've collected the car now and booked in elsewhere once again for Thursday.
Stuff is getting expensive lately - anywhere I'd be OK with touching my vehicle wanted £100 over what you'd expect from parts + labour to do a brake bleed, pads and discs recently 
annoyingly stuff I could do myself but I just don't have the right setup at home for any serious work.
annoyingly stuff I could do myself but I just don't have the right setup at home for any serious work.
Soldato
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Yeah. It sounds perhaps a little rich, but maybe you could supply your own parts. I'm getting a pair of front suspension arms done on my car in short order; they're £150 a side, and then there's £150 of labour and £35 of tracking. So, £485 all in.
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Can probably get the parts for £120 if eBay and get them replaced. Most garages are ok with customer supplied but you get no warranty
Okay, so this just got infuriating. I'm actually angry now.
Dropped it off to garage number 3, said they would call with what they find and a quotation. Dropped it off at 9.15am.
2pm and I give them a call as I haven't heard anything. The man says "oh that's strange, I just moved your car outside. It's all ready for you"
Confused, I ask what was done and how much. I get told the passenger side wishbone is fine, the drivers side wishbone has a crack in one of the rubbers but that wouldn't cause the noise I'm describing apparantly. He blamed brake pads being loose, which is a strange one on me. He said he refitted and it's all good now.
I collect the car and it's exactly the same, no change whatsoever.
I don't have all the time to take out of my day to try to sort this out, I'm tempted by taking it to the main dealer but nobody knows how much that'll cost which leads me then in to thinking about replacing the car entirely. It's a shame as the cost of a replacement car nowadays is obviously much higher than normal, but I can't keep driving something that makes this noise.
I can't believe garages can do this, it's like they only want the work they know they can do and get straight back out. Any actual fault finding and they're not bothered.
/Fedup
Dropped it off to garage number 3, said they would call with what they find and a quotation. Dropped it off at 9.15am.
2pm and I give them a call as I haven't heard anything. The man says "oh that's strange, I just moved your car outside. It's all ready for you"
Confused, I ask what was done and how much. I get told the passenger side wishbone is fine, the drivers side wishbone has a crack in one of the rubbers but that wouldn't cause the noise I'm describing apparantly. He blamed brake pads being loose, which is a strange one on me. He said he refitted and it's all good now.
I collect the car and it's exactly the same, no change whatsoever.
I don't have all the time to take out of my day to try to sort this out, I'm tempted by taking it to the main dealer but nobody knows how much that'll cost which leads me then in to thinking about replacing the car entirely. It's a shame as the cost of a replacement car nowadays is obviously much higher than normal, but I can't keep driving something that makes this noise.
I can't believe garages can do this, it's like they only want the work they know they can do and get straight back out. Any actual fault finding and they're not bothered.
/Fedup
Caporegime
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Buy some silicon spray, WD40 do a can and go searching for the loud bushing, one at a time.
this.
it can be infuriating trying to find problems did the garage charge you for refitting the pads? sounds to me like the garage for the control arms was just seeing a split rubber and thought give it a go, then when you came back they would say needed changing guv
as said try and find the problem makes it easier to get the garage to sort it.
i remember when i had transits with sqeaky rear suspension soapy water in a spray bottle
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Thanks. No, he didn't charge me but I gave him a tenner for his time as I could tell the wheels had been off, so they didn't just do nothing at all. They're MOT testers too so at least gave me a bit of security knowing it's nothing major safety wise.this.
it can be infuriating trying to find problems did the garage charge you for refitting the pads? sounds to me like the garage for the control arms was just seeing a split rubber and thought give it a go, then when you came back they would say needed changing guv
as said try and find the problem makes it easier to get the garage to sort it.
i remember when i had transits with sqeaky rear suspension soapy water in a spray bottle
How do I go about spraying soapy water on stuff to isolate it? I'm not the best with cars, that's why it's been to the garage each time.
I have done work myself on it, but I'm not well versed on what components look like and what they are called in terms of suspension components, so even if I find the issue I wouldn't know how to describe it.
I have at least isolated it to the drivers side front, so I can get the wheel off and take a look but that's a lot of effort to do that one by one for each bushing? Keep putting the wheel back on and driving each time I spray?
Here's a video I made of the sound. Not as obvious as being in the car yourself but gives an idea of the sound.
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Soldato
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- 9 Dec 2009
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How did you determine it was definitely the top mounts?
I suspect the rattle in the GFs car is the top mounts, but I'm unable to replicate the noise. I've got replacement top mounts and will be fitting them when we get a dry day one weekend. Fingers crossed this eliminates the noise.
Please update how you get on and hopefully this sorts it!
Couldn't actually confirm it without process of elimination.
We found if we jacked the front of the car up and turned the wheel quickly each way it would replicate the noise and it was definitely coming from the upper part of the strut.
All done today and the noise has gone! Also feels a lot more planted on the road.
Soldato
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- Bristol
Good news!
Gf is convinced that the noise is coming "from the top of the engine" so hopefully it's the top mounts for us too. Weather forecast for the weekend is dry so hopefully I'll be able to fit them soon.
My father-in-law has a carport, so we did it under there.
One tip though, if the new top mounts arrive and it seems like they're wrong, make sure they don't pull apart. I had a trip back to euro parts yesterday to say it was wrong. He pulled it apart and flipped the bearing over.
Well here I am after driving today, incredibly annoyed that the problem has become apparent again and hasn't fixed the issue!
£100 lighter and hours of 3 people's time.
Live and learn, I think it's time to get rid. Nobody can find the issue!
I would just ignore the noise but the tyres at the front are wearing unevenly. I can't throw money at the problem and not get anywhere.
I was hoping to keep this for another year at least until things calmed down in the car market but I think this is being taken out of my hands.
£100 lighter and hours of 3 people's time.
Live and learn, I think it's time to get rid. Nobody can find the issue!
I would just ignore the noise but the tyres at the front are wearing unevenly. I can't throw money at the problem and not get anywhere.
I was hoping to keep this for another year at least until things calmed down in the car market but I think this is being taken out of my hands.
Don’t buy parts from eBay. Eurocarparts offers online discounts for collection sometimes cheaper than trade prices.
A lot of garages have stopped using them.
Customer supplied parts are a nightmare, get the wrong part and the car is stuck on the ramp leading to jobs backing up and apparently it’s still the garage that’s liable for dodgy parts as qualified they deem the parts are of satisfactory quality.
We only fit customer supplied parts for select customers, some have their own trade accounts or take advantage of euros offers. They also bring us food.