Clunking front suspension, again.
 

I tend to change components before they break, did the front rear bushes , droplinks and brake pads before MOT a few months ago. Although it passed with a rather fastidious MOT guy I use, there was still a clunking sound on gentle braking. Car up in the air and everything checked again.

About to put the wheel back and there it was another broken front spring, strangely towards the back and it stayed in place.

This is now the 4th car in 4 months that has needed a new spring, get costly when I always change them in pairs. Time to contact the council about our road now...

The Rover must be the more difficult of my cars to change front springs.
This time around I tried something different and cut my cheap spring compressors down by around 60mm. Worked a treat and they compressed the springs without hitting the top mounts.

Fortunately all the bolts came out with no issue whatsoever, with plenty of penetrating fluid before-hand and a rattle gun that is. :)

I'm working in Hampshire and some of the minor roads are a disgrace. potholes go unfilled and some time back I smashed in to an exposed drain ironwork. the tarmac around it had been dislodged and I reported. a few weeks later it was repaired but it smashed a coil spring instantly for me and I'm sure many other did damage to their cars.

Reading through these posts about Potholes I'm glad I live in France.--You would have to go well out of your way to find even one Pothole, minor roads included.

In fact I can't remember when I last saw one.-----:shrug:




PS. I suspect these cunning French have been exporting them to Britain before BREXIT happens.----Lol.

I changed the front springs on my daughters astra-30 minutes a side to remove, replace the spring and refit the wheel.
The rear ones on a 02 Astra took 45 minutes for both, as did the rears on my Chev SUV. Rover are well built but a pig to work on at times.

I have all my cars up in the air, wheels off and apply a coat of hammerite and or waxoil before every MOT, tends to make workin on them a bit easier later on.

I had an annoying clunk when starting off and when stopping on my ZT190. I changed the droplinks but no improvement. I was under the car last week changing the oil and noticed that the bolts attaching the exhaust collector just below the engine were not there. One broken and one sheared off. I drilled and tapped the broken one and replaced both bolts and the clunk is gone.
Next up, new lower arms to do away with the "pothole clunk".

New springs, strut bearings and front shocks, as well as drop-links all fitted.

What a pig of a job. I eventually cut down 3 spring compressors, one good quality one and dropped the subframe before everything fell into place.

One thing I did do is to wrap the compressed spring with a tie down, which helped when taking the tension off the compressors-saved them flying all over he wheel well and my face. :eek:

The quality of the shocks were iffy, in that the brake-pipe brackets needed a bit of manipulation to get the angle correct.

Bad news- The @~*&^ clunking is still there, even after fitting a spare lower engine mount just in case.

Have a look at your upper engine mount tie bar and hydramount mine was both split and replacing cured my clunk.