Freelander 1 Mysterious clunk?? Solved

Hello again all, we’re back with a new issue but in the same f/n/s location! As you may remember we had a running noise that was fixed eventually by a new shock, now we have a new clunk that’s appeared. So here’s the story so far…

replaced shock, track rod ends, bushes, drop link and wishbone. But all of a sudden we had a loudish clink when pulling off, we checked and found the shock bolts had slightly loosened and that was the cause, tightened them up and the noise stopped, day after it’s back again, checked and the nuts are still very tight and no movement on the wheel. Checked all other bolts and all nice and tight with no play. So how could
These bolts cure the problem one minute but not be the cause of the noise 24hours later?

you get around 3/4 meters and it clunks or perhaps it’s over a certain speed which is around 5/10pm h. When you stop at lights etc is often dosent clunk. When you reverse and go forward it clunks again. So… what’s loose?

over to you as we’re stumped!
Thank you all in advance.

Top shock nut ?? Should be lock nut and they can work loose. If you reused the old one this could be it.

used the new lock one that was supplied and its still very tight, that was my idea also of a possible cause.

Could also be driveshaft knocking on change of direction. Rock front wheel back and forth while off ground and listen / watch that driveshaft appears connected all the way along.

Doesn't explain the bolts stopping then starting again but maybe it is intermittent.

Thank you, will have a look in a bit and report back.

Are the wheel nuts all tight?
Are you sure its from the front? Is it the diff mounting (center one goes first normally)

See that’s what I thought also so I checked wheel nuts and we replaced the diff mount about 10 days ago. Could it be the shock is faulty?

Sithmaull said:

Could it be the shock is faulty?

Click to expand...

Unlikely.
Are you 100% sure the bottom bolts are torqued up correctly?
Did you use new bolts? If not, did you clean all the corrosion off with a wire wheel?
Corrosion on the bolts will cause binding, which will give an incorrect torque figure.

Are you sure the top mount is assembled correctly, and the top nut has bottomed out in the bearing?

It's coming over on Thursday so Tom can lay underneath and listen while I drive over him!!

well i carefully marked the strut to get the spring and mount back on in the same place, and we did the bolts up very tight after they had come loose where i was worred about breaking the socket.

we used the old bolts but cleaned the threads with a wire brush on a drill and then applied copper grease which we have done with all bolts we have removed. it was fine for a few drives but now along with the clunk its sounding like the shock has failed already. I was saying to the wife that the only option i can see now is to take everyting off again and inspect each part individually to source the issue but this clunk sound only started after we had replaced the shock. So in my opinion either the mount has now failed or the shock has gone already after a couple of weeks.

The drag link balk joints fail very quickly if the are britpart, mine only lasted a couple of.months before they started clunking again

Col

ok thank you, i'll have a look but im suspecting it to be the shock mount at the moment as its knocking again like it did when the shock went, unfortunatly we didnt change the mount as to be honest, we couldnt afford it. However i think its next on the list to change.

I could be wrong but wasn't there a problem with sub frame mount captive nut welds breaking causing a knocking, just thinking as you've had the vehicle up in the air, for the suspension work, it may have disturbed something.

Morning all, so a small development.

bought a new shock mount which I’m fitting today which might cure the problem but I’ve noticed that the car dosent start knocking again until this clunk noise happens, sometimes it’s when you pull off the drive and sometimes you can get 1/4 mile away before it happens. It seems to sort itself when parked up for a period of time until you get the dreaded sound and then the knocking starts.

going to take off the strut today and inspect everything carefully to try and find the source of the problem and see if the shock has failed. As it only started when the new shock was fitted then I’m probably wrongly assuming that it must be the cause of the problem.

Well I’ve replaced the shock mount and now the normal rumble has gone but we have a more constant higher pitched rattle. The new vcu we fitted with new bearings has made turning on full lock a nightmare as it bangs and feels like the brakes are binding so he’s sending me another one to try. Hoping to get the car to Andy’s soon and finally solve all these issues.

Problem solved.

first I forgot to put back on a metal washer on the shock when I changed the top mount which was causing the rattle.

second when fitting the new vcu I neglected to tighten up some bolts enough on the prop.

a huge thank you to andyfreelandy for his time and patience with me and all of his advice and help. Thank you to everyone who helped on the forum also. This is the first time since I bought the car it’s working fully so we’re going for a drive today to celebrate.

An extra point for editing the title to solved !!

Hope it now rewards you with some trouble free miles !!

Well we’ve been out all day and no problems at all. Feels lovely to drive. £1.60 a litre for diesel at trago so filled her up.

thank you again for your help. Couldn’t have done it without you.