Posting this on here, maybe of help to someone.
Bought my RR in May last year, had a strange rattly clunk from rear over small bumps but not big ones. MOT tester couldn't find anything amiss but it was obvious that something was not all well.
After checking everything again myself I discovered that the Panhard rod was shifting on its fixing bolt on the axle. So I took the rod off and sure enough there was a fidget/witness mark on the inside of the metalastic bush ferrule. Reassembled it nice and tight - fixed.
Have gradually sorted most of the gremlins over time but one that continued to plague the car was vague steering in the straight ahead at around 30 - 40 miles an hour but was OK over 70. Checked all the suspension and steering ball joints, had the car realigned (twice) and it's had a new steering box around 5 years ago.
Then I wondered whether it could have the same fault as the rear and it was allowing the front axle to shift about (so in effect there was two of us steering the thing) so out with the pry bar and found that the rod was loose at the axle end again but in this case no rattles. Removed rod - then see above.
Fixed at last.
All rod mounting bolts looked as if they were factory fit and were loctited, no sign at all that any work had been done in that area. The bolts are not a particularly snug fit through the ferrule so same has to be clamped well tight in its mounting pocket. No sign of degradation of the bushes so put back together and tightened up at normal ride height.
Hopefully, that will be that
Bought my RR in May last year, had a strange rattly clunk from rear over small bumps but not big ones. MOT tester couldn't find anything amiss but it was obvious that something was not all well.
After checking everything again myself I discovered that the Panhard rod was shifting on its fixing bolt on the axle. So I took the rod off and sure enough there was a fidget/witness mark on the inside of the metalastic bush ferrule. Reassembled it nice and tight - fixed.
Have gradually sorted most of the gremlins over time but one that continued to plague the car was vague steering in the straight ahead at around 30 - 40 miles an hour but was OK over 70. Checked all the suspension and steering ball joints, had the car realigned (twice) and it's had a new steering box around 5 years ago.
Then I wondered whether it could have the same fault as the rear and it was allowing the front axle to shift about (so in effect there was two of us steering the thing) so out with the pry bar and found that the rod was loose at the axle end again but in this case no rattles. Removed rod - then see above.
Fixed at last.
All rod mounting bolts looked as if they were factory fit and were loctited, no sign at all that any work had been done in that area. The bolts are not a particularly snug fit through the ferrule so same has to be clamped well tight in its mounting pocket. No sign of degradation of the bushes so put back together and tightened up at normal ride height.
Hopefully, that will be that
