Hi all -

Long time lurker, only posted once before!

Looking for suggestions while fault-finding my 2005 vRS, if anyone has any - I have a clunking/rattling noise coming from the front passenger-side wheel well while driving at lower speeds. All bushes have been changed (console, FARB, dogbone) and the gearbox mount has been packed with silicon sealant just in case, with no joy. The rattling appears almost at random every few seconds, with only one interesting characteristic - all noises stop while the car is turning and the suspension is under load. As soon as the car is travelling in a straight line again, the rattle will continue over any minor dip/bump in the road.

I'm at the point of changing the fork top mount & bearing, when I decided to quickly check the height from the floor to the top of the wheel arch directly through the centre of the wheel - it turned out to be very different across all wheels:

Front Passenger: 635mm

Front Driver: 650mm

Rear Passenger: 660mm

Rear Driver: 625mm

That seems like quite a drop in the opposite two corners to me - and is a significant change from my Dad's identical vRS (645mm on every corner)...

So, now I'm wondering if the rattle could be due to a snapped spring / worn damper (70k on the OEM set), but I won't have chance to get underneath and have a proper look around until the weekend.

Does this sound likely, or even possible to anyone?

Can you dismiss drive constant velocity joint ?

Mine has started to rattle when turning right, and sound appears in central passenger foot-well area.

I can also hear it rattling, when moving straight-ahead.

It's the inner CV joint I suspect.

Interesting point - I'm happy the outer joints are OK, but I haven't checked the inner joint. I'll add it to the list!

I'm still leaning towards it being a suspension issue at the moment, as the ride height is odd - and I'm almost certain the sound is coming from the far LHS of the car, but I won't rule the inner CV out!

I'm pretty sure there's no suspension issue that could cause a drop in opposite corners; if nothing else then the car would be pivoting around the axis created by the two "good" corners meaning that if one wheel was down, the other was up. For example if front offside and rear nearside were the same, the car would be "rocking" from corner to corner on the front nearside and rear offside, meaning one spring would be "compressed" and one would be "drooping" at any one time. Were you measuring on perfectly flat ground?

Hi all - thanks for the suggestions!

Updates -

I rather sheepishly have to admit that it appears my driveway isn't as flat as it would appear - when I re-measured the car at another flat piece of ground, all four corners are 640mm, as expected. Bit of a red herring!

In even better news, I've managed to find the source of the problem - it's the drop links again! I replaced these when I originally heard the knocking noise a month ago for the Meyle HD 'stronger' replacements. I just got my arm underneath the FARB and gave it a push upwards, to hear a loud clunk / knock - it appears to be coming from the nut between the ARB and the drop link...

I guess I'll be underneath there again this weekend to check why / how it's worked its way loose!

Thanks everyone for your advice - hopefully others will read this and keep in mind that they shouldn't necessarily discount what they've already replaced!

drop links will be the rattle, connect roll bar to suspension strut just below bottom of spring

ring spanner and torx bit(to hold centre bolt) about £18 a side from dealer, bit cheaper form factors

easy job, worse case carefully angle grind nut off to remove

Edit

just read post above, doh!!!

note to self read all posts before posting :giggle:

Edited 18 December, 201213 yr by bluecar1