Anti-roll bars and their drop links play no part in anti-dive suspension geometry, the tester will have been misinformed & wised up by 2021 if it was the same person doing that MOT.

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

Anti-roll bars and their drop links play no part in anti-dive suspension geometry, the tester will have been misinformed & wised up by 2021 if it was the same person doing that MOT.

That's my mistake saying "anti dive".

On checking the MOT history yes you're right the last 4 MOT's were carried out at the same garage. Looks like the MOT tester likes checking anti roll bar drop link ball joints! In 2019 the car must have had 1 front and 1 rear drop link changed as they were advisories on the 1st MOT which it failed and then not mentioned on the re-test 4 days later?

I can't say I noticed any play in the 2 rear linkage ball joints I changed the other day though admittedly I didn't check them on the car with a lever.

 

As previously posted I've also recently changed both front drop links one of which had play in a ball joint. Though can't remember which side it was now?  The only suspension related noise I could hear was after the front drivers side spring broke which also damaged the top bearing. When I changed both front suspension springs I found both gas dampers were very lethargic so changed them as well. At +180,000 miles not really surprising.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have changed out all the same stuff as you so I will check the rear drop links carefully, the front ones were causing (I believe) a rumbling noise that I could not quite pin down plus general crashing over the rubbish roads near my UK house, I put the cheapest ones on and 18 months later fed up with the crashing  noises decided to replace them with yet more cheap ones 🤣 but they were in perfect order, the joint still stiff enough to remove with a single spanner.

 

The noise remains, bad roads, maybe the tyres but those rear drop links weem to be worth a look, its due for its CT now after 2 years but the waiting list at my mates place is a week currently (he might be on holiday) and I have not spent that long here (Picardie) for over 6 months.

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

I have changed out all the same stuff as you so I will check the rear drop links carefully, the front ones were causing (I believe) a rumbling noise that I could not quite pin down plus general crashing over the rubbish roads near my UK house, I put the cheapest ones on and 18 months later fed up with the crashing  noises decided to replace them with yet more cheap ones 🤣 but they were in perfect order, the joint still stiff enough to remove with a single spanner.

 

The noise remains, bad roads, maybe the tyres but those rear drop links weem to be worth a look, its due for its CT now after 2 years but the waiting list at my mates place is a week currently (he might be on holiday) and I have not spent that long here (Picardie) for over 6 months.

It's worth checking the condition of the front dampers. I changed out front springs and dampers on my Superb last summer, trying to resolve a creak on large wheel movements (it's still there!),  and was pleasantly surprised at the lack of rumbling and thumping noises coming from the front afterwards. Like many of these things it had probably crept in gradually and was only noticed by its absence afterwards. The dampers were in pretty poor shape, one was leaking and the other was fairly soft if not quite at the point of leaking when it came off.

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

The noise remains, bad roads, maybe the tyres but those rear drop links weem to be worth a look, its due for its CT now after 2 years but the waiting list at my mates place is a week currently (he might be on holiday) and I have not spent that long here (Picardie) for over 6 months.

 

Have you checked the anti roll bar bushes? They were worn almost oval on my sons old Seat Ibiza which has the same style of suspension. And is the same as a VW Polo IIRC. The anti roll bar had moved over to one side and was catching on a sub frame mounting.

 

My Grandma lost a brother in Picardie in December 1916. I'm assuming it was during the battle of the Somme? He is remembered on the Theipval Memorial a bit further north of you. I was there back in 2018 the only family to have visited.

Were I to be a WW1 anorak like every other Brit in this area I would be saying that date is technically after the Battle of the Somme, but I am not and had to google it!!!!

 

How do you know that Thiepval is a bit further North than where I live?

 

It is indeed, about 8km vol d'Oiseau!

I had visually inspected everything but its hard now with my vision and from lying on my back, I will give it all a good levering during the CT, the tester is a friend.

18 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Were I to be a WW1 anorak like every other Brit in this area I would be saying that date is technically after the Battle of the Somme, but I am not and had to google it!!!!

 

How do you know that Thiepval is a bit further North than where I live?

 

It is indeed, about 8km vol d'Oiseau!

I have no idea where you live !! But you did say you live in Picardie. 😆 

 

I just remember checking how far it was from where my great uncle died to where he is remembered and Picardie is south of Theipval.

 

 

I'm not a WW1 anorak! 😆 But I've done a fair bit of research on my family tree ☺️ He was a volunteer ! His older brother wasn't ! He told my Dad they would have to come and get him! I know from military records he died on the Somme. I don't fully understand why he is one of the 70,000 who disappeared in battle remembered on the Thepival Memorial?  The family were told he had an arm blown off taking supplies up to the front line which isn't stated anywhere. His military records state "died of his wounds".

My brother has a friend who is a WW1 anorak who's explanation is that he probably died in a field hospital and then buried next to it.  For which there doesn't seem to be any records? The fighting continued and the Germans advanced and his grave was then behind enemy lines. So no we don't know exactly where his remains are but I would have thought he should have had his own cross? 

 

 

Picardie ( is the region which includes the départements of L'Aisne, L'Oise and La Somme and covers 20000 square kilometers, the english spelling is Picardy but I did not use that spelling in my profile so that is why I was surprised that you appeared to know where I live, your direction was almost spot on and the route on the map you have shown from Picardy actually goes through my village!!!!

 

The Thiepval memorial is for all the fallen soldiers whose remains were either never found or identified, behind the memorial there is a small cemetary containing war graves of Commonwealth and French soldiers but those were those who died close by during the battles, they were identified & buried there during the war and before the monument was constructed after the war.

 

Remains are still being found today and they actually have more chance now of being identified than they ever did, I have been to a few of the funerals at the 2 Commonwealth cemetaries in my village, its upsetting to see that their remains fit in a casket the size of a shoebox.

 

So it is possible for someone to be listed on the memorial as one of the missing yet later on to have been found & buried and have a gravestone, you will find loads of information on the CWGC website, his regiment and where he was listed as killed in action most probably.

 

There are probably some errors in the above, a WW1 enthusiast would know the exact details.

 

Sorry for the thread drift.

1 hour ago, Derbyshirebod said:

So no we don't know exactly where his remains are but I would have thought he should have had his own cross?

 

There would be 72000 headstones like that and how could they decide what cemetaries to put them in?

 

The monument is the size that it is (10 million bricks and 45m high) to be able to have the engravings of the name & regiment etc of all of the 72000 honoured there, as you will know the engraving is not large.

13 minutes ago, J.R. said:

 

There would be 72000 headstones like that and how could they decide what cemetaries to put them in?

 

The monument is the size that it is (10 million bricks and 45m high) to be able to have the engravings of the name & regiment etc of all of the 72000 honoured there, as you will know the engraving is not large.

Yes I was aware that Picardy is the anglicised spelling as per the Google maps snip I posted. My understanding was the memorial was for people who'd gone missing in action which is not what happened in this case. But from what you've said I'm wrong. It must have been quite a feat back in the 1930's working out how many bricks they were going to need !!

Yes as you've said there is a small cemetery to the rear of the memorial though I didn't expect each cross would have had remains buried there? Though as you know there are war cemeteries littered all over France. Not just for WW1. 

 

I did email the CWGC a couple of years ago but haven't pursued it further. Clements is a very common surname (not mine) as was the name William back in the 1900's . It seems strange that on the Memorial they've not used both his initials? Which makes me question it is his name up there ? 

 

I'm hoping to go down to the Le Mans Classic again this year, a trip which has been postponed for the last years due to covid! But taking a different route down through Normandy so won't be passing that way this time.