Do I need new bushes, or suspension problem?

[JAC]

I just want to check if I am "barking up the right tree" here...

When driving over speed bumps, or potholes round town, I get a loud clunking sound from the front end, and a feeling similar to the suspension bottoming out. The suspension itself seems to be fine, although I can't find any record of the previous owner changing it, so my guess is that it is the orginal suspension. If it has been changed, it would be for an original Ford set (as all repairs on the car have been done at the Ford dealer until I bought it), but I highly doubt it as the previous owner seemed to be a slow driver.

The clunking and the harshness seems to be far more exagerated when the car is cold, especially over the last few weeks when temperatures have been near freezing. When the car warms up it seems to be a lot quieter and smoother.

Am I right in thinking that it may be the bushes that need changing, or am I looking at this wrong?

The handling doesn't seem to be affected, although at higher speeds it does bounce a bit, so maybe a suspension change wouldn't be a bad idea.

Should I think about doing suspension and bushes at the same time, or just do one, test it, then proceed if necessary?

This would be my first time doing suspension on my own, so I will do plenty of research first, but looking at it from a "legal" point of view, I only have a choice of 3 suspensions anyway (other than the original from Ford which is a very expensive alternative here). 2x Blisteins and 1x Monroe, all of which work out at around 500€ for all four (without springs).

The bushes I haven't found yet, but I haven't spent too much time investigating either.

Any advice would be muchly appreciated!

 

[joshua551]

I think the clunking noise is the top of the struts that is able to move freely when going over potholes or speedbumps. When you look under the bonnet, some (most) pumas have a bit of space between the top of the suspention ''hat'' and the strut tower. I think originally this ''hat'' was used to clamp the suspention in place. (look under the bonnet it al makes far more sense when you see it). Because there is some space between this ''hat'' and the strut tower, the complete shock absporber will be able to ''fall'' down hence making the cluncing noise.
If this is the problem I wouldn't be to concerned. Both my puma's had this space between the suspention ''hat'' and the strut tower. If you really want to ''fix it i would say get some new suspention top hats and bearings, or make a spacer wich fills up the gap.
Bear in mind most puma's are at least 15 years old now so some new bushes and shoks are always worth it to make the car handle better.
I am going to be replacing all the suspention bushes fairly soon becaus some are pretty worn i found. I already got new lowering springs and dampers on my car wich are now about 1.5 years old. think with the new bushes it will handle almost as new.

Hope this info is some help to you.

 

[TylerB]

I had a clonking noise at the front once and it were the anti roll bar bushes, they are quite a pain to replace. If it's coming from the back it could either be the axle bushes or the strut top mounts.

 

[Frank]

[post]359849[/post]
Should I think about doing suspension and bushes at the same time, or just do one, test it, then proceed if necessary?

Bushes and tyres first and see what you have. The problem is that neither got the Email that told them that they are not part of the actual suspension, so they just carry on acting as though they were.

Bush checking is easily done with a pry bar (like a crowbar that has been flattened by a lorry going over it) and most bushes are easy enough to change, but some are tiresome. If any need doing then and they fall into the latter category then personally I'd get some other poor slob (aka my garage) to do them.

Polybushes are 'firmer' to the point where some people have changed back the rubber. More importantly, Barry doesn't like them, so I stick to OE rubber (I like the way I write 'stick to..' as though I've had hundreds done, I've only changed 2 bushs on a Puma)

Tyres - I can only speak as I find - from when I got my Puma, the handling was fine, but somewhat unforgiving/firm on potholes, etc. I assumed that's how Pumas were. I changed the front tyres (old ones were fine, plenty of tread and not all old and cracked) to a pair of RainSport 3s - handling slightly improved, wetgrip better, ride over potholes totally transformed and the jarring greatly improved! The last part was unexpected and means that I no longer have to carry a mental map of every single pothole and manhole cover location for every road in East Sussex (Kent has better roads)

Better tyre wall flexing would seem to be the reason and I'm mentioning this tyre stuff as you said about 'events' improving when the car warms up and the tyres are one of the few 'suspension' type bits that would change when warm.

 

[JAC]

Thanks for the input guys.

I know this may sound silly, but as we should be back into the mid to high twenties (celcius) in a month or so, I may just wait until it's warmer and then take action.

It could just be my mind confusing me (as usual), because I parked the car up in late August (temperatures over 40ºC daily) and then started driving it again in December, when we have had a terrible cold spell. I am running Continental summer tyres, which are probably part of the issue you mention Frank, but I really don't want to base tyre selections on weather that we only have for 1 or 2 months a year.

You say that I can test busches with a pry bar, but where should I pry?

Thanks again all!

 

[lusid666]

FIrst thing I would do personally would be to change the drop links between the strut and the anti-roll bar. You can pick up a pair reasonably cheap off Ebay and they are fairly easy to change.

 

[Frank]

[post]359869[/post]
You say that I can test bushes with a pry bar, but where should I pry?

Basically, the 2 unrelated metally bits that the bush (or joint) attaches to. Like with the anti-roll bar bushes - if you pry bar near the bushes and it shows up if there's loads of movement, then you change the bush (changing in pairs is better). It's just dawned on me that this is quite hard to describe in writing, so ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6awxtMKO9p4

[post]359869[/post] I am running Continental summer tyres, which are probably part of the issue you mention Frank,

I wouldn't suggest that as an actual 'fix' for this, as just randomly changing parts without being certain why is not a great way to troubleshoot (mind you, that never seems to deter the Mr 'Sounds like the coil pack to me' of the world doing precisely that).

I was changing the fronts anyway and that was my experience. Not a vague subjective thing either, passengers also pointed out the smoother ride to me, completely unasked and not knowing that I had changed anything.

Even so, it just gets added to the Borg information pool, in case it may prove useful to know.