182 - cracking from rear suspension

[MistaT]

Ok, long story. I'll start with an overview, and you can chose to read the rest if you wanna help.

My car has had various handling issues for the past 6 months. It was spot on when i got it, and i've been nice to it but it doesn't seem to care.

Earlier today my rear suspension made a crack noise, which has been followed by a cracking/ting noise which sounds like metal on metal, going over any sort of bump/dip at any speed, even 5mph! It's definitely not the exhaust.

The rear dampers aren't leaking, and the only thing i did to the rear suspension recently was to replace the discs & bearings with new renault ones, torqued with a freshly calibrated torque wrench!

The handling felt much better when i fitted the new discs, but has rapidly deteriorated to as bad as it was before.

I had the tracking done after i fitted the new rear bits, and the car drove much better than it had for a long time, but after overtaking a few cars and an artic on a country road late at night, i braked after pulling in and the rear of the car jumped out, obviously being an experienced track driver i lifted off the brake, corrected and reapplied the brakes, but the car hasn't been the same since. It has been feeling pretty dodgy since october last year, and despite numerous checks and replacing virtually everything it's now at this stage where i can't drive it. The car will sometimes steer itself over cambered or rough surfaces, and sometimes be fine over the same surface on another day. It feels very vague and the back end will start steering the car for no reason on a straight bit of road, making the car crab down the road with corrective steering, only for it to swing back in the other direction when it feels like it, requiring quick reactions! But sometimes it's fine, and if you really push in corners it grips fine and feels OK, but at normal cornering speeds and on straights it feels wrong. If i accelerate on a flat straight bit of road, sometimes when i go to change gear the car will change direction until i reapply throttle, and sometimes be fine...

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated?! I shall be getting the whole rear suspension setup apart tomorrow to have a good look at it, hopefully someone else has had this problem and would care to enlighten me.

Cheers

 

[ForceIndia]

Isn't Mark Fish in your area? Try taking it over for him to check?

 

[MistaT]

He's the other side of the river i think in essex? Which is over an hour, driving it with the noise and feeling that i'm getting at the moment isn't an option, luckily it started doing it a few miles from home!

I've spent out on refurbed unpinned dampers, new wishbones, 3 sets of wheel alignment, cambelt and full brake overhaul! It's getting a bit much for a 3 1/2 year old car

Sounds to me like the torsion beam has cracked or something along those lines!

 

[Russ.]

Spring hasnt snapped has it?

 

[fad]

He's the other side of the river i think in essex? Which is over an hour, driving it with the noise and feeling that i'm getting at the moment isn't an option, luckily it started doing it a few miles from home!

I've spent out on refurbed unpinned dampers, new wishbones, 3 sets of wheel alignment, cambelt and full brake overhaul! It's getting a bit much for a 3 1/2 year old car

Sounds to me like the torsion beam has cracked or something along those lines!

Seriously take it to Mark Fish its pointless spending money on stuff when you cannot diagnose the problem been there and got te T shirt. You aint running independent rear coilies are you?

 

[d4ve86]

when you changed the rear discs did you put the pads in properly with the clip? might have lost a pad?

but as said its not worth replacing parts let someone who knows check it out.

Have you hit a massive pot hole or along those lines for the rear beam to snap?

brand new discs? could be the bearings? check the stub axle bolts? the main bolt holding the disc on did u repalce those? damper lower bolt and upper nut?

 

[MistaT]

The dampers did need doing, one was a bit soft on the dyno. The wishbones needed doing as the balljoints were worn and i didn't wanna faff about. Again rear discs were MOT advisory. Not running coilies on back, just sachs dampers and standard trophy springs.

Dave, cheers for the reply.
Yes the pads were fitted correctly, the brakes still work fine.
I hit pot holes all day every day, it's part of driving B roads a lot, i do try and avoid them and don't drive too fast, i'd have thought a wheel would have bucked first or a tyre would have bulged rather than the beam snapping?!

Could well be the bearings, i'm going to re-inspect them tomorrow, will check the stub axle bolts. Didn't replace the rear hub nut, just thread lock. Not touched damper bolts, sounds like them but i dunno.

Going to re-check everything tomorrow in the daylight, as it was all tight and fine before, but it feels and sounds like something broke.

A visible check showed everything looking normal this evening, including the springs!

 

[MistaT]

Right i've had a quick poke around, it's raining again so can't do any more.

The beam is all intact.
The discs & bearings are still tight with no play whatsoever.
The springs haven't cracked.
The dampers aren't leaking, although i think they may have broken up inside!
There is no play anywhere in the rear suspension that i can feel.

Do the trailing arm bushes do much? I can't really see them, but to me it looks like on one side the bush isn't in great condition?!

 

[Steviant]

Have you taken the rear dampers off to inspect them?
You can pressure test them by hand, you would know instantly if one had gone.

From your initial description it sounds like one of them has failed. As I had a similar experience when one of my OE dampers went on the A23. Had the rear end break away from me and I luckily caught it before I nerfed the barrier.

Do you have any ABS warning lights up on the dash at all? Could be that a sensor has failed and your getting more braking at the rear?

I know it's already been said in the thread, but the best thing to do would be first to give Mark a call on tuesday, he is the expert when it comes to suspension on clios.

If I wasn't out to lunch today and going to Rallyx tomorrow, I'll tell you to bring it over and I'd have a look myself.

 

[MistaT]

Cheers for the offer. I took the rear dampers off today and all was fine with them. Double checked everything on the rear suspension and all looked normal.

The noise was coming from the heatshield hitting the boot floor where it had snapped off several of the mounts.

Obviously my car still doesn't drive right, and i think the fact that the tracking settings keep changing leads me to think that it must be the front end that has something wearing excessively, so i'm putting new track rod ends, top mounts(got given new ones for free) and wheel bearings on the front end, resetting the toe and hopefully i can start to enjoy the car again!

 

[Peperami]

Are you a member of the aa at all (or similar)

Get the car towed to marks (if you dont feel its driveable) and let him assess it, he'll quickly be able to tell you where the problems are coming from.

 

[MistaT]

It's driveable, but requires full attention, i wouldn't consider it dangerous but i'll be taking it a bit easier.

Will give mark a visit soon hopefully