Clio 172 Loud knocking on Track / not on road

Evening all

Wondering if any of you guys could help with a frustrating issue which meant a pretty pointless track day at Donnington on Sunday 🙄

My 172 has just had all new Gaz coilovers, driveshafts, alignment, 200 cell cat, rear brakes (basically a load of work to sort it out for track work)

Also got an MOT which could point to the problem maybe as well….

The problem I have is that when cornering on track to the right I get a really harsh knocking noise on the front left side - it’s really quite bad when leaning on that wheel and undriveable on track.

It doesn’t do it on the road, only on track currently as it needs some pretty harsh cornering….

My garage thought possible driveshaft issues as the wheel bearing seemed ok - new driveshafts and it’s still doing it.

The MOT advisory’s state play in steering rack inner joints on both sides - could it be this?

If I Jack the wheel up there does feel like play in the 3 & 9 horizontal position, none at 12 & 6.

No real noise or drone like a wheel bearing & it doesn’t seem to matter if I’m on the power or not - as soon as I turn in it knocks away really bad. It should be obviously surely as it knocks so bad, but I’m no mechanic, just a weekend amateur at best.

Any thoughts would be massively appreciated! Pic at Donny in the car park where it spent most of the day with me sulking…

How much negative camber? At a guess driveshaft cvs bottoming out under suspension compression. Quite common on the clios.

For a quick test with car sat as normal on floor, buzz the driveshaft nut undone and check the cv plunge, should be able to push the shaft in 10mm or so.

If plunge is less than 10mm then you might be able to sort it by loosening off engine mounts and moving engine over a bit.

Brigsy said:

How much negative camber? At a guess driveshaft cvs bottoming out under suspension compression. Quite common on the clios.

For a quick test with car sat as normal on floor, buzz the driveshaft nut undone and check the cv plunge, should be able to push the shaft in 10mm or so.

If plunge is less than 10mm then you might be able to sort it by loosening off engine mounts and moving engine over a bit.

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Thanks for this Brigsy - it’s funny how you don’t know what you don’t know!

The car is bloody low at the front and is running 2.2 degrees negative camber which maybe explains it….

I’ve since done some Googling and this seems to be a thing / makes sense.

Sorry, in real layman’s terms I undo the driveshaft nut and then I should be able to push the drive shaft in by 10mm - do I just literally push the end of the driveshaft with a screwdriver (or alike) and it should move back in the hub? Or do I grab the driveshaft at the back and pull it?

Apologies for the basic questions!

So it seems like I have 3 options if this is the problem?:

Move engine over a bit to drivers side
Raise ride height
Reduce camber

Cheers!

I echo the above theory and it would make sense that this only happens when you turn right as the left driveshaft is shorter than the one on the right.

mumpy said:

I echo the above theory and it would make sense that this only happens when you turn right as the left driveshaft is shorter than the one on the right.

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Thanks - I’m definitely thinking it’s this now as well. Will investigate further…

Went into the garage tonight & she’s done a coolant wee on the floor as well now 🙄

This car is testing me at the moment!

@Dan1987wales yep just undo hub nut and you should be able to push the end of the driveshaft in until it bottoms out.

Brigsy said:

@Dan1987wales yep just undo hub nut and you should be able to push the end of the driveshaft in until it bottoms out.

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Thanks - will give it a go 👍🏻

remember the car and explains why i didn't see it out a lot on sunday. I got paranoid (nothing new there) with some vibrations just before lunch. Turned out just to be a lot of pickup on the inside of tyre.

Brigsy sounds like he's boxed your issue off