Creaking/knocking after outer ARB bush change

[clio_ross]

As above, i’m loathed to start another “knocking noise” thread, but i’m at a bit of a loss with this one so here goes:

I changed the worn out outer ARB bushes on my 172 over the weekend to Powerflex black bushes and since then I have being getting a groaning/creaking/knocking noise when manoeuvring at slow speeds and when braking to a stop (when almost at a stop I can feel the knocking through the floor). The noise seems to disappear at normal road speeds, but it may be being hidden by exhaust and road noise.

This noise/knock has only come on since I change the outer bushes (haven’t changed the inners yet) so suggests it’s something to do with them or is something I’ve done when fitting them.

When searching the forum I come across this thread;
https://www.cliosport.net/threads/knocking-creaking-noise-from-suspension.309169/page-2
Which appears to suggest greasing the whole bush, not just the inner bore and end of the arb as I did, may solve the problem.

However, i did find another thread; https://www.cliosport.net/threads/knocking-under-hard-braking-stationary-steering.816948/
which seems to contradict the previous thread, whereby the OP solved the knocking issue by replacing their fully greased Powerflex outer arb bushes with standard ones and only greasing the internal bore of them.

Don’t know if this would have a bearing on the issue, but I tried to find a torque for the bolts (used new nuts and bolts) that hold the outer arb brackets/clamps to the wishbones but couldn’t find a consistent value when I searched, so just did them up QFT when fitting the bushes.

So looking for any thoughts/advice/experience anyone has with resolving similar issues, as well any thoughts on what’s best to do with respect to greasing the bushes (if this proves to the route cause); remove clamps and grease whole bush or leave bushes externally free from grease.

Cheers for any help/advice provided.

 

[bloke]

Did you get the rusty cruddy powdercoating and rust off the end of the arb and from the inside of the bracket?

 

[clio_ross]

Powder coating on the end of the ARB was still solid when I gave the bar a good wire brushing, had a few flaky bits where the old bushes stopped, so removed all that as best I could but the solid stuff stayed in place.

Gave the clamps a good scrub as well, they had a couple of little bumps on the inside face of the brackets but tried to brush and chip these away and they weren’t budging so just removed the rest of the loose stuff from them.

 

[JB21]

The black bushes are 'grease free' but are very common the creak under load. Mine are doing it on the VRS and its annoying. I'm just going to remove the bushes, smooth off the ARB with sandpaper and grease them up. Should work for a while as spraying WD40 on them helped for a day or 2. Also the creaking is worse the stiffer the ARB setting. I backed mine off from full stiffness to soft and it make it a lot better.

 

[clio_ross]

Good to know I’m not the only one having issues with black series bushes Phil.
I’ve just picked up a full set of purple powerflex arb bushes for a good price in the for sale section earlier, so i’m going to change them over when they arrive and see what happens.

 

[clio_ross]

Just to finish this one off, took the black bushes off and found that the passenger side bush was stuck on the bar, despite putting plenty of grease on them when fitting and it only being on the bar for about 50 miles; the bush itself was absolutely fine when I got it off, but there was still a few bits of lumpy rust on the end of the bar itself, which seemed to be causing the bush to “stick” to the bar.

Cleaned the end of the bar up again, using some more “persuasion” than fist time round to remove any lumpy bits and fitted a set of the purple powerflex outer bushes (as per my previous post, I had pretty much decided I was going to change to purple bushes as soon as I encountered this issue), using plenty of silicone grease inside the bore of the bush and on the bar itself. Also put some grease on the part of the bush where the clamp sits.

Been out for a drive and be noise is gone, suspect it was a combination of the passenger side bush getting stuck on the bar due to the lumpy bits I missed and possibly the hardness and nature of the black bushes exacerbating the fact I haven’t done the inner ARB bushes yet.

Just glad it’s resolved and the noise is gone, so I will popping the black outer ARB bushes up for sale shortly.

Cheers again for everyone’s input.

 

[bloke]

i normally smack them with a hammer to get the rust off, chisel on the inside of the brackets.

 

[clio_ross]

Good rattle with a hammer and a wire brush did get rid of a lot of stuff first time round but I did end up taking a small chisel to some of the tougher lumpy stuff on the end of the bar second time round. I was lucky with the bracket, those just needed a bit of a good tap with the end on the wire brush to get rid off the loose stuff.