Suspension Failure

[st3ve]

Driving home from the pub tonight I had the music on, not loud and all of a sudden I started to hear a noise so I turned the music off and I could hear a fairly loud tapping noise.

It sounds as if it's coming from the middle of the engine bay. I couldn't feel any excessive play or roughness to the steering, it still tracks fine, power is still there and the noise is only there whilst decelerating.

However when I was almost home doing approximately 2-3mph around the last corner I felt something through the steering and the noise got louder so I crawled up the kerb onto the driveway.

Looked under the bonnet and everything is fine, just gave everything a tug and I found the o/s strut has excessive play, definitely more wobbly than the n/s.

Just wondering if anyone can put their finger on it really as I'm gonna have to jack the car up to have a look in the very early morning before work tomorrow and I'm afraid of what I might find. With any luck it will be a case that it's simply popped out of its housing. Help?

 

[Jonff]

Spring hasn't popped out of the top hat has it?

 

[st3ve]

It may well have, thats what I'm hoping to be honest, something I can fix in a few minutes, if something is fecked it's gonna be a sick phonecall into work.

 

[Jonff]

Quick way to check is to lift up your bonnet and look at the top nut in the engine bay, you know the thing that screws to the top of the shocker? When my spring popped out, that top nut was sitting lower than the other side.

Other than that, it's like you've said, jacking the car up to investigate it further.

 

[st3ve]

You mean the top mounts? I know for sure it's more wobbly than it should be, didn't notice if it was sitting higher or lower though. It's funny because it's only yesterday I was telling a Renault hater that I've had no problems up to date. Looks like I've cursed myself.

 

[Jonff]

I mean the nuts in the far right in the attached image. They sit right at the top of the strut inside the engine bay. When my spring popped out of the top hat, the nut in question had dropped about 10mm down and was sitting directly on the turret where as the one on the other side was sitting normally.

Yeah never say your car is problem free when you own a Renault, I've learnt this lesson the hard way lol

 

[st3ve]

I found the problem, it turns out that both wheels were loose! The bolts literally just unscrewed by hand with very minimal effort.

I found the reason for this was due to the fact that the wheels are powdercoated and over time the part that touches the hub and the thread for the nuts has flaked off causing the nuts to virtually almost fall out and very loose contact with the hub.

To fix it I removed the wheels, rubbed off all the excess powder/paint and refitted, they sit nice and tight now.

Is this normal for powdercoated wheels? If so, why wasn't I told?!
Could've ended in complete devastation!

btw Jon the wobbly strut I think was just a coincidence as all is as it should be after firther examination so I gave both sides a little tightening to sort it.

 

[Jonff]

Glad you've got it sorted mate and yeah you've gotten lucky there, could have ended up in a serious situation.

Oh by the way, I've been meaning to ask you something about your car, when I was behind you on that Rivi meet I noticed red bushes (I think) along your rear suspension, have you got uprated bushes?