612 clicking sound, culprit found

You probably remember my clicking sound from the back wheels when I was accelerating and lifting off throttle
Well, I think I found what it is by coincidence, it is the lower ball joints

Here is how I found it
I was fed up with the feedback I was getting in my steering column when driving on rough surfaces, I thought it was normal though until I tried Jeremy's car yesterday
So I took the bull by the horn, took wheels off, took a lever and inserted it between the wheel hub and the wishbones to check for play. The play is terrible in the front
and I have play on the right rear side too where I was hearing the clicking sound
Strange thing is that tie rods have no play at all and upper ball joints are fine too
Given the cost involved I will disassemble one side completely to see if indeed all the rest is good
I find this strange for a car that had 9000 miles on it

 

Had to do both lowers and both track rods on mine with 10,000 on it. Not a difficult job but you need a couple specialist tools - glue and press. Hill Engineering has all you need.


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Yes I intended to do it with HE material, enjoying brexit effect on pound sterling
I also had 1 tie rod in the front that had a very very minor play. the ones in the back are the original ones and still good

 

On my 2009 599 with 11k miles, the rear tie rod assemblies had seized together and the lower balljoints were starting to corrode due to failing ball joint boots. I think all parts are same as 612. Went ahead and ordered rear tie rod assemblies, front tie rods and upper & lower ball joints with boots for all four corners from Hill Engineering. I thought if I was going to do some, I may as well do all. The pieces are beautiful and from my understanding will be a permanent fix to the sub-par factory hardware. All is currently being installed by my local mechanic. As are new Michelin Pilot SS tires and 15mm spacers all around. Excited to get her back! I think she'll feel much better.

 

Hill Engineering parts arrived, very professionally packed, I also ordered the chrome saver socket for wheel bolts, nice stuff!!!
Ball joint change is made very easy withe HE extractor, in my case I did the lower ones
and you can get the ball joints out in 1/2 hour from a rolling car

_Step 1 jack up the car on both sides and secure with jacks stand under chassis,
You need to lift the car on both sides to release the pressure in the Anti roll bar
_step 2 take wheels off and unscrew anti roll bar tie rods
_step 3 take out strut bolt to the wishbone, the strut is not under tension, no worries to have, you ll have to even lift up the hub by hand to help the screw to get out
_step 4 unscrew the bolt from the lower ball joint, I think this is HEX 14, so you must have one good socket as assembly torque is 85NM
_Step5 mark caster shims ( from 1 to 4 ) in case they fall when the wishbone is removed
_step 6 take out the 4 screws holding the wishbone, first screw 1 and 4 ( 1 front 4 back)
Then disassemble the balljoint from the hub and lower the wishbone to the maximum, this give you access to screw 2 and 3
Make sure you have an additional jack to support the hub

What takes time is to clean the wishbone from the epoxy and get them ready for the new layer. Also epoxy curing takes a whole day...

I am missing a few torque specs,
Wishbone to Chassis ? Lower Wishbone has larger screws than upper one, Upper is 25nm but lower I am assuming 35 to 40 NM
Strut to wishbone, that should be around around 50-60 NM, but I am not sure
Wishbone to hub that I know, 85NM

If someone has those specs, I would be happy with it

Finally, The front lower ball joint had some play but were not corroded, mileage is 11000, rubber bushings were checked and they look all good after 12 years

I still have to assemble everything, likely today if i get the torque specs

 

Tackling the rear end of the car now,
This one take a little more time as you need to remove the under tray to remove the 4 bolts holding the wishbone to the chassis
But it is the same principal as for the front
Strut is attached to the hub and not any of the wishbones so it is even easier
Rear low joint did not have obvious play as the front ones once removed, but it did have play when mounted on the car
I did also take out the top wishbone as I was at it , took the dust cover clips out of the ball joint, there was no play but it was full with dust. Dust cover design is just bad, they have 2 holes for the clip plier to be inserted and those dust get in through them. Poor engineering...
Good occasion to clean them.
When putting back the dust cover clips, I sealed them with silicone, bought aquarium clear one ( as advised by Aldous on his website aldousvoice.com, great know how source by the way)
The only negative part on all this is the HE dust covers. they do not seem to fit as well as the oem ones on the lower ball joints, it seems they are a tad to big and the rubber makes a tiny wrinkle on the opening of the clip, this does not harm too much as it is later on sealed with silicone, otherwise everything went well. I was very surprised how easy the ball joints slide in the wishbone, you can almost press them by hand, hence the need of the right epoxy glue
Anyway, one night of curing, and I am on the road again !!! hoping it solves my issue

 

Looking forward to seeing the difference in driving.



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You can cure the glue in the oven if you have the wishbone out- 40 mins at 90 deg

 

in addition to having the wishbones out you'll need the wife out of the house as well, just saying. And that's probably 90C, not 90F

 

The glue seem to be curing well at room temperature, I usually leave some mixed glue on the side to check it the next day and it is hard as a rock
Lower wishbones are quite large, not sure they fit a european oven

 

I decided to take a look at the wishbone bushings, man!!! there is no grease in there, no wonder those things also wear out. upper ones can be disassembled but lower ones can not, at least i do not now how to take out the bolts punched in the bushings
Anyway, I also found that the rear end right tie rod has play, so I will pass another order to HE
Right side seems to get more wear than the left side of the car, which make sense as manholes on the road are usually close to the side

 

Michel, I am truly enjoying the detailed posts from 612 owners (and Bradan!) with the courage and skill to do their own wrenching. If you've taken any photos of this project, would you mind sharing?

I remember the first time I was forced to either park my car, or find the testicular fortitude to attempt some maintenance myself: 89.5 Jag XJS V12. Talk about an intimidating under-hood environment for a complete non mechanic! Nonetheless, armed with some tools from Sears, an iPad, youtube, and of course the enthusiasts of the Jag forum, I was able to do a distributor upgrade / modification.

Ha ha! Minor stuff I know, but these cars have a shroud of mystique around them, and no doubt any mistake has the potential to be a costly one.

Any way, great writeup. Love this stuff.

 

Thanks, I am happy you are enjoying my 612 adventures
Unfortunately I did not take any picture, just do not know why, every time I start something new I promise myself to document it and working steps unroll and i am finished before I realised I forgot to shoot 2 or 3 pics
Fact is the ball joint thing is so easy... actually most mechanical works on the 612 are very easy, that I also thought no need for pictures
But at the same time it is very very very seldom to see any photos of works on Ferraris
A great source of inspiration is Aldousvoice website, his mainly working on a 360 on his site but the 612 have the same type of suspension construction, so it is copy paste on the work side
I promise to make an effort and takes some pictures
I still need to document the headliner work i have done ...
Stay tuned