"Clunk" during a right turn under load

Mike
Bump stop?
Philip

 

Could be a CV joint.

 

Mike
LH Shock maybe?
John

 

Sounds like a bad shock absorber to me, too.

 

I had a similar noise once and traced it to a part of the inner wheel well liner catching on the spring as it compressed. The noise was made when the liner (under compression) popped off the spring. Repositioning the wheel well liner fixed the problem.

 

So.... What did the clunk turn out to be?

 

spare wheel loose? Battery loose? Tool kit sliding around?

 

I had similar on my old MB - turned out to be the shock tower (where the shock is bolted to the frame). It had broken right through. Could ID it by opening the hood and bouncing the front end up and down and see the tower move out of place. Luckily, it was relatively cheap to fix.

 

I still think it's a shock.

 

Mike,

I just replaced my front shocks which were original equipment and 28 years old. The right shock was shot and the left wasn't far behind. I would get a an occasional "clunk" from the right front if I hit a bump. If I tested by pressing down on a front corner, I noticed a lack of damping on the right side. In my case, it was hard to compress the shock absorber. I never heard clunking noises while driving or in turns on smooth-surfaced roads.

Barry

 

I could be wrong; it's hard to diagnose a noise complaint over the internet.

But I had a similar, intermittent clunk from a 308's suspension. There's no way you could replicate it when the car was standing still by simply pushing down on any one corner; the forces loaded on the suspension when driving are a LOT higher.

Even if you disessemble the suspension, and have the shock absorber in your hand, how are you going to be able to tell if it's the culprit or not? I think you need to take it to a trusted mechanic.

--Matt

 

That's difficult... when I had the shock removed with the towers, the shock had gone bad too from the weight of the car sitting on it without the balance of the tower. The mechanic pulled it out and called me over - the shock had literally worn through itself and there was a hole in the hydraulic chamber. You couldn't see this at all, as it was in the accordion-like 'sheath' that protect the shocks.

I also think you need to take it in and have your suspension checked by a pro.

 

The shocks tend to clunk under high shaft speeds. General turning and pushing on the body will only be a slow shaft speed. If you ride the bumps a lot, or clip apex kerbs you may get it. It is quite possible that only one side will do it. The fix is to rebuild both or ideally all 4 shocks.

It could also be a lower ball joint. Many mechanics overlook, or do not properly test these regularly.

To test them, jack the front wheels to be about 100mm of the ground. Use a huge bar or plank of wood levering against the ground on the very lowest part of the tyre. (a foot on the brake may help, but not if you're accurate), and then lift the wheel up from it's full droop position until the suspension starts to rise. Have an observer look at the lower ball joint in it's socket. There should be zero slack. 1mm is too much.

If you have an early 246, with the grease nipple type ball joints, you can be sure they're either buggered or close to it.
Of course, put a safety stand under the car for the sake of the observer.

The clunk could also be an anti roll bar bush or link, steering rack mount or any other suspension part really.

 

Probably welded in with too much heat...very common slip up.

Need two or three very short tack welds to hold them without burning. Leave 10 minutes between each tack.

 

Wow, a ferrari part that only costs $20!!!

 

Hah! That's because it's not a Ferrari part.

 

Yes, otherwise the bush will turn in the arm and slog itself a nice oval hole making you buy 8 new arms.....

 

Maybe tack welding can be avoided:
In the discussion following our replacing Birdman's bushings (see archives), it was speculated that the ES bushing could work with the OEM bushing's sleeve if the old bushing rubber was removed.

The only difference between the ES bushing's metal sleeve & the OEM sleeve should only be in the thickness of the sleeve walls. Suspicion was that the OEM sleeve was maybe 10%-15% thicker. Unfortunately we'd tossed the OEM bushings before we thought of this, so couldn't make the meas'ts.
If the OEM rubber could be cleaned out, the ES bushings could be used with the OEM sleeves. At worst the ES bushings might have to be turned down a few thou to fit the OEM sleeve.

Removing the OEM rubber shouldn't be too hard. We left the OEM bushings in when we powdercoated Birdman's arms @450 F. The heat made the rubber swell & soften. Looked like it'd be pretty easy to get the rubber out after that treatment.

Other alternatives kicked around were: Using a torch to burn the old rubber out & putting it thru the oven's self-cleaning cycle... Of course a large drill bit might do the job as well. Maybe could just be cut out with a hole saw, or pressed/cut out with sharpened piece of pipe that just fits inside the sleeve.

Once you've got most of the rubber out, A wire brush should finish the cleanup.

I'm going to have a serious go at this when I replace my bushings.