hey guys, more problems with my beloved brick. I am having trouble pinpointing a noise on my 97 850. Most of the time when braking or accelerating i hear a 'clunking' noise. It also occurs when i drive over bad, uneven roads. it is coming from the right wheel well area. i suspect either sway bar links? or maybe cv joint? i really dont have the money right now to replace more things,as im only 17 and the timing belt/water pump job needs done. so could i wait a little to replace it or would these components be urgent to replace? any help appreciated. thanks, weston.

 

If the Timing Belt is due, you really need to do that. Unless there is a reason for doing the water pump, save your money. They rarely go bad. The control arms, spring seats (other possibility for the clunking) and end links are fairly inexpensive. What you save on the water pump would buy all these. The real key is doing the work yourself. That's where you save money.

I went with OEM control arms and end links, but the other brands at fcpgroton are quite a bit cheaper. Stick with OEM on the spring seats though. You may even want to upgrade them with the XC70?? ones.

 

i vote the spring seat/s are bad. you can tell that they are bad if from the top in the engine compartment the black disk with the nut ontop of it is pushed up really far.

 

yeah i replaced the spring seats shortly after i got the car in december. Did the spring seats and seat mounts(did the work myself). This sounds like more of a 'pop'/clunk coming from the wheel, not like the spring sesat clunk. how can i check the suspension down there to see whats bad?

 

could be a wheel bearing to... MAYBE.

i vote sway bar links, or sway bar bushings. jack it up, take off the wheel. i usualy just full remove the link (easy enough job) and inspect it with it off the car for damage.

if you need directions on removing it let me know.

 

I just fixed a noise like this on my car. I put new sway bar links and used a torque wrench to tighten the nuts down. That apparently wasn't enough to get it all the way tight. When we were checking out the suspension by jacking up the control arm with the car on a jack stand, we noticed the end link would move when we jacked up the control arm up so far. I used an impact to tighten it up, the movement and noise went away. This was not something you would notice just by moving it by hand, it still felt tight.

It might be a good idea to remove the end links and drive the car around to see if the noise goes away. At least its free.

 

DO NOT REMOVE THE END LINKS AND DRIVE THE CAR!!!!

the problem he explained was they just were not tight enough and the pin of the end link was sliding in the hole.

 

Why can't you remove them? They are not an important part of the suspension. If the sway bar seems like it will flop around too much, try to tie them up with some mechanics wire.

 

because that is what stabilizes the whole system. they are the for a very good reason. even while drive straight down a road they are needed. STUPID idea. if you want to do it go ahead, but i would never do it in any of my cars.

 

I think Dan's idea is valid for diagnostic and troublshooting run only. Driving a car without stabilizer bar connected will give different symptoms but will atleast isolate the problem of noise being generated by any bad links.

 

if i were to take the time to take out the end links i'd just replace them. i remember tooking at them on fcp and they were pretty cheap. Is it an easy job? i did my wheel bearing last weekend which wasnt bad, besides a stripped torx head and a crossthreaded bolt.

 

ouch... sounds like a hell of a time...

 

yeah, we had to grind off the torx head and hammer the hub out. We ended up finding the same size bolt at pepboys without a torx head. wasnt a fun time until i drove my car... all that work was worth it. i didnt realize how quiet the 850 is because i bought it with a bad wheel bearing. for a little bit i just thought it was an extra noisy car. Its quieter than my friends nissan maxima!

 

haha. ya generally speaking they are quiet. i assume it is. but the bolt is a grade 8.8 right? im not sure that you would want to put in a grade 5 bolt.

 

+1 for Tony again....Make sure the bolts that you have used are the right ones. That is very improtant becuase you dont want to land up having the broken hub with damaged CV shaft and spindle assy. in the middle of nowhere just past a pothole. :P

 

what do you mean a grade 8.8? like the grade of steel?

 

all bolts have a grade along with them. it is what the bolt is rated to on several different strength tests. look at the pic below and you can see where the grade is usually stamped on it. if it has no stamping on it is usually means its under grade 5. grade 5 usually has either a hex of some sort, or a 5. 8.8 almost always has the 8.8 right on it (usually gold or black in color)

its SUPER important by the way...

 

i see a potential hazard forming

 

the other 3 are the original torx bolts, just the 1 is the aftermarket bolt. Do you think it could possibly lead to the hub coming out or something?

 

yes. if that one bolt is week it is going to stress, stretch, and/or brake thus making the two bolts closest to in high tension and the one farthest away from it in low tension until it makes 180* of rotation then the two closest will be in low tension and the one farthest away from it in VERY high tension on just one bolt.... (yes i have a major in mechanical engineering with a minor in force dynamics)

its worth taking it all apart and checking the grade of the bolt that you put in. this isn't something you want to mess with. in fact i have two spare wheel baring bolts, do you want me to ship you one so you can put in the correct bolt that is supposed to be used?