bonk bonk bonk

[steve_earwig]

Laden, unladen, cornering left or right, braking, accelerating, hitting the bump/pothole with left or right wheel - it does it all the time. Ah well, it's going up on the ramps next week and I should have a better chance of cracking it. (and I'm gonna look real dumb if it is the arb bushes but there ya go )

[poddack]

WOW, a lot of bonking 406's, a subject close to many hearts, I can't believe I started this. LOL.

[steve_earwig]

It's official - I'm an idiot r/h drop link. Ffs it's been making this noise almost since I started driving it and I had Peugeot change them when they did the cam belt when I first got it, so basically it didn't last a month. It's only started getting annoying this last winter tho. All that levering about and banging it with a rubber hammer too, and the first thing Mika did when it was up in the air was grab the anti roll bar and wang it up and down - bing, bong, bing, bong. It's only a few thou but enough to transmit the noise through the roll bar and into the car. Gah! You couldn't be more wrong about me Jasper!

They turn up tomorrow.

Still, I had an enjoyable morning helping them reassemble a 318i coupe they've got in there. They took it apart 6 weeks ago 'cos the head went, then it took this long to find another so they've ended up with masses of parts in boxes everywhere and vague memories of where everything went. I managed to find some diagrams on the 'net but it's still been a trial of putting bits on finding more bits that needed to go underneath and taking it to bits again to fit them. What fun!

[teamster1975]

These things are sent to try us, glad you've got to the bottom of it!
Have a look at Aunties roll bar bushes while it's up in the air just for good measure!

[steve_earwig]

Job jobbed, I'd do a How-To but it really was a small piece of fairy cake and would take me longer to write how to do it. What would be more useful is a How-To for when the nuts are frozen on and they need attacking with an angle grinder/oxy-acetylene/trinitrotoluene.

Anyway, driver's side the boots were starting to split so they'd be needing changing anyway real soon. No real play discernible but one of the balljoints actually rotates in the housing. As it's been doing it from almost when they were fitted I suspect a manufacturing defect

I made it worse - that's still grease behind there. Mostly...


The passenger side was still mint Fitted the same time too

Anyway, they were Delphi, the new ones are Meyle, never heard of them before (like many things here) but they're made in Germany, with "reinforced design!" written on the box. I've no idea if they're any better but I hope they last a tad longer than the old ones. They came unpainted and ready to rust so I emptied a couple of old tins of spray paint over them.

I'm wondering if it would be worth suggesting these be changed every couple of years, they're cheap enough (mine were 130Kn a piece, 16 quid bluddy government they'll be cheaper in the UK of course) and a piece of cake to change if they've not been on there for 10 years. The Pug part number is 508760, on earlier cars they're 508740 which is shared with the 106, the only difference is the bottom balljoint is at 90 degrees now, before it was straight. So it's basically a part designed for a much smaller car, no wonder they fail! And they fit the same thing to the 607.

A few tips: The nuts are 18mm, the torx inside is T-30. Haynes says 48 foot-pound. I seem to recall some of the pattern ones come without the torx in the ball pin - they'd be hard enough to fit, let alone remove, so best not to touch them.


It might also be an idea to have both wheels off the ground, otherwise you'd be arguing with the anti-roll bar while you're trying to fit them.

And just for Teamy:

[teamster1975]

It's a ridiculous idea having a torx or Allen slot on the end of the ball pin, total bastard to remove as we've all found out

[steve_earwig]

Mine were fine but I agree they'd be a chocolate teapot if the nuts were well rusted on.

[jason1987]

is that just a socket wrench with a torx head adapter on end?

[steve_earwig]

It's a socket wrench with an 1/8" socket on the end with a torx bit in it.