Hello, I have an issue in my front, driver's side suspension. When I hit a speed bump much over 5mph, theres a noise and a buzz. like a "TUNGGGG." It only happens when a vertical obstacle is hit, indents are fine, and the car still feels quite smooth on the road. In my mind (I could be wrong) it seems as if the coil spring is popping/moving a little. In fact, the driver's side does seem to be arched at a sharper angle than the passenger's if that makes sense. It there a seat or something it might be slipping in? Or is this likely something else. All joints looks newer, boots fresh.

 

Best thing to do would be to get the car on the lift and see if there's any play in suspension components. I had dull clunking coming from the rear, it turned out to be a worn out A-Arm bushing degraded and was moving with just hand pressure.

 

Hi jfleming,

The most common cause of a front end clunking or knocking sound is failure of one or both pairs of shock top bushings, Parts 9 in the diagram below. These can be checked by jacking up the front end so the wheel hangs down and looking for a gap between the foam rubber bush at the top of the shock shaft and the underside of the wheel well arch.





Any gap at all will allow the shock shaft to bang against the fender well. See the photos at this link:

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Your "TUNGGG" sound may be related or a different matter. The road springs are both under tension at all times, so it seems unlikely that they could vibrate in a way that would make such a sound without being quickly damped by the tension, unless something is wrong in the suspension. My first suspicion would be a problem with the anti-sway bar, Part 1 in the diagram below. Perhaps a loose or broken link, Part 7, or a loose screw on one of the anti-sway bar mounting brackets, Part 2.






However, the sound could indicate something even more serious such as missing or broken screws on one of the l lower spring pans, Part 3 in the first diagram above. These diagrams come from jaguarclassicparts.com, a great place to view exploded diagrams and look up part numbers.

I agree with Mad_Russian that you really need to get the car up and inspected quickly. You may have a minor issue, or one that puts your safety at risk.

Please keep us informed.

Cheers,

Don

 

I'm beginning to lean toward this actually. I just got this car, and now that I'm driving it more it sounds more like a regular clunk. Just in a hollow space maybe. Today it seemed to go away, but maybe I was just driving gently. Definitely going to look into it more.

 

My '92 started developing a sharp popping/clunk/snap noise over potholes at speed on the driver's side. Sounded like it almost certainly was the front suspension. I thought it was a bad balljoint which are original to the car, and I could rule out shock/strut issues because the shocks and bushings are all new. I couldn't find any play in the front end.

Then I thought it might be coming from deep behind the dash. For laughs, I drove down a section of road that most always made the noise occur and I raised my left food and applied pressure to the blower motor housing. That made the popping noise stop over bumps.

I'm waiting until spring to investigate but in my case I'm pretty certain it's some kind of interference with the blower motor and another component behind the dash.

I would've bet my paycheck that it was a suspension noise...

Nick

 

I have the same situation, however I know for certain it's suspension related because I can feel it when I'm driving. I'm getting Missy Elliot off the ground this weekend and take a look to see what my next small investment will be. I'll update any findings.

 

Well I got her up and investigated today, and I must say the small problems are numerous. I truly saved the old girl from a death in the Bronx in few years time I suspect, with the previous owner's regard for maintenance. We have: very worn bushings and sway bar links, a different shock than the passenger's side, and I believe the order of the metal bit and the bushing are reversed on the shock. The only wheel movement is a bit of left right that I've traced to the upper A-Arm bushing being worn, you can see it wiggle. I found the cause of my noise to be the sway bar being in light contact with the coil spring. A coil catches on the horizontal area of the say bar, a touch of pressure builds, the rounded edge slips by continuing its normal path and the effect is a tunggg. Why this is happening is beyond me but I'll figure some way to rectify it. I thought I had a bad upper ball joint because the boot looked more squashed than the passenger's but they're both fine. Must be different brands. What I did find was that the passenger side wheel could be wiggled, but no suspension components moved. Just the wheel. So I assumed it was the axle bolt, took off the lug nuts, and... the wheels stuck on. Pretty well. I gave up on that for the day after a half hour of PB Blaster and a mallet wouldn't make it budge. I'll revisit it tomorrow see if the blaster worked its way in any. One bit of progress, replaced my broken vertical bar section of the grill so at least she's looking better!