Rattling Picasso

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davecmusic
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Rattling Picasso

Post by davecmusic »

Just been given a Picasso 2.0hdi on a 52plate as my mate was going to scrap it due to a rattle no one could fix. It drove over a hundred miles fine home. It rattles over rough roads from the NSF. I put my hand under the plastic cover by the wipers tonight and found the metal cup at the top of the strut is loose. You can move it about 1-2mm and that's the sound am hearing. Would this be a car of tightening up the top of the shock? It passed the MOT last July with no advisory and was still rattling. My mate has spent over 2k on this car and I suspect that this is the issue.
Bick
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Re: Rattling Picasso

Post by Bick »

replace the strut top bearing
davecmusic
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Re: Rattling Picasso

Post by davecmusic »

Could I tighten it all up for now? Am aiming not to spend anything on it before the MOT in July or am I looking at something dangerous? The noise doesn't bother me (I had a very noisy astra, when it stopped being noisy was when you worried)
davecmusic
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Re: Rattling Picasso

Post by davecmusic »

NB nothing else wrong with it it's just that rattle and this loose part.
ekjdm14
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Re: Rattling Picasso

Post by ekjdm14 »

It depends on your definition of dangerous I think, from my (limited) experience of truly shot strut top bearings I don't think it's likely to drop apart or collapse etc but it will have an effect on the handling of the car since the geometry of the suspension and steering can change at will, and it could also make the steering notchy/stiff and less keen to centre itself. This is based on a 206 we had not long ago on which the bearing was so dead the spring wound up & slipped going lock to lock...

FWIW if there's nothing else wrong with the car then I wouldn't put off replacing it, why have a sub-standard free car when you could have a perfect £20 car instead? (that's about what a complete strut top & bearing will cost from the 'bay).

Good luck with sorting it, and please do let us know if this sorts the issue. Cheers.

EDIT-: another snippet from my limited reserves, I now recall I had a rattle on my 405 that I thought was the bottom ball joint but which turned out to be cured by tightening the centre nut. bearing may well have been the root cause though, I never kept the car long enough to know if it worked loose again sadly...
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davecmusic
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Re: Rattling Picasso

Post by davecmusic »

Many thanks. It passed the MOT with no advisory last July. No idea why my friend was going to scrap it apart from this dealer telling him the rack was going and it would cost him £950 fitted. He has spend a huge amount on new parts for it and it had new tyres 3 months ago. The lack of power (they said the airflow sensor and ever where failing) was nothing more than a stretched accelerator cable. Once adjusted on the cable circlip it flies! I did try and tell him they where taking him for a ride.... :roll:

I am going to try and tighten the top nut next week as it handles really well and there is no noise from the strut apart from this rattle. It's just the silver ring at the top of the strut in the engine bay that's slightly loose. Am really pleased with it apart from the poo cd system. I found some speakers from my old xantia so am going to make them fit the door for now before it gets an upgrade to the alpine cd from our old astra.
Will update with the result.
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Re: Rattling Picasso

Post by RichardW »

I believe that the 3 bolts holding the strut onto the wing are not all the same length on a Xsara Picasso - and if you don't put the short one back in the right place it catches on the spring and makes a rattling noise. I would check that the centre nut is tight first though!
Richard W
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