creaking from the rear

citrov6 · Unread post by **citrov6** » 29 Aug 2009, 12:15

it seems a little stiff, in the mornings i raise it from the lowest level that i park it at, to the maximum driveable setting before going to the normal driving setting. on its way to the top it sticks and makes a creak sound as if it is up against friction.

i never experienced this with my last one, that was driven every day, i was lucky with it, as i think i have been with this so far. this has been doing this since i had it for the last year and a half. any ideas what it could be?

citronut · Unread post by **citronut** » 29 Aug 2009, 13:30

citrov6 wrote
"it seems a little stiff, in the mornings"

a lot of us have that ptoblem on riseing in the morning's TEA HE

sound like trailing arm bearings going/gone home to me

regards malcolm

citrov6 · Unread post by **citrov6** » 29 Aug 2009, 16:31

haha. oh ok, i'll have a look around there with that in mind. having not dealt with the situation before i was wondering if it was anything like a sensory part sticking. well citroens don't make me worry like any other car would anyway

Unread post by **myglaren** » 29 Aug 2009, 17:53

Just as well Malcolm didn't plump for the other option

He is likely on the money with the rear suspension bearings needing attention though.

citronut · Unread post by **citronut** » 29 Aug 2009, 19:22

set the car on its highest setting, wait for it to stop riseing, then stand back at the rear of the car and see if the rear wheels lean inwards at the top, this will be conclusive arm bearings, but they dont always show up or have any sings of play/movement by hand with the car jacked up,

as sometimes the tapper bearings colaps and the rollers get jammed between the arm and the pivot tube

regards malcolm

citrov6 · Unread post by **citrov6** » 01 Sep 2009, 03:20

looks like you are right at full height the rear wheels look like they are atleast 10 degrees inward at the tops compared to the front.

whats this job like to do, i am thinking a weekend in the next couple of months.

citronut · Unread post by **citronut** » 01 Sep 2009, 08:30

GSF sell the kit which cotains all you need appart from the shim, which is only abtainable from citroen and usualy in an assorted packet,

i usualy match the shim that was in there if you can find any remains,

also to get the old outter bearing race's out i run two short beads of mig at opposite sides of each outter race, this firstly gives you something to drift them out by, and secondly the heat quite offten helps them drop out,

regards malcolm

Xantidote · Unread post by **Xantidote** » 01 Sep 2009, 09:29

Do you really mean 10 degrees? I've read of the "wheels leaning in" test - 10 degrees sounds quite a lot. Another check is to look at the inner edge of rear tyres. If you've got 10 dgrees, then IMHO, your tyres won't last long!

Another test is that you can get a knocking from rear suspension when going at slow speed over pot-holes. I had this sympton recently, along with a creaking noise which slowly developed on slow right-handers, & I've since done n/s radius arm brgs. The rear suspension knock on my car has reduced but not gone away completely - trying to trace whether or not I have another problem. I put back the original shim. The car didn't have any problem with stiffness & groaning first thing in the morning

Cheers - Martin

citrov6 · Unread post by **citrov6** » 01 Sep 2009, 12:41

thanks Malcolm, thats a good tip. i'll get these from Vince

Martin i hope its less than 10 degrees , maybe it was just the shock of seeing them leaning in at full ride height and it is more like 5 degrees, not sure

last set of rears lasted 10000miles with me and a probably a couple more kmiles with the previous owner, all this time it has been creaking so i am not too worried as yet. it usually eats the fronts in 5000miles like the other one does

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 01 Sep 2009, 13:00

Really

you only get 5000 miles from a set of front tyres on a V6!

Good

I won't have to wait too long before mine need replacing then. I can gets some good 'uns rather than the Chinese things mine currently wears

citrov6 · Unread post by **citrov6** » 01 Sep 2009, 13:14

yea it eats tyres both of them do. the tip i always give for tyres is hankooks, they are the best tyre i have bought for this car.

i've tried yoko (stable good grip), standard michelin (good quite agile), pirelli (shocking never use p6000) and a bunch of budget tyres that were all quite naff.

hankooks though have the handling components of michelin, and the stickyness of yoko, and feel as good in the wet as they do in the dry

best of all they are cheap

citronut · Unread post by **citronut** » 01 Sep 2009, 13:22

if your knocking tyres out that shorter mileage i would be looking at the front arm/wishbone bush's, mailnly the front arm rear P bush's, or even the lower swivle joints

regards malcolm

citrov6 · Unread post by **citrov6** » 01 Sep 2009, 13:43

well i knock fronts out that quick probably because i pretend its an activa

cos they last 5k on both v6's.

having said that i have done 2 track days and 3.5kmiles on these fronts and it looks like over 4mm of tread to go

Unread post by **xantia_v6** » 01 Sep 2009, 21:40

citrov6 wrote:well i knock fronts out that quick probably because i pretend its an activa cos they last 5k on both v6's.

Lest people think it is V6s per-se, I have done 90,000 mile in my mk1 and fitted a total of 12 or 14 tyres (thats 3 or 3.5 sets). Can't say exactly how long the fronts last, as I usually put new tyres on the back and swap the back tyres to the front. I have only ever fitted Michelin Pilot Primacy, or the newer replacements (which I think don't ride so well).

Which reminds me that I thought the rear arm bearings were failing a few months ago, because the rear suspension was a little stiff in soft mode (this was after taking about 600kg of flatpack kitchen 500 miles down to Burgundy), (no creaking and no odd camber though), but after a couple of weeks it seemed to fix itself. Maybe the bearings have sound a sweet spot?

citrov6 · Unread post by **citrov6** » 02 Sep 2009, 01:10

interesting. on mine i lower it every day so they do rotate a bit. once they are gone or out of place they seem to have funny camber no matter how much the suspension is stretched

i think the rear tyres do most of the work on the rear on mine so i am getting away with the suspension as it is