51 reg 206 Knocking suspension

[jimmydod]

Hi All
A friend of mine asked me to look at his daughters 206 as it had a knock coming from suspension. She was relieved of £500 by her local garage who said her McPhearson struts were worn and causing the knocking. Allas it was not them at all I lifted up car and gave the front suspension a thorough looking oveer with pry bar found no worn bushes either on wishbones or anti roll bar or drop links Bottom ball joint etc.. Had a look at the rear found it to be a torsion bar type axle which I am not familiar with (done VW Beeles and Morris Minors of yester year)could it be from rear suspension? Anybody know what knocking could be?
Regards to all Jim

[Lighty]

Could be the rear radius arms, although they dont usually "knock". Look for excessive negative camber on 1 or both rear wheels when looking at the car from behind.

[Timmo]

anti roll bar links often wont show up as worn when they are under stress, is onl;y often when they are removed that you find how bad they are, could be worth a look, depending when the car knocks, rough roads, corners etc.

[jimmydod]

Hi Timmo and Lighty, Many thanks for your replies will remove anti roll bar and seeif I can find any wear, also look at rear for signs of negative camber.

Many thanks to you and Kind regards Jim

[Timmo]

I'd leave the ARB in place and simply remove the drop links! worth getting replacements anyways as often trhey end up destroyed in removing! - crack the nuts off them when full weight is still on them!

[Oldpug]

Why are you going to all this effort ?? Take it back to the garage who charged £500 to replace struts that have not cured the fault,I`ve never had 206 struts "knocking" they should not get away with it !!.As said above,favorite is front drop links,but that is more of a "click" than a heavy knock. Followed by the rubber bushes on the suspension arms.When they go the arm hits the sub frame but its difficult to identify until they are removed.