Car trouble!

travel_freak

Hi there,

I have quite an old Renault Clio. Over the last couple of weeks every time I drive over the slightest bump in the road I hear a loudish rattling/metal clanging sound coming from underneath the car somewhere.

I drove it to Kwik Fit because I assumed it was the exhaust but the Kwik Fit guy said the exhaust is sound but he saw that the anti roll bar on one side was lose as apparently the nut/bolt thingy holding it in place had corroded and fallen off. Kwik Fit thought that would be the reason for the noise.

So today I had the anti roll bar nuts/bolts replaced on both sides and was expecting a nice silent drive but it's exactly the same - clanging and banging.

Please does anyone have any thoughts on what it might be - it's never done this before. It's an automatic if that makes any difference.

Many thanks in advance.

Regards,

highguyuk

Was it Kwik Fit who did the repair for you?

Go to a local, independant, garage and tell them the symptoms - not that you think it's the anti roll bar nuts. And go from there ...

Otherwise, have a look at https://www.honestjohn.co.uk, or do a search for a Clio Forum on google for the information.

travel_freak

Thanks for the replies.

Kwik Fit weren't able to do the repair - I only went there as I assumed it was the exhaust. They had a look and noticed the problem with the anti roll bar bolt things and I did take it to an independent garage to have those done. I was chatting to the guy whilst he did these so I saw them being done and they looked fine but have made no difference at all to the clanging/rattling noise.

Does anyone else have any thoughts? There are no other symptoms that I've noticed but I'm a bit worried something is about to fall off somewhere!

Regards,

mcfisco

I once had a similar problem with a Pug 307 that turned out to be a broken road spring
Suprisingly [or not?] the main Peugeot dealer took 3 attempts to find the fault.

Exemplar

Had a very similar noise in a Punto once, turned out to be the rubber bushes on the roll bar (£20 pair). Once fitted, no more noise!

travel_freak

Hi everyone,

Been back to the garage today. Chap was really helpful and came for a quick spin in the car to locate the noise. He then took off the wheel, prodded around a while and lo and behold a chunk of metal fell of the big spring - something to do with the suspension. Is this the "road spring" referred to a few posts up?

I had heart failure when he said the word "suspension" but then he said he could fix it for £40 labour and £18 odd for the part. This seems very reasonable to me and even though I was having heart failure he said it isn't a really serious problem, just metal fatigue due to age.

Thanks for your advice. Does this charge sound fair enough - I gather it will take some time to take it apart and do the repair plus ordering the part in.

Thanks again,

Regards,

travel_freak

PS
No more rattling noises now the chunk of metal has come off, though I won't be driving it around for too much longer before getting it fixed in case the spring goes completely and my car hits the decks!