Rear suspension noise - spring related ?

[gjp33]

Anyone else had anything vaguely like this ? - the last couple of months, the car has developed a muted wobbly-clunk noise from the rear offside that is related to irregularities in the road - drain covers, poor surface etc. When stationary, everything is fine when bouncing down that corner - so symptoms quite are similar to when a ball joint goes on a roll bar drop link.

anyway, I got underneath the rear end and grappled with the spring a bit - everything seemed seated fine etc. - but now the noise appears to have gone, so I wasn't far off with the spring theory I think, and I'll monitor it and see how things go.

I also noticed that the rear suspension seems quite underdamped after following the other half and watching - those springs are certainly active on even quite smooth roads!

just wondered if this rings any bells with anyone else ?

 

[hollyrescue]

spring related

gjp33, what a co-incidence your posting proved to be. A couple of days ago I had to drive along a road whilst chippings were being laid over sprayed tar. As we were following the sprayer and chipper at about walking pace there were many stops, suddenly there was the most horrible noise from the off side of the car, it sounded just like a broken or unseated coil spring. It continued for about the next half mile till we stopped for lunch, I bounced the corners, no problem. When we drove away it was still there, very frightening, I thought the whole rig would collapse. I tried hard braking and drove over a few bumps (I'm not really in a position to crawl about underneath), then it just disappeared and has been OK since. I assume that a stone or stones were somehow lodged in the spring seating, or maybe between the coils. Very strange!

 

[crb1011]

wow well i never I had simular problem after driving down a newly laid road of stones. Mine was an awful screeching noise coming from the off side front wheel. I really though something was just about to seize up got worse with speed. After about a mile it just disappeared much to my releif. I have put it down to a stone lodged in the brake caliper or somewhere in the front wheel. it has not appeared since.