300C Front End Rattle.

[Ianbunnybell]

I have owned my 06   300C touring for 4 years and am a very proud and impressed owner, BUT,  over the last year this annoying low speed rattle has developed from the front steering /suspention area.

Looking at the US forum site it seems this is a common problem that has effected the model (05 to 10 ) from 15000 miles on up and no one seems to have found an answer to the problem.  Even the main dealers are stumped.

I have two vrey good MOT tester friends who have looked this over many times to no avail.

We have changed the Upper wishbones twice, most bushes, ( that did not need doing), Shock absorbers, inner steering rack bushes and checked and tightened every possible bolt on all parts.  

I have even reduced front tyre pressures by 5psi as another possible aid but no good.

Changing the shocks has actually hightened the noise to a harder thumping/rumbling sound which I think is due to the old shocks taking out some of the direct fault because of the small amount of wear in them whereas the new ones are tight.

The car has done 60000miles.    Will be pleased to hear from anyone who may have had and solved similar problems.

 

[Penguin2007]

can you put the rattle into any specific area?

 

Penguin

 

FL / FR/

when wheels on lock - straight ahead

e

ven if you think its not useful - chuck us the info ....

 

it may help someone with a rattle stethoscope ...;

 

:-)

 

Penguin

[Ianbunnybell]

Thanks for the reply Penguin.

Regarding specific area, the best I can say is that it eases a bit when when off the straight position but straight ahead gets the full works. I would hazard a guess and say that the rumble/thumping/rattle noise comes from somewhere lower suspention and transmits either up to the top of the shocks or via the chassis but hard to define.  Both left and right fronts the same.

Everyone who has heard it says immedeately,  anti roll bar or stabiliser bars but these are all fine with no movement on any bush or part.

If I am running over speed humps at say 5 / 20 mph the noise occurs .  If I apply some light braking as I run onto them it takes some of the noise away.

Brake calipers and wheel bearings are checked and good..

I am due for MOT in a couple of weeks so will use a fresh test centre and see if they notice anything that we have all missed.

 

Ianbunnybell

[Wayne300c]

I've just joined the forum & have just posted in "bumping noise " topic on the same subject . I had this problem on mine & first thing I tried was to disconnect the antiroll bar drop link on the side that was knocking then went for a drive . Rattling stopped , but the drop link didn't show any signs of wear when connected but when disconnected the bottom ball joint was fairly easy to move which indicated that there was wear . It's the cheapest part to replace so try that first . Hope this helps

[Ianbunnybell]

Hi Wayne300C,

Thanks for your reply.   I have just replaced the two main bushes on the anti roll bar but to no avail. Noise the same as ever.

I have just last week had a fresh MOT and did not make any mention of noise to the tester and the car passed OK.

Your theory interests me as when talking to anyone on the sublect the first words are 'anti roll bar bushes'.

Now that it has had one official test plus  two non official tests by official testers as the drop links are the only parts not replaced I reckon from what you are saying about yours that I should give these a go and change them.

To me it still makes a lot of sense that these could be the problem area.

Will rport back when done.    Thanks again.

[Ianbunnybell]

To Wayne300C, Penguin 2007 and any other 300C owners who are suffering from the dreaded front end rattle, I can now reveal the result and reason for this noise.

As mentioned earlier I had been on US forums and the came problem appears to be world wide.

We changed shocks, upper wishbones,(twice),anti roll bar bushes,drop links and track rod ends all to no avail.

The problem lies to a large part with the brake calipers.   Although we removed the drop links and drove the car without it was less noise but not remedying the overall problem. We fitted a new pair and then decided to strip and check the calipers. Here we found slack in various areas, particularly the carrier.  Everything was greased where required  and then tightened to what was considered adequate or nessesary.

The car now drives as it should apart from on an extreme rut or pothole, I will still get a slight rattle from the offside unit but this said it is a 90% improvement.

So from all this, had we started with the calipers first off we would have saved changing many of the other parts.

I would guess if the noise starts again at a later date I will have to replace some element of the calipers as they can obviously wear with miles.

I hope this helps other owners.

[Wayne300c]

Cheers for the feed back@@Ianbunnybell , I've got 2 new drop links coming from the 300c shop for fitting at the weekend & while I've got the wheel off I'll check the calliper aswell & let you know if I find anything ,thanks

[Ianbunnybell]

Hi 300C rattlers.!! Wayne300c & Penguin2007

 

Just an update after last report.   As mentioned after last work done to drop links and calipers can now say that after having driven a few 100 miles I am " in love " with my 300c again, well almost.   It is, as I said earlier,  a 90% improvement.

All the banging and thumping has gone and it is only on the odd occasion of a deep rut or pothole or on some cobbles I can get a rattle from the offside caliper.   Nearside is perfect. I have found some caliper parts breakdown drawings on the web and myself and my very inteligent mechanic friend are pondering these to decide on the next course of action.

The drawing give very important torque settings for all parts so I expect this will be the next job to check all the bolt settings.

We think this can be quite crucial as the calipers are aluminium castings as opposed to cast steel.

Depending on outcome I would envisage the next moves would be a caliper refurb kit or replacement caliper but first things first.

I will report back on the outcome.

[Wayne300c]

Pleased to hear you got your rattle sorted , I fitted the new drop links to mine and the rattle stopped , but annoyingly it has now developed a creaking / squeaking sound on the n/s which gets worse on left hand lock . Any suggestions before I start investigating ?

[Ianbunnybell]

Hi Wayne300c.

Glad to hear you gained similar results.  As far as the new squeak/creaking I don't have any answers of obvious cases but I think my first approach would be to put the steering on full lock and and with a can of WD40 pick on a couple of bushes at a time, give them a squirt ( avoiding the brake disc and pads), road test  and see  where that takes you. I would follow this process, a couple at a time, check the result untill you hopefully find the culprit. Try this on all moving parts including upper wishbone and anti roll bar if required.   Good luck.

[Wayne300c]

Cheers , ianbunnybell , will try and get a look at it this week , I think it might be a a ball joint as I noticed today that it also creaks at low speed when going over bumps & as the ball joint moves in all directions I will be squirting the wd 40 into them first . I'll report back with the outcome . Thanks again