FF Clio 200 Clonk from the Front Right

[Racer_Phil]

Hello,

New to this forum, thought i'd see if any of you could help out with some advice. Thanks in advance. i've recently bought a 10 plate RS200 with cup pack. It came with 12 months MOT no advisories and loads of history with 62K miles, required an offside front spring and nearside lower balljoint to get its MOT. Car is in great condition for its age.

The car has got a clonk coming from the front right when coming off of a speed bump or similar type of rubbishy road bump. The clonk does not occur on hitting the speed bump, but coming off the other side and when you get one of those speed bumps that you can straddle the car over you don't get the clonk if you hit the bump with the left of the car, only the right. I think what i'm saying here is the clonk occurs when the wheel is going down relative to the body at a decent speed.

I've read that ball joints, top mounts and broken springs are pretty regular faults. I've checked these and they're all good, plus as mentioned above the car has a fresh MOT with no advisories. It's not an ARB droplink as otherwise i'd hear it all the time. I think the steering rack is ok, there is the slightest of notches in the steering at full left lock but i'm being picky & the clonk happens at straight ahead.

Yes, I should and will take it to a specialist (Any recommendations for Northamptonshire?) but can anyone think of anything obvious i've not mentioned that's worth checking before taking it in. The top left engine mount is a bit soft but wanging it about doesn't give the same noise i'm hearing when driving the car, dampers perhaps, don't these cars have a fancy hydraulic bumpstop or similar?

Over to you and thanks

Phil

 

[lewishunter98]

Could potentially be top mount? I have the same in mine but I'm replacing everything up front to refresh it anyway

I also went to ktec for a service and they advised play in my front right shock (not sure what that means) but that could also cause the knock.

Although in saying that surely they would have been picked up in MOT

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[Rishi]

I have a mild clonk on the o/s/f when the wheel drops, had an identical noise that grew progressively worse on the n/s/f which was the lower ball joint in hub carrier that needed replacing.

The top mount/strut seems fine and ARB and anti-rotation links are both new, which points to lower hub carrier or lower arm ball joint. If you can get it on a ramp, check play in the wheel while you look around for movement in the joints with a torch. When the ball joint goes it goes and will clearly be moving.

If the link arms are old they're worth changing and may be the least costly fix. The play in the arms isn't always apparent when the car isn't under load so when checking for movement on a ramp they may seem fine but may still need replacing.

 

[lewishunter98]

I was going to suggest ball joints, mine were changed at the end of June so rules it out for me. Completely skipped my mind

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[Racer_Phil]

I bought some new damper struts and top mounts with a view to changing them over.

I've changed quite a few struts in the past on other cars but i've got to admit defeat with this clio. When you take the pinch bolt out to drop the hub away from the strut it doesn't go down far enough to withdraw the strut, even taking off the lower lateral link thing doesn't work, it bottoms out on the wishbone.

Looks like you need to drop the subframe or do something clever with a spring compressor to get the strut out. Think i'll send it to a specialist.

On the plus side all the ball joints and everything were fine, so it must be the strut or top mount.

 

[Racer_Phil]

Just to finish this thread off, changing the dampers and top mounts solved the clonk problem

 

[Rishi]

Sorted, was the o/s top mount noticeably degraded?