Technical Creaking Noise From Front Suspension

[tDR]

Hi All,

Recently purchased a '55 Croma 1.9 Dynamic as the baby buggy and all was well at first but a creaking noise from the front suspension has developed - have done some reading on here and it seems front springs are a common problem as are front anti roll bar bushes. Not sure how to tell which?

The noise I get is going over speed humps mostly and is a loud 'loose floorboard' type of creak. Car seems to drive OK otherwise and the local (non fiat) garage couldn't find a fault when I asked them to have a look.

If it's ARB bushes I noticed there seems to be 2x different sizes, how do I know which size to go for especially if ordering through a Vauxhall dealer? Are the bushes that much more expensive from Fiat?

If springs I'd rather not get replacements from Fiat that could fail again so was thinking KYB or similar from the local motor factors would be a good option - do the normal rules apply with the Croma in that I can just replace the front pair?

I have a trade account at the local Vauxhall garage and motor factors so can get reasonable prices at both - I used to do a bit of work on cars (old man's a mechanic by trade) but now my job leaves me with no time or energy for it so prefer to pay places to do the work, albeit me supplying the parts to save money that way such that I'm only paying labour rates.

Thanks in advance!

Brian.

 

[cjlar]

Hi,
If this noise become more obvious in wet weather it is probably ARB bushes and is annoying but not critical. I haven't tried greasing them yet but it is a common complaint."They all do that"!!:bang::bang:

 

[tDR]

Thanks for the response cjlar.

Thinking about it we first heard the noise in the 1st really Snowy spell.

Is it not better to just replace the ARB bushes and grease them up as they go into the ARB bracket? I'm guessing the noise comes from the rubber wearing / becoming hard leaving some space for rubbing.

What symptoms show when a front spring breaks? Noises, car driving different?

Cheers,

Brian.

 

[The Beach]

My Croma has the "Floor boards" sound.:bang:

Front anti roll bar bushes were greased up by Main Dealer.....no difference.
in the mean time the EGR valve has failed.
Dealer has agreed under warranty to replace the whole anti roll bar and fit a new Egr.
Egr is in but have been waiting for 2 weeks for Anti roll bar to be shipped from Italy.
Good thing the weather is C**P so i wont need the car as it wont be fixed for Easter now.

 

[richie121]

Buy some spray grease with a straw,put the central heating on and pop it on a radiator/or in a bucket of very warm water,this makes it thinner and it will creep into bushes etc....

worth a try,as i did this on my ALFA 156 WORKED A TREAT
With all the salt over the winter its probably dry'd everything up and a little bit or rust here and their.

hope this is of some help

Richie

 

[cjlar]

Thanks for the response cjlar.

Thinking about it we first heard the noise in the 1st really Snowy spell.

Is it not better to just replace the ARB bushes and grease them up as they go into the ARB bracket? I'm guessing the noise comes from the rubber wearing / becoming hard leaving some space for rubbing.

What symptoms show when a front spring breaks? Noises, car driving different?

Cheers,

Brian.

I think the bushes and ARB come as one piece from Fiat and not sure if poly bushes are available aftermarket

 

[notorious]

it's the arb bushes making the noise, they are replaceable, but greasing them well usually does the trick at least for a while, and it's the upper ones making the noise tucked away above the splash guard. Mine were sprayed with wd40 at the last oil change and the horrible noise went away.

 

[tDR]

Thanks guys - I phoned the local Fiat dealer (Arnold Clark Broxburn) and they quoted me £5.28 per bush, 2x total, and were prepared to give a 10% trade discount. May just order them up and get them chucked on at my upcoming service at the local 'cheap labour' garage. They're just a normal D shaped bush with a split to get them round the ARB and into the holding bracket so shouldn't take long when they've got the car in the air anyways.

 

[tDR]

Just to update this - Fiat did supply me the bushes as above and I needed a service so got my local independent garage to fit them whilst they had it.

They phoned mid job to say the bushes I supplied had no chance of fitting but they had found a GM part number on them which I noted. Went back to Fiat who had no record of such a part number and reiterated there was only one part number for these bushes on my Croma. So I scrambled to the local Vauxhall dealer who obviously did recognise the part numbers and as luck would have it had 2x in stock. I quickly dropped those off at the garage doing the work who were then able to complete the job without having to reverse the work done to free up their ramp.

GM part number is 9191188 for the ARB bushes at £2.44 each.

Labour charged by the local independent garage to fit them was £34+VAT.

My Croma is a '55 plate 1.9 JTD 8v 120bhp 'Dynamic' and so far so good on the creak being gone - will know for sure on the next really wet day, can't be long being in Scotland!

Cheers,

Brian.