Gen V front left tapping on steering/corners

[muzza]

Right, new noise, evident when cornering either way, more so when turning right but sometimes left and the noise seems to come from the front left. It's a tapping sort of noise.
Noticed it whilst stationary this afternoon, had left lock applied and then gave it some more left lock and the sound occurred, tap tap tap as the wheel turned.
Guess: tie rod end? Sway bar links? Strut top bearing? Bilstein "knock" ? Top bearings my favourite after the last event.

Recently fitted Perrin steering damper lockout a possible suspect? However this is on the steering wheel shaft to rack and the rack is pretty solidly mounted to the chassis so not sure how this would create a new noise in the suspension?

Thoughts or previous experience anyone?

[Surge]

I am currently having a similar issue however only turning right and at almost full lock.

Hope it's not the centre diff.

My first action will be to spray wd40 on the bilstiens as that can at least temporarily stop them knocking.

After that I'll be searching for anything loose under the car.

Will be watching this thread.

[muzza]

Thanks Surge - I'm not alone with this it seems.

I have read up about "Bilstein knock", however not sure it would occur stationary.

I need to take a wheel off and eyeball/lever things about a bit to check a few things. I'll try the strut-lube if I can't find anything obvious.

[Tonic]

Cv joints?
Also my struts became loose once and made a similar sound.... took the top cap off - engine bay ones - and one nut was not even finger tight!

[muzza]

Yeah, not sure if CV's? Car has only done 75K km and not flogged so I'd be surprised if CV's are worn but who knows?

I can replicate the sound (I think) when stationary by turning the wheel back and forth 1/4 turn, i hear the tapping as it turns for a few turns then it stops. but if I roll back or forward a little and do it again I can hear it again.

Might that indicate CV's, or maybe a steering rack issue.

[muzza]

Right, I think I have found the problem.

Got the front up on ramps today and had a good close look at the lower suspension, tie rod ends, sway bar up links and bushes.

This is what I found on the passenger side:
IMG_1542 by Murray, on Flickr

Looks very like the LCA rear bush is f**ked. Tearing of the rubber evident past the void. And this is only the outside that I can see, so presumably the other side may have equal or more damage. Not sure why one would be rooted and not the other side but I guess the passenger side gets all the rough road edges and bigger bumps/potholes so does more work.

Edit: does anyone know if these babies are fluid filled? Might have shot it's load and just being too compliant?
Anyway - next service I will get it replaced.

[muzza]

Just looking for Whiteline replacement parts for Gen V on their website and they dont seem to offer front LCA inner rear bushes - WTF?

They just have the inner front bushes, and yet for SH Forester and BL/BP Libs there are 3 choices of bush with ALK.

Not sure what is cross compatible - any suggestions?

I'm thinking of getting both bushes on both the front LCA's upgraded and the ALK version with 0.5 degrees more castor would be the go.

[Surge]

That could be my issue as well. They did look quite worn.

I'll look at replacing mine and hope that's all it was.

[muzza]

Yeah - its hard to see unless you are underneath Surge.

Spoke to Eastern Subaru today and they said 1 extra hour to replace. No idea of the cost of the bush, but I'm guessing something stupid like $100.

The service manger seems to think they are NOT fluid filled but I'm not sure from other reading on teh Interwebs.

[Surge]

They should not be filled with fluid.

I am thinking of making my own poly mount after watching this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_0BYvTkZ0o

[Surge]

Well mine is the same.

But from the top.

[muzza]

^^^Yeah, she looks a bit farked also.

I was thinking today that maybe its the lower ball joint maybe maybe? Need to jack up the wheel by the LCA and see what wobbles in that case.

Whiteline dont do rear bushes for the front LCA but are looking at themaccording to the reply today.

AVO do bushes with 0.5+ degree caster.
Do I go for that? http://www.avoturbo.com/catalog/product ... cts_id=128

[fedaykin]

The AVO one looks pretty decent, not sure how long they'll last though. (interested in this, as mine are probably going to start crapping out soon).

[Surge]

I also noticed my strut tops were looking a bit blown (grease all over the place).

I replaced them last night since I had some spare whiteline adjustible strut tops.

Unable to sat if that helped yet. Need further testing.

While I was under the car I shook the swap bar and couldn't hear anything. Sway bar links look good.

The ball joint on the control arm looks good.

Nothing appears wrong with the cv boot.

While I swapped the strut top I cleaned my strut with wd40.

Will update with further troubleshooting.

I haven't decided to do the LCA mount yet due to reading that a small 1.5mm tear should not have any effect and they are 20x stronger than they need to be anyway.

[Surge]

This is what my strut top looked like.

Now after going to a 45 min drive at various speeds going around corners and over bumps, something seemed to have fixed the noise for me.

Could have possibly been:
1. Changing the strut tops.
2. Removing and cleaning the front struts.
3. Putting in stiffer and slightly lowered springs in the front.

Not sure exactly what it was. But so far the noise is gone.

Before yesterday's changes, the noise was getting pretty constant and easily repeatable.