Weird groaning noises after upper shock mount replacement

[DRP535]

A while ago I was driving quite quickly, hit a bump and tore the middle out of the RH (relatively new) rear upper shock mount. I was a way out of civilization when this happened, so I had to drive on it with one rear shock absorber flailing about in the top of the tower making the most god-almighty noise you can imagine. I drove slowly and very carefully and made it back to a workshop.

Anyway, the upper shock mounts were both replaced again and there was determined to be no other significant damage visible. However, even though I've been assured there is nothing amiss in the rear of my car, ever since this incident I have a clunking noise in the rear which is particularly noticeable when cornering with a bump mid-turn. It is worse in left turns than right ones. I also have a rather annoying squeak also in the rear when driving in a straight line along rough roads or coarse bitumen.

Everyone I describe this to or complain about to about it, puts the car up on a hoist and says they can find nothing wrong, worn out or broken in the rear suspension of the car.

I would love to hear some suggestions of where to start looking please? I want to get my car back to being the nice quiet ride it was before I broke the upper shock mount. The clunking around corners is particularly annoying and really doesn't inspire any confidence at all, despite it only being a noise. There are no noticeable handling problems.

Cheers,

[Hibbard]

could the squeak be considered a creaking sound? Dogbones can make the car sound like a wooden ship on rough pavement if they need to be replaced. I would say the next suspects would be diff mount and/or worn subframe bushings.

[DRP535]

could the squeak be considered a creaking sound? Dogbones can make the car sound like a wooden ship on rough pavement if they need to be replaced. I would say the next suspects would be diff mount and/or worn subframe bushings.

It's actually quite a high pitched squeaking noise. Not like a leather couch creaking sorta noise. More metallic than that. The dogbones I can see easily myself without any hoist and they're fine. They were replaced actually not long before I lunched the upper shock mount.

The diff mount has been replaced before as have the subframe mounting bushes. Are trailing arm bushes known to be a cause of noise? I know these have never been replaced.

Best theory I've got is that whatever additional non-standard movement I caused when the upper shock mount let go has perhaps tweaked or split an old & hard, worn out bush somewhere else in the system which is now letting me know its displeasure.

[bavarianautowrks]

More than likely not the cause, but is there anything fumbling around in your trunk? I once had a wheel chock sitting in the slot next to the spare wheel, and whenever I made a turn it would bang up against the interior of the trunk. Drove me crazy trying to diagnose the sound until I shook the rear end back and forth and realized what was going on.

Worth checking but I'd wager bushings like others said to be the culprit.

[slimdevil27]

It's possible that you damaged that strut. Can you recreate the sound by bouncing on the rear of the car? You can also open the rear door and use the top of the door jamb to rock the car side to side. Has anyone put it on a four post rack? The kind you drive onto? I'd put it up on one and bounce/rock it around while listening to various areas with a stethoscope.

[DRP535]

More than likely not the cause, but is there anything fumbling around in your trunk?

Nah, I've been through all those sort of possibles long before I bothered anybody on here about it.

[DRP535]

It's possible that you damaged that strut. Can you recreate the sound by bouncing on the rear of the car? You can also open the rear door and use the top of the door jamb to rock the car side to side. Has anyone put it on a four post rack? The kind you drive onto? I'd put it up on one and bounce/rock it around while listening to various areas with a stethoscope.

Yeah, it is possible I did something to the strut I guess. I did ask the guys who replaced the mounts to check all that thoroughly for me before putting anything back and they said it was all good, but yeah, the noise inside the car as I drove it back about 100km to civilization with a flapping strut in the back was horrendous to say the very least. When I finally got to the workshop I looked around to find the problem and looking between the top of the tyre and wheel arch the spring that side was bent into an 'S' shape with the coils completely compressed together one side and stretched fully apart the other. It didn't look nice, hence my insistence on checking everything out when it was fixed. But even so, it hasn't been the same ever since with these extra new noises.

[LA]

It's possible that you damaged that strut. Can you recreate the sound by bouncing on the rear of the car? You can also open the rear door and use the top of the door jamb to rock the car side to side. Has anyone put it on a four post rack? The kind you drive onto? I'd put it up on one and bounce/rock it around while listening to various areas with a stethoscope.

Yeah, it is possible I did something to the strut I guess. I did ask the guys who replaced the mounts to check all that thoroughly for me before putting anything back and they said it was all good, but yeah, the noise inside the car as I drove it back about 100km to civilization with a flapping strut in the back was horrendous to say the very least. When I finally got to the workshop I looked around to find the problem and looking between the top of the tyre and wheel arch the spring that side was bent into an 'S' shape with the coils completely compressed together one side and stretched fully apart the other. It didn't look nice, hence my insistence on checking everything out when it was fixed. But even so, it hasn't been the same ever since with these extra new noises.

I've got to wonder if the spring is seated correctly on the rubber pieces that locate the cut end of the spring into a fitted 'pocket.'

Possibly the 'S' shape the spring was bent into permenantly deformed the spring - does the stiffness feel the same when pushing down on the opposing corners?

Just thoughts...

[euro635gas]

I had a rear strut mount go bad once. It was because in my haste of installing my Billy sports I left out the washer that goes between the strut bearing and the shock thus putting stress on the center of the strut mount. Took about 3 months of driving before it broke.