Scraping noise from front nearside

[CHR15B]

My car is lowered quite a bit on my coilovers, I still use my original ARB and droplinks and until now I've never had a problem.

Last week I hit a bump (A sunken drain) and the car made quite a bang ... it seemed to drive OK but if I turn left or brake (Put weight or pressure to the front N/S of the car) I get the most awful scraping noise.

I went to a local garage whom jacked it up and had a look and we've found the ARB sitting pretty much right on top of the driveshaft, at this exact point (See photo below)...

We've checked the droplink feels solid, and everything else looks OK, the ARB does move side-to-side but does not scrape when slid over to the other side.

I've never had this problem until I hit the bump and the droplink looks fine, any ideas as to what might have moved or is causing the problem?

It's not doing much damage other than grinding into the driveshaft right now, but I should maybe try and get this looked at - the garage are not sure what would fix the problem.

Any help appreciated with this one.

Cheers, Chris.

Note - The photo is not one I have taken, I borrowed it from another thread and added the diagrams.

 

[CHR15B]

A little bump on this guys, rather stumped to be honest.

I jacked up the car today and had a closer look to see what I could see. I managed to find two parts that the ARB is rubbing on, look at the photo below I've highlighted them out...

So this is 100% where my noise is coming from anyways - can clearly see that but I'm just not sure how to stop it.

The drop link looks easy enough to replace, does it look like it is in the right position, would fitting shorter ones cure the problem perhaps? You can see the drop link situation below...

I've took another couple of photos that show the parts that have been rubbing, it seems a lot closer to the driveshaft that the photo in my original post - I guess thats mainly because of the drop though.

Again, any help appreciated on the matter.

 

[Guffers]

Maybe fit a shorter drop at link, that would lift the ARB clear of the driveshaft. Might be able to get one that fits off a Golf or Passat or something. Either that or bend the ARB out a bit and weld it.

Tricky one

 

[Nath.]

I reckon you had a very small clearance before the bump and now somthing is bent and causing your problem

I think the lower control arm (wishbone) can bend or the lower ball joint mounting bracket

what is the clearance like on the other side??


where is Rash when you ned him

 

[muddyboots]

If it happened after one of the wheels hit a bump, I'd check the front wishbone rear bushes, maybe one has collapsed. The earlier bushes were rubbish anyway, with big voids in them that allowed lots of play; they have been known to disintegrate.

 

[muddyboots]

The bush I mean is inside the housing on the lower left edge of this photo:

 

[CHR15B]

Excellent, thanks for the replies guys.

Two quick things before I pull the jack out again...

How would I check if the bush is away, should I try moving up and down to see if there is play or would that not be enough, any other methods?

The idea of shorter droplinks popped into my mind, but at £50 is quite a lot. I am 99.9% I read somewhere that Mondeo ones fit... I've seen a set on eBay but I'm not sure if they'll fit though they look similar... any ideas?

Clearance at the other side is fine.

Thanks again, all help is greatly appreciated!

 

[chrissyb103]

i would suggest shorter drop links mate,cant tell u which ones exactly cus mine came with the coilovers. The only problem i'm having atm is my drop link is scratching against my chassis for some reason and ther is a large crack wen you put right hand down, as the drop link has pressure against the chassis and it pops off the chassis just before ful lock and so pressure is released = crack!!

Im havin a small channel dented into my chassis to stop this hopefully next week.

 

[CupraStoo]

is there more clearance at one side t5han the other??

may have twisted the roll bar.

 

[CHR15B]

i would suggest shorter drop links mate,cant tell u which ones exactly cus mine came with the coilovers. The only problem i'm having atm is my drop link is scratching against my chassis for some reason and ther is a large crack wen you put right hand down, as the drop link has pressure against the chassis and it pops off the chassis just before ful lock and so pressure is released = crack!!

Im havin a small channel dented into my chassis to stop this hopefully next week.

I'm getting a little rubbing on what appears to be the chassis too, see my photo above - is it in the same place?

Yeah theres a little more clearance in one side than the other - but would hitting a bump twist the ARB so much?

 

[CupraStoo]

if its already lowered alot, putting more stress on the ARB, then a large impact could well cause it to twist.

 

[Nath.]

if its already lowered alot, putting more stress on the ARB, then a large impact could well cause it to twist.

I had a mk 2 astra gte 16v some years ago and I hit a pot hole in it and bent the lower control arm, broke the lower ball joint and the wheel was buckled

the anti roll bar was not damaged and sprung back to it's normal position as it is a spring after all

even with this sort of damage to my old mk5 astra with the wheel pushed right back from running over a motorcycle back in april 2007 the anti roll bar was not replaced (not my fault BTW, the bike lost it whilst pulling out of a side street right in front of me)

 

[CupraStoo]

i know its a spring, and that it uses its torque effect to do its job

what im saying is a big impact like this 'could' have caused it to twist or bend causing said probs

 

[air121005]

you can get shorter drop-links from big-boys-toys (now known as AMD-tecknik) in the sponsored section. they advise shorter drop-links when lowering any more than 30mm specifically for this reason.

looking at the pic showing the the rubbing on the chassis,
the ARB is held by 2 rubber bushes.
during the bump/impact, it looks as if the ARB has been forced / pushed through these bushes, closer to the chassis.
try undoing the 4 bolts holding the ARB to the subframe and see if you can re-position the ARB central to the car

 

[CHR15B]

you can get shorter drop-links from big-boys-toys (now known as AMD-tecknik) in the sponsored section. they advise shorter drop-links when lowering any more than 30mm specifically for this reason.

looking at the pic showing the the rubbing on the chassis,
the ARB is held by 2 rubber bushes.
during the bump/impact, it looks as if the ARB has been forced / pushed through these bushes, closer to the chassis.
try undoing the 4 bolts holding the ARB to the subframe and see if you can re-position the ARB central to the car

Alright I'll give that a shot.

Are these the bushes you can see, just to the left of the red circle in this photo - is there one bolt above and below?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/chr15b/Ibiza/One.jpg

Cheers

 

[air121005]

Are these the bushes you can see, just to the left of the red circle in this photo - is there one bolt above and below?

thats them!

IIRC from when i changed the ARB you can't remove the bottom bolt completly (without removing something else) but you should be able to slacken it off enough to check it out.

because you will have to raise the front end and remove both wheels compare the angles of the bends in the ARB.
if it has bent it should be clearly visible to have moved that much to foul the chassis!

if it does need replacing you could replace it with the Fabia VRSfront ARB (like i have ) from the Skoda dealer, costs about £55 with new bushes.
its 22mm thick, which is 1mm thicker than the Cupra version
i found it to make a lot of difference and well worth the hassle of fitting it!

 

[CHR15B]

Well this sounds good.... the reason I say that is because my ARB bushes are worn as it is and have been causing a knocking noise for a while.

My Dad's mate is a mechanic who fitted my coilovers and he said if I get new bushes he'll fit them... I have new bushes waiting to go on.

Do you think if I have worn bushes it could have cause this to happen?

I'll also get him to check out the ARB... if it is shot I'll certainly replace with a vRS one!

 

[tasty_kebab]

I had a similar problem last xmas, only this was scraping in a straight line too! the most awful metal-grinding noise coming from the passenger side front wheel. took it to phoenix SEAT and they couldnt find anything wrong with it ( i was on coilys too at this point). It eventually went away in a week or so.

 

[CHR15B]

I had a similar problem last xmas, only this was scraping in a straight line too! the most awful metal-grinding noise coming from the passenger side front wheel. took it to phoenix SEAT and they couldnt find anything wrong with it ( i was on coilys too at this point). It eventually went away in a week or so.

I wish that would happen, but the idea of my driveshaft spinning and the ARB acting like a lathe does not sound good to me.

 

[air121005]

I had a similar problem last xmas, only this was scraping in a straight line too! the most awful metal-grinding noise coming from the passenger side front wheel. took it to phoenix SEAT and they couldnt find anything wrong with it ( i was on coilys too at this point). It eventually went away in a week or so.

I wish that would happen, but the idea of my driveshaft spinning and the ARB acting like a lathe does not sound good to me.

the noise will only stop on its own when there is no metal left