New Sound from front of car

[MULLEY]

I'm wondering if it might be a droplink.

It's noticeable at speeds below 40mph & seems to be a farily consistent low level knocking sound. It's not mega loud, just a little annoying & i guess my pounds to be spent. Is my diagnosis correct?

[Oilyspanner]

Possibly droplink, could be lower balljoint with a little play too, or a rack end bush, pull it apart and have a good grope

[Kitch]

Mine turned out to be droplink.

[Dollywobbler]

Impossible to diagnose on a forum really. All the usual possibilities have been mentioned. Could be the exhaust knocking somewhere, but ARB link/balljoint/TRE are more likely. The latter two will generate play in the wheel if you try and rock it while raised.

[Discoil]

I traced mine to wear in the bottom swivel joint . Now on order.

The drop link has a split boot and so it will fail the Mot test. Ordered.

[MULLEY]

It's more like a rattling sound than a clonk sound, is that more likely the drop link rather than a ball joint?

[Mothman]

Ive been getting a terrible rattle from the TZD, really making me despair but discovered today thats its the piece of plastic, or lack of it from the door stop on the drivers side. Cured it with some gaffer tape on a tempory basis but will sort the job with some heat shrink stuff shortly. Got to buy a a metre of the stuff to do a few mms. At least ive found the problem and it will only cost me a couple of quid so with all the spare stuff, i think its worth doing the rest of the motor.

Andy

[Dollywobbler]

It's more like a rattling sound than a clonk sound, is that more likely the drop link rather than a ball joint?

You need to jack it up and check for play. It's probably drop link, but if that fails, your suspension won't collapse. If the balljoint fails, things get messy.

[adamskibx]

My drop-links need replacing. The way to test it is to find a speed bump, and hit it square on at a faster than usual speed - You should not hear much of a knock/rattle, but then if you find a pot hole or hit a speed bump with one wheel only, you'll hear a loud clunk, and possibly feel it through your feet.

[KevR]

One other possibility... big LHM hose from accumulator area, should be held on a plastic clip right at the front of the left front chassis leg just behind where it joins the front crossmember. Clip breaks, metal part of hose sits against chassis leg, low level knocking travels aall over the place and is very hard to track down. Both my estates suffered from this and it drove me up the wall until someone on here suggested this was the problem. Worth a look - and cured with one cable tie if that's the trouble!

[Jaba]

To find out if it is indeed a droplink remove one of them from the car or just disconnect one end, then test drive, if the noise is still present reconnect it and do the same with the other side.