knocking over bumps

Technical questions and answers about the Mazda Bongo

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JonWM
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knocking over bumps

Post by JonWM » Sat Apr 09, 2011 2:41 pm

Hi. I get a knocking noise from (what appears to be) the front offside of the van.
Presume it is not terminal?
Jon
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westonwarrior
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Re: knocking over bumps

Post by westonwarrior » Sat Apr 09, 2011 3:09 pm

anti roll bar bushes or more probably drop links

both easy
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Re: knocking over bumps

Post by alant54 » Sat Apr 09, 2011 5:56 pm

westonwarrior wrote:anti roll bar bushes or more probably drop links

both easy
I tend to agree with weston warrior on this.....mine was doing the same thing...local garage had it on the ramp but could find nothing to cause the knocking.
My son in law found it by violently rocking the van from side to side to make it knock....it was the front offside drop link....replaced it and no more knocking..... =D> =D>
Alan...still plodding on....!
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JonWM
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Re: knocking over bumps

Post by JonWM » Sat Apr 09, 2011 6:26 pm

cheers peeps.

I have no idea what a drop link is but I now know what to tell the garage to look at.

Jon
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mikeonb4c
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Re: knocking over bumps

Post by mikeonb4c » Sat Apr 09, 2011 8:17 pm

JonWM wrote:cheers peeps.

I have no idea what a drop link is but I now know what to tell the garage to look at.

Jon
Quite an easy DIY job, but then not an expensive garage job either normally. But your symptoms are classic for droplinks/antiroll bar bushes. Get them to fit new antiroll bar u-brackets at the same time as the old ones fatigue and the effort of holding a new bush (jokers, refrain please) may cause them to give out. They are cheap items anyway. 8)

For the front droplinks, Vauxhall Vectra ones fit and have proved durable on mine (got from a decent local trade motor factor - beware of ebay I think). I think I read long ago that Ford Galaxy ones might do for the rear - have a search on here to see what you can find. Mazda ones are v. dear. 8)
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Re: knocking over bumps

Post by JonWM » Sat Apr 09, 2011 8:50 pm

Quite an easy job you say!

You have no idea how rubbish I am at this kind of thing now.

I used to be good cos I owned a Morris Marina 1.8TC. Nuff said
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Re: knocking over bumps

Post by mikeonb4c » Sun Apr 10, 2011 12:01 am

JonWM wrote:Quite an easy job you say!

You have no idea how rubbish I am at this kind of thing now.

I used to be good cos I owned a Morris Marina 1.8TC. Nuff said
Easy AS LONG AS the bolts aren't badly seized with rust. Which is where a garage will come in handy, and it shouldn't be an expensive job.

But I'd not worked on my own cars for 30 yrs until I got the Bongo, and somehow I got back into it, such was my love for the beast and keenness to show the family it could be cheap to run despite being thirsty on fuel.
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Re: knocking over bumps

Post by mikexgough » Sun Apr 10, 2011 8:48 am

mikeonb4c wrote:
JonWM wrote:Quite an easy job you say!

You have no idea how rubbish I am at this kind of thing now.

I used to be good cos I owned a Morris Marina 1.8TC. Nuff said
Easy AS LONG AS the bolts aren't badly seized with rust. Which is where a garage will come in handy, and it shouldn't be an expensive job.

But I'd not worked on my own cars for 30 yrs until I got the Bongo, and somehow I got back into it, such was my love for the beast and keenness to show the family it could be cheap to run despite being thirsty on fuel.
Agree...... In the main.... Bongo's are very straight forward to work on...very simple really.....
Drop links/Bushes.... easy job, just use engineering practice with tools and prep....Use WD40/Plusgas on the nuts prior to work.... Up on ramps for easy access....use 6 sided sockets on the nuts..... and do all the elements on the Roll bar....bushes,brackets and drop links....if not you will be annoyed and replacing the parts you didn't replace in a few weeks time...
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Re: knocking over bumps

Post by Kincaid » Sun Apr 10, 2011 9:28 am

I've just done my droplinks, arb bushes and brackets front and rear. After spending some time reading this forum I went for the more expensive of the two front droplinks offered in the shop as they were being recommended as the most economic in the long term. My local garage charged me £34 to change all the front bits and £27 for all the rear bits (as I did it as two separate jobs).

The van drives so much better now -well worth the cost of this work. :P
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Re: knocking over bumps

Post by Foz.Foz » Sun Apr 10, 2011 7:08 pm

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Re: knocking over bumps

Post by bigdaddycain » Mon Apr 11, 2011 11:29 pm

Hi Jon, a series of mechanics failed to spot a cracked anti roll bar bracket on the front of my bongo years ago... I found it myself whilst the bongo was being mot'd (the tester never spotted it) You'll need to exert some tremendous force sometimes when trying to locate something that may have just a hairline crack in it... Do the clonks reduce/disappear when it's wet and rainy?
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Re: knocking over bumps

Post by mikexgough » Tue Apr 12, 2011 3:41 am

I used ramps to change my links and the Old Skool method of copper grease in the threads of the various joints (brackets/Links)...makes it easier for next time they need changing....I do the overkill method by smearing said grease over the outside of the nuts too....too many classic motors are seen by me so same techniques I use on those are habitual.....
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