anyone had a sticky front damper?

[zebedee]

Anyone had a sticky damper that needed freeing/replacing on the front? If so, did it make a strange almost pipe-expansion type noise in the cabin, like it was coming from the dash/floor area? I have this noise for a while, its every drive now and it does it when the engine is off and the car is moving, but isn't worse over bumps oddly. I can also replicate it by pushing the front left of the car up and down whilst stationary, it doesn't sound the same out the car, but get in and get someone else to do it, and that's it. I also posted recently about an odd 'rear-steer' affect when lifting off from speed - presumably if a damper was sticky on one side and the other side wasn't, that would cause the car to yaw when lifting off, which could be the horrid (if subtle) feeling I was getting?

Its clearly something in the suspension anyway that needs urgently looking at and the next time I will drive it will be to the garage, but wondered if this tallied with anyone else's experience.

cheers

[Lawrence5]

Signs of leaking shock oil ?

[zebedee]

nothing evident, but the shocks and springs do look pretty old stuck up there. Its 11 years old after all so could probably do with a refresh here and there.

[Lawrence5]

No expert but does the wheel return ok if you bounce it stationary ? With your rear end concerns and the left to right actions I am wondering whether its anti-roll bar related ??

You still on Koni's or s2 bilstein ? May be worth an pgrade and a geo......

[zebedee]

Lawrence5 said:

No expert but does the wheel return ok if you bounce it stationary ? With your rear end concerns and the left to right actions I am wondering whether its anti-roll bar related ??

You still on Koni's or s2 bilstein ? May be worth an pgrade and a geo......

you might be an expert! I tried the bounce test and found after a couple of bounces I got a noise I have being trying to trace for ages! I could then 'unclick' it to get the same noise by pulling on the anti-roll bar directly. My theory is that the bushes on the anti roll bar, front left are shot and it is sticking. I guess that could make the car feel unusual when lifting off from speed. It is off to the garage this weekend and I think we'll start there, looking at other bushes etc, then get a geo done and see how it goes after that.

[Lawrence5]

wow