850 T5 creaky rear suspension

[deadtom]

looked at a P plate 850 T5 (not an 850R sadly, insurance would not allow) with 150K miles on.

overall the car seems in pretty good shape, with the exception of an ominous creak coming from the rear suspension.

i must confess to not knowing that much about these cars, what sort of rear suspension do they have? is a creak likely to just be worn bushings, or something more costly? and what sort of money could i expect to spend on getting the suspension sorted?

it was MOT'd in october i think, and the only advisory was an oil leak which has since been sorted, though the front tyres are also seriously worn, so i wonder if there is anything else the tester overlooked when it was done :/

thanks,

Tom

[smack]

deadtom said:

i must confess to not knowing that much about these cars, what sort of rear suspension do they have? is a creak likely to just be worn bushings, or something more costly? and what sort of money could i expect to spend on getting the suspension sorted?

They have "Delta-link semi-independent" rear suspension. The spring runs seperate from the shock absorber, and the anti-roll bar uses an odd setup that has a transverse arm, and trailing arm (have a search, there are diagrams of it).

A creak may be from this anti-roll bar setup, get under the car and check that flat end of transverse arm is not snapped, and made odd noises - happended to mine, when using my estate to move house, loading up the car with god knows how much weight. I have photos somewhere of the snapped arm, if I can find them.

[Nickyboy]

Mine has the same but from the front so figured its the bushes, i will replace them at some point