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Offside Curb Impact Haunted By Ghostly Roof Bars


ForrestGump1992
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So at the end of last year, I was forced across the road just as the carriage way split at a junction. No prizes for guessing it was a 3 series pulling out of queuing traffic without looking, and then disappearing into the distance as I recovered from ploughing into the curb at 40+mph. Needless to say, my o/s/f alloy was obliterated and the rest of my journey was completed courtesy of The AA.

I managed to get hold of a replacement alloy at the discounted price of 150 quid :( and had a mechanic look over the corner; after some tracking i was told that everything was fine.

It clearly wasn't and still isn't now.

I now get a noise that I can only liken to that of roof bars; an oscillating drone in a certain speed bracket. The noise appears at around 65mph and progressively gets worse until 70, and then dies of after 80. It drones on the off about once every second.

The first thing I thought was wheel bearing. I've had this changed twice with no affect.

After examining the corner myself I noticed that the wheel was not sitting central in the arch so something must be bent. On closer inspection, I discovered that the joint from the control arm to the hub carrier was split and leaking grease, I had the entire arm replaced as there also seemed to be a kink in it. The wheel was still sitting back in the arch and droning so after another look I decided that the leg was also bent. I've recently changed the leg which has straightened everything up but the noise is still there.

Now clutching at straws I was looking for something simple, maybe something had come loose and was being caught in the wind. I found the plastic wheel arch had cracked and the fixing had been lost so I repaired the crack, got a fixing in it and took it down the road. IT WAS STILL DRONING!

Thing I have learnt so far:

I would have been better off going up the back of the Beemer and getting insurance to sort it

Mechanics are lazy

The drone is noisier when the road is wet

The drone quietens for a few days after replacing bearing, leg, arm.

Any ideas?

It's a zetec s so apparently has a different driveshaft and subframe (and expensive wheels!)

Any help would be much appreciated... Sorry for the really long post

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You've changed everything I would, did you get the end of the driveshaft checked?

Given the damage you've found that may be the culprit and given the wheel damage you scrapped the old tyre?

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Yeah I was thinking now it must be something driveshaft related. It's definitely something final drive end as the drone is totally speed dependant. I was thinking maybe the bearing off the intermediate shaft.

Things I'm considering at the moment though, it's been up to 110mph in the garage on a lift and there was no drone, only gearbox whine and it is definitely a lot lot worse when it's raining.

Yeah the tyre was shot but replaced with the original potenza re050a so it's not budget tyre roar.

I am totally gutted as the car had only done 3000 miles

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When it was up on the lift did they lift the car on the body? If so then the suspension will have no load on it and the driveshaft will be unloaded as well.

Is your car petrol or diesel? The diesels have a balancer fitted on the O/S driveshaft, does your car vibrate or just drone?

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Yeah it was lifted by the body, so could bearings possibly not be ruled out?

It's a petrol. It's hard to say really as noise is obviously a result of vibration and then there's the road surface to consider. It definitely feels as though its vibrating but as I say, the best way I can think of describing it is, cheap set of roof bars.

I'm still conscious it could be something loose as things like my o/s headlight level adjustment hasn't worked since. On the other hand I'm probably just deluding myself with an inexpensive resolution.

Thanks for your pointers so far pig, it's much appreciated sir.

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I know the drone you speak of, I fitted roof bars to my Mondeo and at speed it sounded like a ghostly wail. One more thing, did you change the hub as well as the strut?

If the wishbone and strut were bent the hub may be warped as well, this would distort the bearing over time as you mentioned the fault returns after any work.

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I was thinking the hub also, but then I put myself off by thinking it would cause either a constant vibration when driving or maybe a bit brake vibration?

Personally I would go with a new hub/bearing or get a complete knuckle from a breakers

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Yeah that's the other thing I suppose. I managed to get the leg with hub, disc and caliper from the breakers so could have a go at swapping the hub. The hub is cast though so I would have thought it'd just have snapped.

Other things to add I suppose, I've not noticed any change in mpg and even managed to get over 60mpg from the 1.6 petrol ti-vct which I thought was pretty good.

But thanks lads, I'll have a go at the hub and let you know. I'm also currently looking for the driveshaft with the intermediate bracket as that's the only other thing I an think of at the minute.

It's all adding up though :(

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Thought I'd add this so you have some idea of the visible impact damage.
post-37270-0-90869200-1362933271_thumb.j
And this is what I ended up hitting, clearly not the first either.
post-37270-0-66542000-1362933504_thumb.j
I did almost manage to miss it but basically under steered into it which wouldn't have helped. Only minor damage to the rear o/s just to give insight into the angles involved.

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Ouch! Next time ram the Panzer!! :)

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I wondered if anyone could advise me on the zetec s suspension differences?
I was always under the assumption the the zetec s had 'sports' suspension so when I was looking for the bits I was weary of what would be right.
I contacted a so called fiesta breaker specialist and was told that the only 'sports' parts different were the driveshaft and subframe. I queried the leg, spring and damper rates but was assured these were all the same. I did think there was no way on earth that that could be the case, however, I was the one asking so clearly not too sure. After buying a leg to find that the colour code didn't match up, I then had to hunt for another one with the correct spring/damper rates. As I'm now looking for a driveshaft I would like to know if I'm wasting my time looking for a sport specific one.

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