Ford focus MK2 knuckle crunching noise

[madman]

Hello

I've posted about my water leak and thanks for replys.

I've got this like crunching noise on pull away or stop or when I reverse off driveway to left I hear it, at end road I stop I hear it and reversed right today and brake I hear it.   

I've had it looked at by mechanic and my rear bush which is the bigger one with 2 bolts going thru on the front control/suspension arm has movement.  

When I had wishbone bushes go before on a Mondeo they just made a thud noise and not like this knuckle crunching what this is doing.

Does this sound like suspension arms bushes

I've attached a image of mentioned bush(of spares site) which has wear on my car

Thank you

[ak58ozv]

Hello
I've posted about my water leak and thanks for replys.
I've got this like crunching noise on pull away or stop or when I reverse off driveway to left I hear it, at end road I stop I hear it and reversed right today and brake I hear it.   
I've had it looked at by mechanic and my rear bush which is the bigger one with 2 bolts going thru on the front control/suspension arm has movement.  
When I had wishbone bushes go before on a Mondeo they just made a thud noise and not like this knuckle crunching what this is doing.
Does this sound like suspension arms bushes
I've attached a image of mentioned bush(of spares site) which has wear on my car
Thank you

I dont know if i believe that bush is anything to do with it as u see it pinned by 2x nuts n i cannot think bar a balance it use. If you look at them the smaller bush do the work n has a hi torqued bolt through it....
Its a good one as unless u have a good jack cant look an after the repair you need realigned... takes its toll with vat.... i have just been written off n rebuilt my full left hand suspension to the breaks , n replace doirs n arch.,love my wee car.
But yeah it be the smaller one i would expect. Is it a focus as i get about 20k maybe 40 can be 2x years driving, often in pairs.


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[Micro]

Could be anything, but a bush with free movement really needs replacing regardless.

 

For the front arms I replaced mine with new arms (both bushes and ball joint), as worked out cheaper to do that than press the bush on/off and it replaced the other bushes that are also likely to have degraded over the years.

 

Also check anti roll bar bushes and links, and engine mounts.

 

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[madman]

Are ford focus mk2 suspension arms easy to replace your self or is it garage job.

[Tdci-Peter]

1 hour ago, madman said:

Are ford focus mk2 suspension arms easy to replace your self or is it garage job.

If you are good at getting rusted in bolts undone without rounding off the heads (Not my favorite game!), then it is easy.

As Micro says, it is much easier and better to replace the whole control arm / wishbone with both bushes and ball joint. Using a garage to press the bushes  off  & on an existing arm would work out more expensive.

If replacing the ball joint, be aware there are two sizes with no known link to car age or type. According to Haynes, the 18mm one has a yellow band at the top of the gaiter, and the 21mm one has a blue band. But even this is not 100% guaranteed, especially if they have ever been replaced before. Releasing the ball joint taper & measuring it is the only sure way to tell.

The harder part is to determine if the bush has failed. A suitable strong lever would be needed to twist the control arm enough to detect movement, but as the bushes are rubber, there will be some elastic movement, ie it returns fully as soon as released. If there is movement that remains until a reverse force is applied, then it is likely the bush has failed.

 

[Micro]

My arms were replaced when the car was 6 years old, so the bolts came out fairly easily (long breaker bar with 6 sided socket) on the bolts pointing at the floor, impact on the front bolt. The ball joint nut was the difficult bit as I didn't fully clean the thread on the one side, resulting in an extremely difficult job of getting the nut off (fighting the nylon locking ring being dragged through the nut and the threads that still had rust/debris in). Cleaned the other side and it came off a dream. Few whacks with a hammer freed the ball joint from the knuckle (although I did buy a ball joint splitter, I didn't need it).

The only thing I had difficulty with on the floor was torquing the front bolt as there wasn't enough clearance / I couldn't get the car high enough. I zapped it up with the impact and got the alignment chap to torque it to the correct value for me.

[madman]

Had quote from fords wishbones arms 150 quid each side.

I've took car to Kwik fit and they saying rear wishbone has movement and said didn't think it would cause the crunching noise. 

I got it to today reversing off my driveway right and stopping at end of the road a double crunch noise. 

Kwik fit saying could be brakes and discs causing it.

 

[Micro]

Unfortunately sometimes you can't just narrow down noise without expensive diagnostics.

I paid £35-40 each side for my front wishbones (unipart), £10 each for ARB links. Try a local motor factors for parts, they're normally very knowledgeable and know which parts are crap vs half decent.

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[Tdci-Peter]

1 hour ago, madman said:

Kwik fit saying could be brakes and discs causing it.

Try a range of maneuvers without using the foot brake at all.

Try stopping just on the handbrake. Try moving backwards and forwards just using clutch & gearbox, no brakes at all. Try it over bumps or small steps (a bit of wood will make a test bump), again with no brakes used. If the brakes are not used, it is hard to see it being the disks or pads. Then repeat tests using the foot brake, to double check.

If a bump makes it crunch, try each wheel in turn, several times. See if that narrows it down at all. Not so easy because a bump on one side will still flex the suspension on the other side, but in a different way.

From what you said at the top, steering also has an effect, try the bump or start-stop tests with vary amounts of steering angle.

You would need a nice flat test area, and try each test several times. It is very easy to get misleading results from one test.

The Ford quote is no surprise that it is ridiculously high. On a 2005 Focus, pattern parts can be fine. The price Micro quoted is more like what I have seen. The seller's reputation is about the only guide available for this sort of part. If two garages have said the control arm bush is moving excessively, then it is worth replacing anyway. It affects steering, braking and tyre wear if the control arm can wander about.

One thing I have thought of is that broken springs can cause odd knocking and banging or crunching noises. They often break very near one end, with no real apparent effect apart from noises. I would be a little surprised if neither garage had noticed, but I would still check.

[madman]

I took my focus to another garage today and a mechanic came out and road test it.

I tried stopping car with hand brake no noise, went over speed humps tonght no noise, I reversed car back with left lock and stopping car with hand brake no noise.

As soon as I reverse and turn the wheel and stop with foot brake like a double crunch, I stop going in straight line with foot brake crunch.

Anyway this mechanic road test with me in the car and said it's brake pad rattle anyone heard of this. He said that my brakes looked quite new I said that they are and mechanic said after brakes are replaced copper grease is applied and it's either had none or not much or weather had done it as my wheels are quite open to water.

Is this true or load of rubbish ?

Thanks

[Tdci-Peter]

28 minutes ago, madman said:

said it's brake pad rattle anyone heard of this. He said that my brakes looked quite new I said that they are and mechanic said after brakes are replaced copper grease is applied and it's either had none or not much or weather had done it as my wheels are quite open to water.

Is this true or load of rubbish ?

The tests certainly seem to point to brake pad or disk noise.

Copper grease is not really used now, more modern compounds like Ceratec are used, and Ford official policy is not to use anything. I doubt if lack of grease is the true answer, though it is quite possible that applying some grease or ceratec might provide at least a temporary cure.

First simple stage is to check wheel nut torque. If too loose, the disks will rotate a little on the bolt holes. More likely is either the brake pads are a poor fit on the caliper brackets, or the brackets are worn, with steps in them. A thorough brake overhaul would be the cure. I always lightly file the wear areas on the caliper brackets to remove wear steps, when servicing my brakes. New pads might fix it, either a better fit in the brackets, or avoiding the wear step.