Suspension Ping/Knock/Twang/Pop
- Thread starter Al-Batson92
- Start date
Cheers for the reply, I cant really tell, just that its in that corner, its quite loud, but loder when turning. When I say turning i mean quite sharp slow bends, like driving onto a driveway, or into a parking space.
On the ping sound I would 2nd on a spring.
You need to jack it up , get the wheel off and have good look.
You need to jack it up , get the wheel off and have good look.
Is your suspension standard? See how many fingers you can get inbetween the wheel arch on the tyre on each side. The only other thing I can think it could be is the bearing at the top of the suspension strut allowing it to turn. If for example you can get 4 fingers in the passenger side but only 3 in the drivers side you have a snapped spring.
Hope this helps.
Hope this helps.
Suspension is completely standard, just been out and tried the finger test. Apart from looking like a wierdo i did find that i could fit 3 fingers drivers side, and only two passenger side.
Cheers for all the replies
Cheers for all the replies
From suffering a broken front spring only once, I found that when wife's car's RHS front spring broke at half height, it seemed like both sides got dragged down quite a bit!
Of course you could be going for a record and have two broken front springs, one quietly broken some time ago, and this later noisy one!
I'd say get both sides up and wheels off and see what it looks like.
It is good planning to replace both sides on a car that is not quite new.
In case you don't know what you are looking for, firstly, with the wheel(s) off the ground, both springs should still be compressed and loaded, so can not be moved about/around, if they pass that test then follow the top and bottom round with your hands/fingers to make sure that they really are still complete to where the "end point" is in the top and bottom platforms.
Of course you could be going for a record and have two broken front springs, one quietly broken some time ago, and this later noisy one!
I'd say get both sides up and wheels off and see what it looks like.
It is good planning to replace both sides on a car that is not quite new.
In case you don't know what you are looking for, firstly, with the wheel(s) off the ground, both springs should still be compressed and loaded, so can not be moved about/around, if they pass that test then follow the top and bottom round with your hands/fingers to make sure that they really are still complete to where the "end point" is in the top and bottom platforms.
Last edited:
Sorry guys my bad, got my left and right mixed up 
.
The driver side is the one thats lower, but only by a finger, I mean half an inch at most. So to confirm, the side thats making the noise is lower.
.The driver side is the one thats lower, but only by a finger, I mean half an inch at most. So to confirm, the side thats making the noise is lower.
Broken springs happen on driver's side (RHD) as it has the heavy boat anchor of an engine over that side.. best to replace them in pairs.
When I noticed the twang noise... it was on passenger side (runs in gutter so fails quicker as it is dirty all the time) strut top bearing. They have very little sealing and die fairly often and then the spring rotates instead of the bearing; you notice when parking with large steering lock as the spring jumps and then makes a Twang.
Mind you .. about 3 months after I did the strut top bearings.. my driver's side spring broke; maybe from broken after it got compressed during the removal process.
When I noticed the twang noise... it was on passenger side (runs in gutter so fails quicker as it is dirty all the time) strut top bearing. They have very little sealing and die fairly often and then the spring rotates instead of the bearing; you notice when parking with large steering lock as the spring jumps and then makes a Twang.
Mind you .. about 3 months after I did the strut top bearings.. my driver's side spring broke; maybe from broken after it got compressed during the removal process.
Last edited:
okay bit of an update, had the car up and wheel off today to find an interesting problem. The spring had wound itself out of its seat and was resting on the arb droplink.
:/ No idea what has caused it but compressed the spring and re-seated it, its fine now no noise. I had nearly worn the inner of the tyre to slick though
Im thinking the bearing may be goosed allowing the spring to wind out of the seating.
:/ No idea what has caused it but compressed the spring and re-seated it, its fine now no noise. I had nearly worn the inner of the tyre to slick though
Im thinking the bearing may be goosed allowing the spring to wind out of the seating.
Well, in the case of my wife's car, Polo 9N 1.4SE 2003MY, ARB was replaced by dealer late December, on New Years Day, driver's side front coil spring snapped at half height as car was being driven out of the garage!
I also came to the conclusion that as these springs tend to get their paint chipped and the high carbon steel rusts quickly, it only takes an extreme bit of compressing to weaken the coil then soon after it can crack then snap at a point where it has rusted. Replacing the ARB is made easier if the suspension is fully compressed to reach one of the bolts securing the ARB.
Now I try to keep all the coil springs free of rust or chipped paint.
okay bit of an update, had the car up and wheel off today to find an interesting problem. The spring had wound itself out of its seat and was resting on the arb droplink.
:/ No idea what has caused it but compressed the spring and re-seated it, its fine now no noise. I had nearly worn the inner of the tyre to slick though
Im thinking the bearing may be goosed allowing the spring to wind out of the seating.
Is the spring turning with the steering ? Could be the top mount bearing has gone.
I think someone said this earlier
Had this problem twice on my old ibiza sx, first time was snapped drivers side front spring that snapped so hard it obliterated the strut bearing and arb drop link, second was the passenger front spring that snapped but didn't cause any other damage. Both occurred just pulling off from being parked up.
One thing that confuses me is, these top mounting bearings seem to be rubbish, why didn't VAG lubricate them and seal them up which would make them survive longer. When you suffer a catastrophic spring failure, this bearing looses its lower support so the balls fall out! I even saw a mechanic visiting my local VW dealer once with a top mounting in his hand, he was comparing what he had brought in with what he was being offered - and they were different - his old top mounting had the upper part of the bearing stuck on to it - and that confused him big time!! (I had been there done that a few years before!)
Last edited:
Similar threads
