Knocking noise from the front

[James Sanders]

There is a knocking noise from the font of my Hyundai Getz when going over big bumps, speed bumps, leaving drive from kerb etc. I can feel it through the steering wheel. I originally thought it would be the steering rack (loose tie rod) but it’s not. Also check the front stabilizer bar, the rubber bushing looks ok. I’ve bounce the car on each side and I’m not able to get the knocking noise.
I thought I post this on this forum, to get some hint on what the problem could be. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

Topic

[Tyler]

Check everything, ball joints, wheel bearings, inner tie rods, control arm bushings, and give the strut a wiggle and see if the bearings at the top of the strut are worn. If they are all fine, start looking at the engine and transmission mounts.

[college man]

see if this helps.

[James Sanders]

Thanks College Man for the video link. I do not remember seeing this one, anyway this helped but after 2 hours I’m still not able to pin point the noise. Basically during test drive, basically the knock only appears when drive along a road and at slow speed (10 – 20kph) turning the steering wheel both ways quickly (keep doing this down the road) so the car rocks both ways. The knock appear only when I turn the steering wheel right and it appears to come from the left side. It’s seem the noise appears when the left rises from a suppress suspension. I’ve checked every joint, the engine mount looks ok, the hammer test shows nothing. I’m stuck. I’m now thinking towards the shock. Any hint. I’ll do another all round check in the morning. Very frustrating!

[college man]

Try jacking up the front end.Then turn the wheels back
and forth.see if the noise is there. If the noise is there
check the upper strut bearings.

[dave]

There is a knocking noise from the front…

Try opening the door.

[James Sanders]

Hi all,

Here an update of the fault finding. Last weekend, jacked the car up, fully turn the steering wheel left and right a number of times and no knocking noise. Inspected all the rubber joints and no sign of cracking or worn. Checked the shocks and springs and gain no leaks or breakages. Did the hammer test on the wheel while jacked and again nothing. Checked the engine mounts again and the seems to be tight with good rubber mounts.

When swaying the car, the noise only appears from left to right, but not from right to left. I guessing it could be the shock as the noise may appear when the left side of the car goes from low to high . Would a faulty shock make the knocking noise?

Will have another look at the weekend. It doesn’t affecting the car driving performance but it’s annoying. Any ideas please fire them away.

Cheers,

James.

[dave]

for some reason i always get suspicious of control arm bushings when a suspension noise is hard to find. also, a bad strut will ‘clunk’ over bumps.. not always all bumps at first.. but big enough bumps at just the right speed.

a pro mechanic would use “chasis ears” in order to pinpoint the root cause of the problem. you could also test your struts to see if they are good.

[college man]

Does the car have a sway bar? if so sway bar end links and
bushings.

[James Sanders]

Here’s an update…

After some frustrating times, the knocking only appears when the car is rolling therefore had a gut feeling it’s got to be the stabilizer bar or something related. Last weekend I dismantled the stabilizer bar and the sway links. Checked the condition and they were in good shape. The bushings were also in good condition. After reassemble the problem had gone??? The only thing I did was that I swapped the sway links around (left side to right side and via verse). So After three days, the problem had not reappeared. A weird one!

[Author]

Replies