How to diagnose a rattle?

[lleiro]

Dear all,

Had my altea for a couple of monts now and put a little over 3000 miles on it.

First thing I did which I never do is to pay for a stupid "gold service" at a nearby garage. Back then I had a really bad and resillient cold and my juagement was clouded!

Got the car back and there where several noises that went unnoticed on their £200 service. Namely a rattle from the brakes (after self inspection I noticed one of the front caliper retaining clips missing which i put back) some clunking when turning and some rattle which I believe comes from the back.

I live in SW London and I do not have off street parking so my ability to do staff on my car is quite limited.

I never ever took my cars to the dealer but this time I figure it was worth asking how much would it be to have it checked.

They needed the car for a while day and charge £79 which was not too bad.

Long story short, the experience was a total joke worthy of another thread and their "diagnostic" could have been done by looking at a picture of my car.

Rattle and clunking still there and still dont know if there are standing recalls.

I have took all 4 wheels of and visually check the links and boots in the suspension and everything seems firm and so is the ride and steering.

So I read about the ARB bushes but I dont exactly know where to look for those. I know is a neewbie question but I am only trying to get a head start before buying a couple of ramps of amazon and find a sunny day like to do to have a go at it.

If you have or came accross a write up it will be really helpful.

Cheers!

Sent from my SM-N930F using Tapatalk

 

[robint]

Could be a broken spring - seems to make no difference to handling or ride height but causes a clunk/rattle as the remains from the end of the spring sit in the bottom cup of the suspension unit. Can be checked by getting down and dirty (!) and getting a hand into the bottom of the spring cup behind the wheel. Cannot tell by looking usually so need to see if there is a piece of spring there! If it is broken then just remove it and there is a good chance that it might not even be picked up at MOT time. Have had 2 go on Altea's (Alteum, Alteii??) and my SLK - all gave a hard to find rattle or clunk.

 

[minimarvel]

+1

We replaced the near side rear and both front springs on my wife's 06 altea due to snapping.

 

[kevlaa]

Same replaced broken springs on previous altea. Have you checked your space saver (if you have one) is fixed down properly? Might be worth a check. Or maybe exhaust brackets.

 

[lleiro]

I took it to the garage that did the full service and they kept the car all day and I came to pick up and none of the 3 mechanics found it!

First thing I did was bang the rear driver side wheel with the car on the lift and sure enough I reproduce the rattle right away!

It turned out to be the linkage of the parking brake cable. Either the cable is too stretched or needs adjustment or maybe there is another possibility.

I found this video and with those springs selling on ebay for £7 I think I will give that a try.

If any one knows how to adjust the hand brake I will appreciate it.

I hope I don't have to remove the whole center console which I believe is a ball ache to remove.

I am relieved that is nothing serious or dangerous and looking forward to fix it in the next sunny day I have some time.

I checked my self and the ARB Bushes were not great but they were not shot either and the springs are fine.

Any tips welcome!