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Author Topic: Excessive play in front lower balljoint  (Read 11954 times)
Mike S
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Posts: 7


« on: August 28, 2009, 05:33:50 pm »

I have a 2.1td 1994 RXE and there is a rumble coming from front, I suspected front wheel bearing, but alas having had it checked by an MOT tester it is not the bearing. But what was found was the front offside lower ball joint had excessive play. Could this make the same noise as described above?, noise occurs from 40mph upwards. Or could this type of noise be related to  worn input shaft bearings in the transmission?, which is manual. 
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misterbump
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Posts: 1


« Reply #1 on: August 28, 2009, 09:22:33 pm »

sounds like drives shaft is there any speed wobble.
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Mike S
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Posts: 7


« Reply #2 on: August 29, 2009, 03:10:21 am »

No there does not appear to be any speed wobble. before this vehicle i had a peugeot 405 which had bad drive shafts therefore a bit of speed wobble and the click when turning on full lock. The espace has no wobble just a very loud rumble at 40mph, almost like driving in a 4wd with big off road tyres.
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Elmo the Espace
Jr. Member
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Posts: 46


« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2009, 07:33:00 pm »

Hi Mike,
Depending on how bad the lower ball joint is, it can cause noise at higher speeds.
I had a wobble between 35 and 40 mph which was the near side drive shaft but it did not give any rumbling noises.
One thing i did notice before removing the drive shaft the front bearings did not have any play or noises, but after testing with out the drive shaft in the play was excessive so i replaced the wheel bearings as well.
One thing you could check is that the drive shaft nut is tight seem to remember it was either a 32,34 or 36mm socket.
My Espace had covered 125, miles it is a 1994 petrol and the bearings were replaced last year so i recon that was not bad going.
Dont think the gsf specials will last as long.
Hope this helps
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1965 Land rover 2a SWB
1966 Land Rover 2a SWB
2 x 1994 2.0i Espace's
Transit 140 bhp limited SWB 2009
colin4255
Sr. Member
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Posts: 119



« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2009, 09:51:38 pm »

One thing I know for sure from past experience is just because a garage can't 'find' any play in a wheel bearing, does not mean its not knackered. I have had wheel bearing issues on both my Peugeot 206 Gti (I ended up running it for almot 5,000 miles making a racket before the garage could acftually 'see' which bearing was making the noise) and with my Espace.  Unlike the 'old' days, its unlikely that jacking the car up and moving the wheel backwards and forwards from top to bottom will tell you anything, unless the bearing is very bad. They can make quite a lot of noise, yet you'll feel no play at all.

If the ball joint is badly worn, it needs replacing anyway as it will cause your tyre to wear unevenly. I'd get this done and see if the noie goes away. It could easily be the source of the noise.

It could as other have suggsted, also be driveshaft wear, though you'd probably get vibration along with that.

Just to throw yet another 'spanner' in the works. Last year I bought some new front tyres for My MK3 2002 Grand Esapce. They had those modern v shapd tread patterns in them. They made such a racket, especially when turning left or right that we seriously thought a wheel bearing had gone west, so loud wa the racket they made under load.  So did two garages I took the thing to, until one wise old mechanic told me to swap the tyres back to front.   It turned out just to be the tread pattern that was causing it, due to the extra weight on the front of the car. Put them on th back - no more noise!  - well not so a you can really hear.
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Mike S
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Posts: 7


« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2009, 11:06:36 am »

Thank you for your replies, I am taking the vehicle into a mechanic to have a look at, to see if he can find what the problem is, I shall post his verdict up, to help users that may have a similar problem.

Mike.
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Mike S
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Posts: 7


« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2009, 04:55:02 pm »

       Been a while since getting back to this topic and i did say i would post what might be the problem. Having had both front lower suspension ball joints replaced, as they were badly worn and also the front rear wishbone bushes, the noise was still there. Last week had front left hand side wheel bearing replaced, as this was where the noise was coming from and at last the rumbling noise is no more. Thanks for the responses above. Mike.
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