4 replies to this topic

[skrue]

Hi live in denmark and I own a 1978 Mini special.

I have fittede standard lenght yellow spax dampers and hi-lows to my car. It has been driving perfectley fine with this setup until reasonley.The frons suspension has started klicking when im driving the car. The klicking noise is most obvious when i drive a low speeds on bumpy roads. I can also get the clicking noise when i press down with my hands on the front wheel arch. I suspected the damper was faultey and bought new ones. The klicking noise stopped for a while but has now returned.

Yesterday I lifted the front of the car on a car jack to find out that when i tryed to pull the front wheel upwards there were no resistance for the first centimeter or so. Could this have anything to do with faulty rubbercones and futher more the faulty dampers? Or is it supposed to be like this? Or could i be something intireley different from what im guessing at?

I have tryed askin in the danish forums, but unfortunatley without luck. I hope you guys maybe can helpe me in this matter. I hope you understand my writing

- Michael

[Big_Adam]

Well, it could be the areas where the damper mount rather than the dampers themselves. Check the top mount as these can get water in and around them leading to them rusting the under metal out. I had this issue then found half my inner arches where made of spit and toilet paper.

Which was fun.

So check the mounts, and while your at it. Try driving without damper for a bit, see if the noise comes or goes. You'll be alright as long as you don't utterly hammer it.

[Sherlock]

'Yesterday I lifted the front of the car on a car jack to find out that when i tryed to pull the front wheel upwards there were no resistance for the first centimeter or so'.

It is quite normal to be able to lift the wheel about a cm if you have the height set quite low, but you should still have the resistance of the shock absorber. Sometimes it is necessary to bleed shock absorbers by holding them upright & pumping them up & down as far as they will go, several times, then re-fit them immediately. I used to have Spax competition shocks on my Mini, they were excellent, but the valves in them always made a clicking sound, especially at low speed.

[bmcecosse]

Probably just loose dampers - tighten the nuts!

[skrue]

Hmm... tryede all og the above options. Dont seem to help. When removing the dampers however the klicking noise stops. Im still suspecting the rubber cones to have caused the failure in the dampers. Is there a way to test/measure if these are okay or collapsed, whille they are still in the vehicle? And if not how can i test meassure them when disasembled?