13 1.2 Clunking Jazz

[Alex795]

For the last 18 months I've had a clunking noise on the ns front suspension of my 1.2 13 honda Jazz, it happens driving over a drain or going over a small pothole. The steering feels loose as well, sometimes I have to turn the wheel twice as much round corners which is worrying as my tyres are starting to get more worn on the edges. It's been in the garage 6 - 8 times. I've had the wheel alignment, link rods and bushes changed. The garage said there's nothing wrong with my car, but it's driving me mad, the only other thing I can think of is the strut mount.

[Jocko]

Strut mount has built in slack, occasionally mistaken for wear. Perhaps one of the rubbers need replacing.

[sparky Paul]

Just to be clear, you've had the both anti-roll bar links, and the anti-roll bar bushes changed?

What's the tyre wear like? Inside, outside, both? Any sign of feathering on the edges?

Does the car tend to wander at the straight ahead steering position, or follow dips or bumps in the road?

Can you hear any clicking from the suspension if you rock the car on a flat, even surface?

On the face of it, it sounds like a significant tracking issue, possibly something that is moving adversely with steering input - steering rack, inner/outer track rod, wishbone bush, that sort of thing. The fact that you feel that you are having to put in more steering input also points to some sort of tracking error.

Things like bottom balljoints, ARB droplinks and ARB bushes can certainly be responsible for knocking and banging, but usually not any significant tyre edge wear. Top mounts can cause tyre wear, but they usually have to be pretty bad to cause the strut to move sideways, allowing similar tracking errors.

[Alex795]

Yes I've had both anti roll bar links, and bushes changed.
The tyre wear on the inside is fine but on the outside it is wearing out a lot faster.

Sometimes on a straight road i have to hold the wheel to the right when it veers to the left, but it was still doing that after I had my alignment done 6 months ago.

I can't hear any noise when I rock my car on a flat surface.

[sparky Paul]

Sometimes on a straight road i have to hold the wheel to the right when it veers to the left, but it was still doing that after I had my alignment done 6 months ago.

That's not unusual on a normal two way carriageway, the crown of the road can have that effect.

The tyre wear on the inside is fine but on the outside it is wearing out a lot faster.

If it's on the outside, then you probably have excessive toe-in, and that could explain your odd steering feel. It should be accompanied by feathering of the tread - like a sawtooth wear on the tyre edge tread. It should feel the same running your hand around the tread in each direction, if you can feel the block edges in one direction, you have feathering.

This could be as a result of movement in some steering or suspension component, or as a result of maladjustment. Was the tyre wear okay prior to the tracking adjustment 6 months ago? Tracking adjustment at garages can be a bit hit & miss, they have to know what they're doing, and some most definitely do not. It's possible that your two issues may be unrelated.

For the knocking, I would be checking the usual culprits, once the droplinks & arb bushes are ruled out - top mounts, bottom balljoints, & wishbone bushes. Also check that nothing else is loose or bumping the chassis, particularly the engine undertray, exhaust, etc..

Can you feel the knock through the steering wheel or the floor of the car, or is it just audible? Is it a hard metallic knock or a dull thump?

[madasafish]

I would check the steering rack bushes. Wear here will mean the rack moving and all sorts of funny sensations at the steering wheel.