Creaky front end

[Human Joist 10]

Right advice time. My VR6 has a creaky front end. I get the annoying noise when maneovering and when I reverse off drive and full lock it there is a metallic noise which I have discovered is the spring. I even get the noise when the handbrake is full on and you start as if to pull off. I took it that something was worn and noticed the coilovers when I bought it were cheap rubbish. So they came off and I replaced them with KW V1 and thought that would cure it. It did not cure it, however it still needed doing. I then replaced the top bearings and they were still creaky. The top mounts are quite new and do not appear to have lost shape. Lower ball joints and bottom arms new as well as drop links. I have just ordered a set of engine polly bush mount inserts off the group buy and will sort that when they arrive. All else seems new or in good order. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[carrots 1]

i fitted new coilovers last week mine where creaky.i sprayed some white grease on top mounts and wd40 on the springs.it seems a lot beter

[Human Joist 10]

Where did you spray on top mounts. Between top plate and underside of mount or top of mount to body of car or both. It seems odd with the bearing set up but made sure it sits like it should. Plastic KW spring top, new genuine bearing with larger centre hole to the bottom, new genuine nut then placed top mount on and offered to car then original metal retainer in engine then nylock nut

[jamiehamy 0]

Couple of other things to check Jim. front engine mount, in particular the top bolt, You can get a socket down with an extention bar or two, just. The lower bolt it easy from below. Lower one will be an allen, upper either a 16mm or 17mm. Also worth checking the bumper bolts on either side, 177mm bolts on each side - I've had mi e loosen slightly before. There is a 13mm too holding the x member,worth checking. Also check the wishbone bolts are tight, especially the rear ones. Things should not come loose, but they can in my experience :(

[KipVR 1]

Have you got urethane wishbone bushes? They often creak if the installers haven't fitted them with copper grease

[Human Joist 10]

I am going to renew the mounts in a couple of days as thought this may cure. Got the polly ones off a group buy on here. Will check other places you mention cheers. They are normal bushes on wish one GSF or similar I presume. Fitted couples of thousand miles ago when my mate the previous owner converted from auto to manual.

[Human Joist 10]

Think I may have found answer. It appears that it's the anti roll bar bushes. If I put hand on the bar and rock the car I can hear the cream and feel it through the bar. Polly bush time I reckon

[peachers 10]

Interested in this post as I have exactly the same symptoms on my VR6 including the metallic noise when I am reversing. Car is going in to the garage in a couple of weeks time so will get em to check the the anit roll bar bushes.

[Human Joist 10]

Sorry for delay in the result. It seemed that the front anti roll bar bushes had failed. They are a bit of a bugger to change as you need to drop the sub frame and support the engine to prize the buggers out. I replaced with polly ones and at the same time put new bush retaining clips in as well as they were rusted and hakf the thickness of original. I also noticed that the drop links while new were a poor quality so I replaced those with OE and that cured to creaking. I had another post about these for changing them and the advice was to take subframe off as t was thought to be too hard to change. As it turned out that's not the case. It is a DIY job. Can talk you through it if interested.

[peachers 10]

Thanks for this Jim. Just had the car MOT'd but still getting the metallic noise and creaking so will check out the anti roll bar bushes and drop links.

[Human Joist 10]

An easy way to check is lie on your back and put your hand on the anti roll bar by the mounting point then get a mate to roll the car back and forth. On mine as I heard the noise I could also feel the creak through the bar

[_Meth 0]

Just to throw something else out there. Ive had a "creaking" of sorts for about a few months now and its been doing my head in. It would also clunk when doing some slow manouvering and also when putting my foot down hard, then also once more when letting off the gas to change gear etc. Had been baffling me for months because everything checked out.

 

Solution? A dry bush on the rear wishbone mount. Seriously. I had replaced it with a new wishbone about 2 weeks before and the noise went but then came back after about 3 days - was doing my head in. Went down under the car and everything looked fine and tight, replaced drop link bushes with powerflexes (which is nice anyway btw), then just got a bar and started prying and managed to replicate the noise!

 

Sprayed some WD40 on the bush to see if it could be that - and it went! HOORAH!!! So, some proper bush grease (left over from powerflex) later and its lovely :)

 

So I would also check those kind of things out.

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

. As it turned out that's not the case. It is a DIY job. Can talk you through it if interested.

 

 

i need to do my arb bushs at some point, im guessing you only need to create about 2 inchs of space between the subframe and body in order to remove the bushs?,

[Human Joist 10]

Takes about that. Jack the car and support it on stands just behind the subframe on the engine mount which gives you plenty of space to work. Put your jack in the middle of the subframe and then remove the 6 bolts securing it to the chassis. At the same time remove the drop links to free the bar.

 

Lower the subframe down and then leaving it sat with most of the weight on the jack you can undo and remove the anti roll bar and the metal retainer clip. Clean up the bar where the bushes sit and copper grease them up and put on the new bushes. I would go for polly as they are easier to fit and don't make the car any harder.

 

Also buy two new metal retaining clips as mine were well worn and half the thickness, they had also lost shape, only a few quid from VW. It's a bit of a bugger to get the clip in and I ended up using a breaker bar to pry the subframe low enough. Then comes the next issue of compressing the bush and the new bracket close enough to get the screw in without cross threading.

 

A trick I discovered was to again use the breaker bar placing it between the top of the metal clip and the bottom of the chassis then gently jack the subframe back up using the force to compress the bush and clip in to the correct position. Once there use a large screwdriver to make the final small adjustment to get the screw home and then put back together as as you took apart.

 

This method took about an hour for start to finish. ..........Plus tidying and naming all my tools ...... Sad