Thread: 95 110 - Symptoms of buggered steering rod bushes

Originally Posted by Oberon 110

Hi all,
I've had a slightly worrying clank/rattle coming from under or behind my firewall. It's only when the car is in motion and is fairly intermittent, sometimes excited by rpm.

I've had a look around and the only suspects I can find are:
- brake lines that have broken clips and are contacting each other or the firewall and chassis
- flogged out steering rod bushes - there's also a vibration when accelerating and I'm hoping it's the bushes and not something internal!

Any thoughts on whether the buggered bushes would cause such symptoms are greatly appreciated! Thanks guys

When you say steering rod bushes, do you mean the drag link, steering box to L/H swivel hub. And track rod, swivel hub to swivel hub? These have ball joints at each end rather than bushes.

Or do you mean the panhard rod which goes from the R/H chassis to the L/H end of the axle this has bushes?

That said either could be giving a clunk.

Either need to be fixed, so start there and see if the noise goes away.

If you have loose brake lines these need to secured, as they will be wearing.

I would also check drive shaft uni joints, steering column uni joints, wheel bearings and swivel hubs.

Tony

Originally Posted by TonyC

When you say steering rod bushes, do you mean the drag link, steering box to L/H swivel hub. And track rod, swivel hub to swivel hub? These have ball joints at each end rather than bushes.

Thanks for the response mate - yeah it's the track rod between the two swivel hubs, and yes buggered ball joints, my apologies!

Originally Posted by TonyC

If you have loose brake lines these need to secured, as they will be wearing.

I would also check drive shaft uni joints, steering column uni joints, wheel bearings and swivel hubs.

Tony

Yeah I'll absolutely be addressing the brake lines asap! Uni joints are in good nick and the swivel hubs have rebuilt about 2 years ago.

Thanks again mate

Quality tie rod ends are not overly expensive. You'd need a RH thread one and a LH thread one.

It's not worth buying cheap ones considering the effort required to replace them and then the cost to get a wheel alignment. Are you going to do the drag link, too? If so, you'd need another one of each.

Tie Rod End RH Thread - RTC5869

Tie Rod End LH Thread - RTC5870

or

Tie Rod Ends

Originally Posted by p38arover

Quality tie rod ends are not overly expensive. You'd need a RH thread one and a LH thread one.

It's not worth buying cheap ones considering the effort required to replace them and then the cost to get a wheel alignment. Are you going to do the drag link, too? If so, you'd need another one of each.

Tie Rod End RH Thread - RTC5869

Tie Rod End LH Thread - RTC5870

or

Tie Rod Ends

Cheers for the response and the part recommendation! We'll see about the drag link - service is slighty overdue and I think the landy is starting to whinge about it...

Maybe a bit left field, but another possible consideration is the body mounts under the seat box.
I had vaguely similar symptoms, creaking/banging around corners, rattling over bumps and along dirt roads and assumed steering or suspension.
After checking the steering and the suspension bushes, I finally noticed that the bolts in these locations (pic off fleabay) connecting the inner section of the seat box to the chassis were loose.
Tightened them up and issue solved!Screenshot_20250228-163311~2.jpg

Originally Posted by DieselDan

Maybe a bit left field, but another possible consideration is the body mounts under the seat box.
I had vaguely similar symptoms, creaking/banging around corners, rattling over bumps and along dirt roads and assumed steering or suspension.
After checking the steering and the suspension bushes, I finally noticed that the bolts in these locations (pic off fleabay) connecting the inner section of the seat box to the chassis were loose.
Tightened them up and issue solved!Screenshot_20250228-163311~2.jpg

Appreciate the response mate! Good shout actually - the squeak is getting worse and only happens when in motion, is related to RPM under load, and increasingly sounds to be coming from behind the firewall. So, loose body mounts in that area sound plausible. But I'm also suspect of anything from belt pulleys to front axle problems.

I'd be doing a full check and wouldn't be driving it if it weren't for the SEQ cyclone forecast - diagnosis will have to wait I suppose...