W203 Estate • front left clunk when braking suddenly at low speed •

[pnevesfoto]

Hi,

a few days ago I felt a front left clunk when braking suddenly at low speed, while another car surges from a private entrance... Thought it may be something loose because days before I had both the control arms replaced at that wheel suspension...
lifted up the car, checked every bolt and nut and all was fit and tight as it should...

a few days later (today) I felt it again, and when possible I repeated the braking situation and... there it is!... a bit of a clunk when I step on the brake pedal harder at low speed, like when you circulate on a parking lot and you suddenly see a vacant spot... that kind of braking...

when I was disassembling all the bits and parts to replace the control arms, gave a thorough check up on the sway bar bushing to see if it needed a replacing, but it looked like new, so I assume the previous owner did it not long ago...

the only arm I didn't replaced was the "drop arm / drop link" that goes from the sway bar to the shock absorber... it has two ball joints... could it be one of them?

it was stupid of me not to have that arm replaced, once it is by far the cheapest one of the three... could my foolishness be the reason for this esporadic clunk?

 

[BlackC55]

Have all the arms been done up with the axel loaded? I mean was the car on the ground when the bolts were done up?

 

[pnevesfoto]

Have all the arms been done up with the axel loaded? I mean was the car on the ground when the bolts were done up?

Hi BlackC55...
I'm afraid it wasn't... I had the car up on the jack and the wheel was off, so I could gain access to the suspension control arms...
I believe there is no way I can get the bolts tightened with the car on the ground... it will have to be done with the help of a lift... and I don't have one...
Do you have any suggestions to get around this predicament?

 

[Stratman]

...................
I believe there is no way I can get the bolts tightened with the car on the ground... it will have to be done with the help of a lift... and I don't have one...
Do you have any suggestions to get around this predicament?

I used these to solve this very problem

 

[pnevesfoto]

I used these to solve this very problem

for God's sake... so obvious... thanks mate!

 

[BlackC55]

Or use a jack to jack up the hub

 

[pnevesfoto]

Hello all...
today I replaced the left drop link of the sway bar, the one that was left unreplaced... followed the advice of BlackC55 and used the floor jack to simulate the weight of the car over the suspension... it worked sweet!
It was really doing some bad to the correct fitting of the arms... when I released the nuts of the arms, the wheel turned inside about 3 to 4 degrees, which of course meant another visit to the alignment shop... I'm becoming a pretty good client there...
Never the less, now I feel confident and trust the job I've done, when opted to replace myself the control arms... my personal cloud is back and it feels like heaven... the knocking and clunking has finally gone and the silence is back...