Shortly after acquiring my, new to me, Range Rover the little darling developed a clunk on the left front suspension, the local indie and R/R specialist diagnosed the lower arms to be the cause. Had those changed out for new (OEM) for a small fortune as could have been more expensive to try and re-bush etc and the ball joint was slack. Back on the road and the bloody clunk is still there.
Have a look myself and can move the left hand tie rod by hand, order in a new pair (Delphi) from the UK as this is cheaper than buying from New Zealand. when they arrive after 4 days decide to have a crack at it myself, not that difficult but working under the car on jack stands and getting that last 90 degrees of turn after 165 Nm was a bit of a bar steward.
Road test the vehicle and the air suspension goes inactive on a hard fault (great) and my better half informs me that the clunk has gone but another has appeared but in a different place (even greater). Go to the indie to get the air-suspension re-set and calibrated, they're getting a code on the Autologic they've never seen before, decide the compressor may be failing. Time to think about where the clunk is coming from now!
Order in a repair kit from the UK as I've used these before on a P38, this arrives and replace the seals and dryer medium, switch on compressor and not a lot being compressed, open up the compressor again and the scuffing in the bore has ripped the seal on the piston to pieces - order a whole new compressor (Wabco) (this arrived in 4 days) and fit, bliss, pumps up the system and only have to get the air suspension reset.
Decide the clunk must be coming from the anti-roll bar so order in a pair of new bushes for it (too tight to buy a new roll bar and how difficult can it be?) and a pair of links. Begin to dismantle the anti-roll bar as per Rave but am not overly keen on releasing the sub-frame to get the bar out with my limited space and the thought of all those bolts needing 165 Nm and no space does not appeal, decide to try to change the bushes in-situ. Links, no problem; heat shields, no problem; anti-roll bar clamps, no problem; Old bushes, what a problem, sealed on tighter than a ducks rear end, limited space, dirty etc. Have seen a post saying they cut the old ones off with a kitchen knife, try this using an old hunting knife and partially successful but it took me the best part of a day to do. Then we have to scrape, wire brush all the remainder off and clean up. New bushes go on, no problem and all bolted back together, no problem. Road test and lo-and-behold no clunking - I'm happy.
TLDR I've replaced the majority of the front suspension chasing a clunk around. If your going to do the anti-roll bar seriously consider buying the whole new bar with bushes on or, at least take the bar out to remove them. Otherwise it really was blood sweat and tears but successful in the end and I've learn't an awful lot about my suspension which I really didn't want to.
Have a look myself and can move the left hand tie rod by hand, order in a new pair (Delphi) from the UK as this is cheaper than buying from New Zealand. when they arrive after 4 days decide to have a crack at it myself, not that difficult but working under the car on jack stands and getting that last 90 degrees of turn after 165 Nm was a bit of a bar steward.
Road test the vehicle and the air suspension goes inactive on a hard fault (great) and my better half informs me that the clunk has gone but another has appeared but in a different place (even greater). Go to the indie to get the air-suspension re-set and calibrated, they're getting a code on the Autologic they've never seen before, decide the compressor may be failing. Time to think about where the clunk is coming from now!
Order in a repair kit from the UK as I've used these before on a P38, this arrives and replace the seals and dryer medium, switch on compressor and not a lot being compressed, open up the compressor again and the scuffing in the bore has ripped the seal on the piston to pieces - order a whole new compressor (Wabco) (this arrived in 4 days) and fit, bliss, pumps up the system and only have to get the air suspension reset.
Decide the clunk must be coming from the anti-roll bar so order in a pair of new bushes for it (too tight to buy a new roll bar and how difficult can it be?) and a pair of links. Begin to dismantle the anti-roll bar as per Rave but am not overly keen on releasing the sub-frame to get the bar out with my limited space and the thought of all those bolts needing 165 Nm and no space does not appeal, decide to try to change the bushes in-situ. Links, no problem; heat shields, no problem; anti-roll bar clamps, no problem; Old bushes, what a problem, sealed on tighter than a ducks rear end, limited space, dirty etc. Have seen a post saying they cut the old ones off with a kitchen knife, try this using an old hunting knife and partially successful but it took me the best part of a day to do. Then we have to scrape, wire brush all the remainder off and clean up. New bushes go on, no problem and all bolted back together, no problem. Road test and lo-and-behold no clunking - I'm happy.
TLDR I've replaced the majority of the front suspension chasing a clunk around. If your going to do the anti-roll bar seriously consider buying the whole new bar with bushes on or, at least take the bar out to remove them. Otherwise it really was blood sweat and tears but successful in the end and I've learn't an awful lot about my suspension which I really didn't want to.
