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clunking noise in front pass. side wheel well

Help, Advice, Owners' Discussion and DIY Tutorials on S40 and V40. In this forum you'll find S40/V40-specific owners asking and answering questions on maintenance, ownership, repairs, tutorials and almost every do-it-yourself thing you can do to save money owning these Volvos.

1996 - 2004 S40
1996 - 2004 V40

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nathan_young93
Posts: 4
Joined: 23 May 2013
Year and Model: s40 T5, 2005
Location: United States

clunking noise in front pass. side wheel well

Post by nathan_young93 »

When I drive my 05 S40 T5 (FWD) over any size bump the front passenger wheel makes a clunking noise, it also shakes in the floor board (I can feel it on my foot through the pedals). I have replaced the cv axels and gotten it aligned. I saw on another post that it could be the strut housing (bearings, plates, etc.) but that was for the front driver side. Could it still be the same things causing this to happen? I just purchased the car and I don't know much about Volvo's issues or typical problems, I'm normally an American muscle kind of guy.

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot
Posts: 12
Joined: 7 May 2011
Year and Model: 2001 V70 T5a
Location: Garden Grove, CA

Post by WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot »

Replace the strut mount bearings and spring seat. Lift your hood and if they are bad, you should be able to move the tops of the struts (the black caps covering the top strut nut) with your hands. Had this happen on my '01 V70t5 at 130k. Replaced the struts and all associated hardware and it drives tight and like a champ now.

nathan_young93
Posts: 4
Joined: 23 May 2013
Year and Model: s40 T5, 2005
Location: United States

Post by nathan_young93 »

Should I replace both sides at once or would that cause the other side to wear faster by only replacing one side? Also when I took the car to a tire shot to have them fix a tire they refused to do it because of the lug nut situation being too hard for their guys to put the wheel back on without breaking the studs, is it an easy enough situation for me to just take the car apart myself or is it a better idea to take it in to the shop again?

mikealder
Posts: 817
Joined: 25 October 2009
Year and Model: V70 2000
Location: Blackpool
Been thanked: 13 times

Post by mikealder »

I always change brakes or suspension bushes/ links/ drop-links/ wishbones/ shocks/ springs as pairs so both sides of the car are evenly matched otherwise the handling could be "interesting" to say the least and quite often if you only do one side the other side will fail soon after.

Find another tyre shop as that one sounds like it's run by pillocks, if they don't know how to remove/ replace wheel nuts I certainly wouldn't be going anywhere near them - Mike

nathan_young93
Posts: 4
Joined: 23 May 2013
Year and Model: s40 T5, 2005
Location: United States

Post by nathan_young93 »

Yeah I found a mechanic who specializes in European cars, he said that they are "notorious" for the plastic piece inside the spring seats going bad and causing the horrid noise. It's a simple fix he said, $35 for the part and with a spring compressor and it shouldn't be too hard to go without having labor prices. Hopefully this is the issue and not the strut. Fingers crossed.

xHeart
Posts: 3306
Joined: 3 December 2011
Year and Model: 2.0/3.2
Location: Great Lakes - USA
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Been thanked: 115 times

Post by xHeart »

The suspension and steering deteriorate gradually. Unfortunately, it would requires replacing many parts. Taking them down would break others. Take a closer look at the sway bar end-links for a start.

There are many exceptional write-up here at MVS. I had to take down every part that was attached to the knuckle, and replaced ALL with OE/OEM. If you are above 140,000 miles, you are not safe on the road.
--
Golden-German Shepherd | 2021 XC90 T6 INSCRIPTION (Nexa) | 2020 V60CC (Frska) | 2013A XC90 (Lktra)
Past: Golden Retriever | 2001 V70XC | 1997 Volvo 854 | 1989 Volvo 740 GL | 1979 Volvo 240

nathan_young93
Posts: 4
Joined: 23 May 2013
Year and Model: s40 T5, 2005
Location: United States

Post by nathan_young93 »

I'm at about 101000 miles right now. I figured if start replacing as much as I can now before the problem causes more problems. The only thing is I don't have much money to spend on this right now so I'm trying to do everything on the lowest budget possible.

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