Rear suspension

[rah59]

Hi all

I have just noticed an advisor on the mot certificate.

It states 'rear suspension rests on bump stops when car is jacked up'

Any ideas

Thanks

Robin

[kingzetts]

Robin,
It could be that they mean the inner edges of the tyres are fouling the bump stops when jacked up with the wheels hanging.

This is quite a common thing, especially when anything wider than standard 185 tyres are fitted, but you can also get it even with the standard 185s if the wheel offsets are not quite right. Easy to check - jack the rear up under the IRS cage to get both wheels off the deck, try to turn the rear wheels with the handbrake off. If they won't turn or seem too hard to turn, then look at the top inner sidewall of the tyres and see if they are fouling the rubber bump stops.

I had this on mine for a while. It had two effects - firstly you couldn't turn the wheels when the car was jacked up which was occasionally irritating (for example when trying to grease the rear suspension) and second you got an occasional squeal from the rear as you went rapidly over a hump in the road as the rear suspension unloaded and dropped far enough for the tyre to kiss the stop.

Strangely, changing to wider wheels but with the same tyres cured the problem (different wheel offsets).

[rah59]

Thanks John

having a few days in Somerset so not with the car, will jack car up when i get back and check clearances, i had thought it could be the dampers with excess travel but could not see how this could affect bump stop. I will contact mot station after i have checked to see what they have to say, i always like to know the possibilities so they dont give me a load of bull and generate extra bussiness for them

regards

Robin