The 'E' Type Forum

Hi,
I am new to this forum and would like to know if anyone can help me?
My V12 has just started to make a knocking sound from the rear, I have lifted it up onto stands and put it into drive but can`t see anything catching,it does seem to orignate from the diff or brake area.
The sound increases with speed.
Can anyone help ?

If the sound is speed related, increasing in frequency the faster you go, but without being a heavy knock, then a likely candidate is one of the driveshaft dustshields. These should be secured by a jubilee clip, and the two halves are riveted together, but people forget to do up the clips after greasing, or the rivets rot away . You may find that you cannot reproduce the knock on stands because the droop of the suspension arms affects the juxtapositon of whatever is knocking

Hi,
The noise is a heavy knocking and is speed related but not the dust shields.
Thanks for the advise.
has anybody else got any suggestions ?
Thanks,
Clive

Not the same problem as this is it? http://etypeuk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1109

As david says, sounds very similar to my problem http://etypeuk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1109

You can only see it when the car is supported on the wheels... when jacked up the spring relaxes and straightens - you need an inpsection pit or a four-poster for things to be obvious.
Good luck

Thanks for that info guys, I will take a look tomorrw.
Sounds like this could be the answer as I did notice the a mark on the UJ and it is toching the spring.
Let you know more tomorrow.
Thanks Clive V12

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the advise, you are totally correct.

ONE BROKEN SHOCK !

I will now start ordering the bits to replace all shocks,springs,discs and pads.

Thanks again,

Clive V12

I have not heard that broken rear shocks was a problem on S3s and we have two reported in as many weeks!
It would be interesting to know if there is anything common in these instances, i.e.

-what type/make of shocks were they?
-how long had they been in use?
-what type of driving had they experienced (hard driving on twisty lanes, track days etc.)?
- were you aware that something had gone wrong at the time of failure?
- are there any modifications to the rear suspension etc?

Just interested.
Pete

Hi Pete & All,
information so far on broken shock;

I think it has been on the car fron new and therefore standard, no mods,
I have driven the car quite slowly just the odd fast pull away,
The knocking was the first sign of the problem,

I will update you when I strip the back end in a couple of weeks.
Hope this helps.

Clive

Thanks Clive
The shocks don't owe you much then.

Couldnt tell if my broken shock was from new but I doubt it as the suspension had been generally gone over during a reasonably thorough restoration about 5 years ago.

There was no bang when it went and not much difference in the driving behaviour immediately afterwards apart from the knock... but I was not hurling it into corners admittedly. So far as I can tell it went during overtaking at about 60mph.

Harry at Etype uk fixed the problem for me with his customary efficiency and said he had never seen a shock fail like that before, arguing that it is far from a commonplace occurence... intriguing coincidence to see two like that so close together.