How To Tighten Up The Front End..?

[Maccer 0]

I'm looking for some opinions on my car. Its got another clunk on the front end somewhere and its all feeling a bit loose and sloppy so this summer I'm basically trying to tighten the front end up a bit.

 

I am thinking of all the rubber in the front end, what can be replaced, what to replace it with, and if it will help or make things worse!

 

I've got in my mind; wishbone bushes, new droplinks, strut top rubbers maybe and some kind of tightening up of the bottom engine mount (but I know I can't live with a brand new BBM group N bottom mount as I've tried one - loved the drive, couldn't hack the noise!)

I should mention that all the engine mounts are new OE Pug items within the last 2 years and nothing else I've mentioned has been touched in the last 4 years I've had the car / ~12,000 miles at least.

 

This car is a standard road car - only thing its got on it is a shortshift bar - want to keep it as standard and quiet as possible!

[Strictly_Derv 34]

Best just replace all the parts with genuine parts or best you can get replacement if you want it stardard TBH.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Anti roll bar bushes, drop links, get it laser aligned, possibly new rack, TRE's....

[Henry Yorke 269 3 Cars]

A strut brace does significantly tighten up the front end handling from my experience. Wishbone bushes are your first bet as they usually perish. Get genuine Peugeot ones, not after market ones or cheap ones from GSF as they are a false economy

[peter 20]

what about the powerflex/superflex type ones? are they no good either?

[Henry Yorke 269 3 Cars]

what about the powerflex/superflex type ones? are they no good either?

Historically there used to be some issues with them and they were not noticably better over the standard Peugeot ones, which were much cheaper.

[kyepan 291]

what about the powerflex/superflex type ones? are they no good either?

poorly designed rubbish, in my personal experience. Standard bushes are bonded to metal inner and outers, far better design.

[tdr_1976 41 1 Cars]

I've been using Poly bushes on my car for over two years now, got them on my TCA's, anti roll bar and on the strut tops.

 

I've done four road rallies, a full championship of doing Autotests and use the car as a daily driver, no problems at all with Poly Bushes for me, and they've done almost 20,000 miles now.

[Maccer 0]

I had looked at the powerflex poly kit but overall opinion on here seemed to sway against them. A mate did buy a rear kit for his mk1 golf and said the fit wasn't particularly good - although he thought the back end did behave better after.

As the OE arbs are poly anyway I guess it makes sense to stay with those.

 

Any opinion on harder strut top rubber on a road car? And also pattern droplinks as Pug want quite a bit for those!

[BlueBolt 156]

Keep an eye out for the RJ drop link thread on here that was started a while ago, should be an update soon according to weeks gone by...

I had to ask Pug to double check they meant nearly £90 each!!! Couldn't actually believe it myself!!!-

The problem with Motorfactor ones is that you get what you pay for if you know what I mean??

[rallysteve 22]

Get Motoquip drop links from a motaquip dealer, i believe these are the same as the OEM ones.

 

Steve

[McDude 33]

Motoquip bones for the win!

 

Ditto to changing all the above - you could go for a Group N (I know - overused and meaningless term) top mount rubber. Would mean you weren't standard, but no one would know. Tightens the feel up without ruining the ride.

[tdr_1976 41 1 Cars]

Poly strut top mounts were the last things I put on my car bush wise, they made the car feel sharper on steering.

 

A must as far as I'm concerned!

[boldy205 75]

Strut brace was the best £15 i spent on mine, and ive spent LOTS of £15 on my car, belive me!

I have had superflex bushes in my wishbones for years now, ok, the car doesnt do many road miles, but gets the crap knocked out of it whenever possable on track days, and they have stood up well to the punishment. Not sure on the road noise, but handling is improved.

[Maccer 0]

So, just got everything ordered up, oe wishbone and arb bushes from pug were £40. Found a Motaquip stockist and got the droplinks for about £12 each how the hell pug can justify £87 each I don't know! Also got the inner tie rods and gaiter kit I need from them.

Going to go for baker bm's top mount rubber as I might as well do the lot while I've got everything off. Looks like I will have one busy weekend when it all turns up!

Just have to sort out the bottom mount now.

[Maccer 0]

Finally got round to this work, took the wishbones off and the ball joint the drivers side was fooooked - think I found the main culprit for my clunks! Lucky it hasn't let go really with the amount of movement that's in it. Bone on the other side looks pretty good, and a new one will now be going on the drivers side, so that's a full wishbone bush kit surplus to requirements!

 

Started to remove the rest of the bits - got the subframe and rest of the front suspension off for a freshen up while I'm in there.

 

 

 

 

Took the opportunity to treat the surface rust around the engine mount fork/front wishbone mount on the subframe

 

 

When I took the ARB off the old bushes looked pretty good - I thought I'd bought another new part pointlessly but up close they had just started to crack around the outer edges - so the new ones are on!

 

 

Nice shiny subframe with red ARB and new bushes!

 

Next was the steering rack - the last MOT had given me an advisory for slight play in one of the inner ball joints. I had it all apart and couldn't feel any play by hand, but the inner ball joints were very 'free' and one of the old gaiters did have a hole in it.

 

 

 

 

Re-greased the rack and rebuilt it with the new track rods, rod ends and gaiters. The other thing I found with the rack was the dust cap on the column end had started to disintegrate - asked Peugeot and the part is no longer available so I had to get creative..

 

 

Seems the top off one of the girlfriend's makeup tins was a pretty good fit! (She was very pleased to help too, especially after I had destroyed the tops of several of her shampoos and conditioners during the search!)

 

 

For the suspension I had bought new top mount bearings and the Baker rubber for the struts. I had thought the old bearings were shot as there was a fair bit of side to side play, so got new ones, then found out they were like that anyway. After a bit of internal wrangling I put the new ones in and decided I would keep the old ones for an 'emergency'. (They would join the pile of other old sh1te that I have not brought myself to throw away!)

 

 

Continuing the colour scheme the struts were painted red and black too which I really like. Only wish I had more time to let everything dry properly before having to fit it (as I need to get the car out of my long suffering friend's lockup). Using the spring compressors to get the struts back together chewed most of the paint off the springs as it's only a couple of days old, so I had to re-touch everything once it was back together. Think the plan will be to nurse it home as gently as possible avoiding all stones, pebbles, grit and dust, then leave it to dry outside for a week!

[Alan_M 66 1 Cars]

Checked the hub bearings and if the holes aren't ovalled?

 

I'd hate to put all that together to find the distinct vagueness associated with both the above!

[Maccer 0]

Got it all done and back on the road. (The hubs and bearings were fine btw!)

 

Put a new bone on the driver's side, along with the new droplinks, genny disks and EBC greenstuff pads that I also had bought a while ago for an occasion such as this.

 

 

 

Went and got the tracking done this morning then took it out for a hoon. I think of all the bits I've done the strut top rubber is the bit that's made the most difference. The old rubbers were really, really soft - it used to lurch/roll into the initial part of a hard corner and then feel quite twitchy on the exit but it is much more solid now. No massive change in road noise either. Thumbs up for those.

 

I think the rest of the bits I replaced are just piece of mind really as they didn't actually need doing, apart from the brakes as the pads were low. The slight play in the steering is still there - it's in the rack, so my MOT place got that bit wrong, but hey. Pretty happy and it is all nice and shiny now!