300M suspension (what's the likely cause of knocking, cost to repair, etc)

My '00 300m has just turned 100k (km) or 62k miles (vast majority in city driving). I guess that's about 10k miles per year. Some significant periods were spent driving over road sections that were undergoing lengthy re-construction. Over time I've been noticing/feeling increasing knocking coming from the front end. Driving for a few months with a badly warped front rotor(s) I'm sure didn't help.

So while the steering still seems very tight, the knocking has to do with driving over un-even pavement, dips, etc. It's not really noticable unless you pay keen attention (it can be hard to separate it from general road noise). While I'm familliar with and have worked on late 1960's C-body suspension and early 70's B-body suspension, I'm not familliar at all with the suspension configuration of a 300M.

What is the most likely suspension part(s) that is wear-prone that is probably causing this knocking? Ball Joint? And what does a dealer typically charge to replace it/them ?

Reply to
MoPar Man
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I would agree with what Glenn said, but would add that also worn out sway bar bushings will cause the same exact symptoms. The auto parts stores have good aftermarket parts - TRW and or Moog end links ($20 to $40 each) and bushings ($10/pair IIRC). About 2-3 hours total to replace all of them for the DIY'er.

For the bushings, there are two different sizes of sway bars and bushings on the LH cars - would be best to measure the actual diameter of the sway bar before going to the parts store. Have the dimension in both inches and metric (measure in one, then convert inches to mm by multiplying by 25.4, or divide by 25.4 to go from mm to inches).

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

How about $15 in parts and the Chrysler dealer will know which ones fit your car so you don't need to get dirty before you begin. Should take about 1/2 hour to replace both and all you might want to do is raise the front of the car slightly (ramps are preferred because dangling the wheels is not a natural attitude for the suspension parts and may actually frustrate your work) to get to the bolts.

If this doesn't work and you have no clear reason to think it's something else, move out to the end links. You'll get a good idea how tight, or loose, they are when you have the bushings out. Just because they're not providing much resistance, shouldn't be construed as worn out. If, however, one end or the other is just plain sloppy you'll know where to go next. These should be about $35 each aftermarket (O'Reilly's or similar).

Reply to
RCSnyder

Use the group page of

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to search this group for the word "clunk". You will find an interesting history of my dealer experiences trying to get a clunk out of a 99 300M.

Reply to
Art

Except the aftermarket bushings last a lot longer. However you could have the dealer look up to see which sway bar and bushings you have so you know whether to get the larger- or smaller-holed bushings. If you have access to the parts list, like thru the 300M Club or something, you can see whether that part number is the larger or smaller sway bar (i.e., for standard or heavy-duty suspension).

Probably optimistic - the bolts are hard to turn (interference fit) and long - a lot of hard wrench twisting, and probably not enough room to get powerful enough air tools in there. I estimate a good hour, hour and a half, start to finish for the two bushings.

The bushing bracket bolts would be very hard to get to with the wheels in the way - you need a straight shot into the bushing area to get to those bolts, so the wheels need to come off. The bolts are made to be interference fit to the nuts, and it takes a lot of torque to get them in and out. Using ramps, the wheels will definitely be totally in the way and frustrate you. Having both wheels hanging down relieves the sway bar stress - it's only when one wheel is up and the other down that you have problems due to stress being transferred into the bushings and end links while you are trying to remove/install them.

Reply to
Bill Putney

Yes Art, I've been reading those as they were posted.

I'm going to assume for the moment that my issue is sway-bar related. We'll see.

Yesterday I bought (from Canada Tire) a sway bar link kit - identical to what Bill Putney was showing here:

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Mine is the TRW unit (no grease fitting). I think it was $36 (CDN, or about $31 USD).

I was also going to pick up one of those Chilton's (or what-ever) books on the 300m, but Crappy Tire didn't have anybooks on the newer LHS cars (post-1997). I guess there's not much "do-it-yourself" being done on those cars to warrant them to carry it.

I have no idea where the thing I bought is located (or if the car has just one, or two of them) but when I get the car jacked up and have a look I suppose I'll be able to spot it easy enough.

Reply to
MoPar Man

Likely. If not the end links (the parts you just bought), then sway bar bushings - easy to install and about $10 for the pair.

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You can get instant gratification by purchasing an on-line subscription specific to your vehicle (using the VIN) thru

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- $25 for first vehicle, first year, $15 for any additional vehicles or annual renewals. Info. is better than Chiltons because it is right out of the FSM, includes all schematics - again, specific to your vehicle. Plus you get access to all TSB's for you car with the subscription.

There are two - one behind each front wheel - oriented vertically - one end attaches to sway bar, other end to the strut - can't miss them once you remove the front wheels. Jack both front sides of car up at the same time and remove front wheels. Jacking only one wheel up at a time will put stress on the sway bar and make it difficult/impossible for you to get the links on and off.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

LOL!

Art, I was just thinking of your situation. It seems you were the first and appears, not the last, to get this problem. So, is this what I can expect :-(

Ken

Reply to
NJ Vike

Stabilizer bar end-links are the usual culprits on LH cars. other possibilities are tie-rod ends, lower ball joints, and the McPherson strut bearings at the top of the strut (not too commonly a problem).

Stabilizer bar end-links are trivially easy on those cars- you really should do them yourself before taking it in to a front-end shop for work.

Reply to
Steve

As well as sway bar bushings.

For what the end links cost ($20-40 each x 2), you might as well spend an additional $10 on a pair of aftermarket bushings and replace them while you have the car jacked up and the wheels off for the end links.

IMO...

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

Bill,

You're right. It's been a few years since I worked on my (now long gone)

300M so I pulled the Haynes down off the shelf and peaked at Chapter 10. Great picture on 10-9 showing the bolts. They definitely do go down from the top.

I probably put mine on jack stands and pulled the wheels to get them out of the but I don't remeber it being a difficult job at all. Probably spent more time messing with elevating the car and pulling the wheels than ermoving the retainers.

Oh, anyone who wants to Paypal me $10 can have the low-mileage Haynes #25026 to which I referred. It claims to cover 1998 thru 2000 models (and probably more of the LH platform LHS, 300M, Concorde and Intrepid).

I might have the VHS mentioned on other posts if someone is really interested. I'd have to root around a bit, but it's probably here somewhere.

Bob Liberty MO

Reply to
RCSnyder

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