Sudden knocking from front wheel

Assuming the wheel nuts are tight, along with every bolt that has been disturbed then probably the anti roll bar bushes are the fault, these are hard to change (read fiddly) so most places don't bother. Either way a good check round will show the fault.

mrcheerful

I did think about anti roll bushes as they have caused a problem before but i only managed to get the passenger side changed as it was a total pain in the backside and i ran out of time. Changing the one bush did seem to solve the rattling problem though.

Would anti roll bush wear be heard when the car is being bounced up and down at the roadside as the car makes a loud tapping sound if i do this.

I would say it is unlikely you would hear the antiroll bar bush by pushing the suspension up and down (although it will show by disconnecting one end of the a/r bar and pulling the bar about). A seized bottom ball joint or something physically loose (wishbone bolts for instance) can be heard by rocking the car.

I would suspect the bush you didn't change though. The trick is to remove the front bolt of the clamp and only loosen the rear one, the clamp can then be lifted enough to get the bush out.

mrcheerful

The biggest problem i had with the anti roll bushes was that the botls holding the clamps down had seized and due to the limmited space i couldn't get anything in to free them up. It must have taken me 4 hours to do the passenger side and by the time i'd got everything back together it was getting dark.

Just seems to be one thing after another with this car as it's also got a radiator hose leak whihc i'm hoping to get sorted today, costing me a bloody fortune.

Thanks for your quick replies though fella.

The hoses are sometimes incorrectly fitted from new, but they become deformed and need replacing.

The antiroll bar bolts respond well to a whack sideways before trying to undo them, plenty of penetrating oil if they are still stiff and work the bolt in and out as if they snap it is seriously difficult to fix.

mrcheerful

The knocking turned out to be one of the nuts that was loose on the link rod, must have been left like that by half arsed mechanic that replaced the flexi hoses when it had it's MOT last week as it was a locking nut and it's fairly hard to turn even with a fairly long spanner.

The leaky radiator hose ended up being the one that was hardest to get to, needed to take the power steering pump out and some other bits to even start to be able to get near it. Due to me having very little patience and it being quite cold today i ended up pouring a bottle of radweld in and it seems to have stopped the leak, i'll do it all properly next weekend when i have a little more time.

Yep, I had a front ARB bush mount bolt go on the celica. Not hard to get at, but would have taken me hours to drill out lying=20 under the car on axle stands.

Took the coawards/thinking mans option. Took it to a bloke who does a=20 lot of my bigger repairs. Up on the ramps, gas axe to get it glowing, to=20 break the seal and burn off the crap.

mig with lots of current for good penetration to build up the end in to=20 something he could get hold of. Big pair of mole grips and some delicate=20 twisting. Out in about 1/2 hour and only cost me =A320

--=20 "Sorry Sir, the meatballs are Orf" The poster formerly known as Skodapilot.