I have a noise that comes from the rear nearside when I drive over slightly rough road surfaces. A bit like the noise when the front drop links go.
I've been trying to pin it down for ages, with no success. So today I had a more determined go as the weather was good. And I still failed.
I have remover the dog guard. Removed the parcel shelf. Cleared out the boot completely, including the spare wheel. I have discounted the wooden floor, because the rattle still occurred when I got my wife to drive the car with me sitting on the floor. So it's unlikely to make a noise with my 15 stone on it. Break? Yes. Rattle? No!
I can hear the noise when the rear wheel climbs a small step in the concrete as I drive very slowly away from the parking space, and on uneven "rumbly" surfaces.
It only happenes when driving over a bump. I can't get the noise if I bounce the rear end of the car.
Today I checked the exhaust. It has to be hit really hard before it touches anything and then it makes the wrong sort of noise.
I also checkred the short drop links to the rear anti-roll bar and the bushes look fine. Even and centred.
I thought that I had found the fault. The Hirsch springs at 100,000 miles were not seated at the bottom on anything resilient. If there was a rubber or plastic spring seat, it's gone. When I pressed on the spring it moved in the seat and gave a metal to metal sound that felt about right. So I oiled and greased the seat and I can now move the spring silently. I hoped that I had found it, even though it didn't make a noise when I bounced the car.
Then I went for a drive, and the noise is still there!!
