Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Front end clank

I have been searching the archives for about an hour now and can't find a similar problem. My contour has a clanking noise coming from the driver side front end. It sounds like a loose piece of metal. The car drives straight and handles fine, the noise appears going over short sharp bumps (potholes, sudden changes in pavement). I have looked under the car and can't find anything out of place or loose. What could it be? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome..

I will do both jobs here:

[search nazi] If you looked for an hour, you would have EASILY found PAGES of information on this subject...[/nazi]

[helpful guy]Welcome to CEG.. This is a fairly common problem, and is often caused by a broken spring, or spring perch, which is located fairly high within the suspension system, and can be pretty hard to see, if just "looking".. All can look fine. check further up than you would "normally" look..

Also can be bushings, as well.


Ray

so, what to do about it? i have the same problem, only it is the passenger side.

remove strut and replace said spring or spring perch?

i've never owned a car with coil-overs...

edit!!

ok, just did a search. seems the poor little contour/mystiques suffer from cheap little ball-point pen springs that are prone to breaking. gotta be it. when i bang on the spring, i can replicate the noise my suspension makes when hitting a bump or going over a heave in the road.

this forum rocks.

Can the rear end do this too? I am getting the same noise but its coming from the rear end. Thanks.

sure it can... on the main page (contour.org) then go to FAQ, then common complaints/problems

under (I think) drivability...


Ray