donsrno1
11-07-2008, 20:26
I've got a bit of a problem with the passenger side balljoint on the hybrid. Where its normally fixed by the pinch bolt it keeps coming loose so that it can move a little from one side to the other, the ball joint itself is kept in the hub by the groove that the pinch bolt slots into but there is a bit of movement there.
This happened before so I replaced the ball joint and torqued everything up correctly. I then checked it every few days for a couple of weeks and it was fine. However I started to hear a clunking noise when I was going over speed bumps recently and so I re-checked it (probably a couple of months since I replaced the B/Joint first time) and its come loost again. Has anyone any ideas as to what could be causing this?
The first time it happened I had not long since lowered the car and I have a feeling that it may be to do with the car being so low and my area being littered with speed bumps. In order to get over them I have to go over one side of them so that one side of the car is on the road and the other goes over the centre of the speed bump. The reason I think this might be part of the problem is that its only when I go over speedbumps that I can hear any noise to indicate that the balljoint has come looses.
Anyway, has anyone else had anything like this or have any suggestions as to what I could try to solve the problem? When I was looking at it it looked as though the actual pinch bolt had not turned at all so as to loosen and when I removed and re-tightened it the ball joint seemed fine again. It had occured to me to try changing the hub itself but I don't know if that would be likely to be a possible cause of the problem?
Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated.
This happened before so I replaced the ball joint and torqued everything up correctly. I then checked it every few days for a couple of weeks and it was fine. However I started to hear a clunking noise when I was going over speed bumps recently and so I re-checked it (probably a couple of months since I replaced the B/Joint first time) and its come loost again. Has anyone any ideas as to what could be causing this?
The first time it happened I had not long since lowered the car and I have a feeling that it may be to do with the car being so low and my area being littered with speed bumps. In order to get over them I have to go over one side of them so that one side of the car is on the road and the other goes over the centre of the speed bump. The reason I think this might be part of the problem is that its only when I go over speedbumps that I can hear any noise to indicate that the balljoint has come looses.
Anyway, has anyone else had anything like this or have any suggestions as to what I could try to solve the problem? When I was looking at it it looked as though the actual pinch bolt had not turned at all so as to loosen and when I removed and re-tightened it the ball joint seemed fine again. It had occured to me to try changing the hub itself but I don't know if that would be likely to be a possible cause of the problem?
Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated.