Topic

My TF 135 from 2005 has developped a creaking supension on the left front side. The garage has looked at it: no loose nuts and all balljoints are in good condition. That would leave the shock absorber. The strut looks fine, no leaks, no corrosion, but at the center top nut, near the fusebox, under the bonnet, I can distinctively feel a hard tick when pushing the car up and down to let it creak,
So I removed the strut, lubricated all the rubber bushings, and re-assembled it using copper grease for the nuts and bolts.
But no succes, still creaking.
Next step would be to switch the left and right strut, to see if the creaking moves to the other side. Then it is the strut, otherwise something else in the suspension.
But looking at the strut construction : currently the end of the spring at the lower end is facing inward.
If I switch L &R, the lower side of the spring will be facing outward. I cannot turn te strut 180 degrees, because the lower end of the shock absober is not symmetrical, it only fits one way to the suspension.
So question : are the L+R front struts interchangeable, or is there a specific L and a specficic R version ? I could not find that there is specific L and R on the rave disc. Is there any TF owner, where the lower spring ends face outward ?
Thanks Kind regards Theo

Have you greased your suspension nipples?

Looking on Rimmers site, these are the same part number. Is there a part number stamped on your struts.
Greasing nipples sounds lovely, but don’t get carried away!!

Yes left and right suspension units can be swapped around, while they are off, check the rubber bushes on the shock absorbers and make sure that the plastic dust caps that cover the shock absorber inner shaft are not split or damaged. If so it may be time for new shock absorbers.

Sundance

I greased the nipples a month ago, but I did this again this afternoon, this time I pushed in a large amount with the grease gun. See if it helps. I saw the grease coming out at only the left side of the arm-bearing, should it come out on both sides ? Should it come out at all ?
I removed the surplus grease, 2 colors came out, the surplus grey molybdenum grease I pushed in with the grease gun, and a light color, apparently old grease.
The dust caps on the struts are good, also the rubber top-bushes look good, I greased those with ATE brake grease, a tip I got from the MG garage to grease rubber suspension parts like the anti-rollbar bushes. But when swapping, I will replace the top-bushes with PU ones, to eliminate that possible cause, the rubber bush at the bottom of the strut cannot be replaced I think.
I forgot to look up the part number stamped in at the strut...for replacement I indeed need that, some TF versions have the soft ride struts mounted standard, that is rather essential to know, front and back must have the same : soft ride or non soft ride.

TNJK, I know it was a long time ago but did you get to find out what was causing your creak issue,I have a similar think on my rear O/S .
thanks
Mike

I mouted a set of polybushes on the front shock absorbers. https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-RNF100090LPBR
And when dismounting and mounting the shock absorbers if I remember correctly, I also needed to remove rust on the lower mounting bolt and bush and in general on the springs. Put some grease on the springs and mounting bolts.
So the poly bushes, removing rust and cleaning and greasing solved the issue at that time.

However in the mean time both front suspension arms have been replaced due to MOT. So that will also have helped.
On the rear my TF also has developped a creak, after repairs from the MG garage I took it for the MOT check. The cause of this is a badly performed replacement of the rear suspension arms, but the garage states all is mounted well. So is now an issue to be solved for my legal insurance.

thanks for taking the time to reply, you seem to have replaced the damper top bushes according to that part number.
when you took off your front coil overs to service them did you happen to notice if there was any play in the bottom bush( ball joint) on each one ?
I had one replaced on the offending rear o/s and it is completely stiff ,no play at all .
I am beginning to wonder if the creak is actually in the rear upper arm bush , the part that the damper fits in to ( the long bolt fixing)
thanks
Mike

Hi Mike, if I remember correctly I removed some of rust from the bottom bush and put some grease when mounting. But since then due to MOT's the suspension arms have been replaced. I used to have a garage that said some play in the suspension belongs to an MG and he got away with it in the MOT. But he has retired and other garages use the MOT checklist like the red book of Mao.

But to come back to your initial question : after the latest MOT the garage decided that a new exhaust + cat was needed because the old system had corroded away. Never heard any strange noises, anyway I agreed to the repair. After the repair at every corner and putting down the accellerator, there was a horrible creak coming from what seemed the rear suspension. Rear suspension arm was also renewed, so I expected they did a bad job there.

I went back to complain, and indeed they did a bad job, but with the new exhaust system. The cat was scratching against some suspension bar, so they had to modify the exhaust mounting points a bit to make sure it is hanging freely.
Probably used non-original parts. But that solved the problem,
Now I still have an transmission oil leak, that they had fixed, but still leaks I noticed, I'll make a new topic for that.