found my clunk

[Elekta]

So,

I had this little clunk I could feel in the pedal. If you backed off the throttle suddenly, or jammed on the gas suddenly, you felt a little clunk.

At Sayther's this am for an oil change, first one since the road trip back from Cali, we had the car up had a look around with a pry bar. Motor mounts not much play....looked fine, acted fine. Flex disc, clearly brand new. 6spd tranny mount, clearly brand new....and then A HA....rear subframe bushings...totally shot. Using the pry bar, we could lift the chassis and see the thrashed bushings.

These are the culprits that make me think there is something is up with my new jet. These are the bastids that make the rear end totally come loose after the wagon sets in on a RH sweeper. I mean, I would set into an exit sweeper, finish breaking, get back into the gas, trying to find that balance point between break free and stick, and all of a sudden the rear comes loose and starts to go around, and you have to lift to get it back in line.....but it was always a surprise, not like I had arrived at the break point because of inertia and speed...it was like it was planted into the bushing point, and then jumped out into it's 2 inches of play, and that was all it took to break it free.

I can't wait to see what the new new new to me handling is going to be like.

It was funny how the wrenchies swarm over the S38...they've seen a ton of them, but not the B38, and not in a sta-wag. My answer was always the same.. "nope, it came that way straight out of the box" Yep it's one of maybe 8 in the country


boy that fresh oil made everything a lot smoother and quieter too.

cheers,

geoff
aka Elekta
fka 530iTouring
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/L1000244.jpg

[Paul in NZ]

2 inches of play?Where do you measure that ammount of movement?!

[Elekta]

When the car was up on the lifts, we went around with a pry bar to check the response of all the bushings. We could see the tranny mounts and they were brand new, as was the guibo flex disc. Not really able to see the engine mounts from below, we forced the pry bar to a position of lifting the engine slightly, and it was stiff and therefore good, but when we identified the rear subframe bushings, we were able to lift the body off the subframe to see a split and trashed bushing...and the gap with the pry bar was about 2 inches (straight up) anyway, with that type of play at the rear, clearly that was the weak link under hard acceleration and cornering. Basically the 2" is the length of the carriage bolt that fastens through the bushing to the upper and lower subframe mount.

I didn't take a picture unfortunately, and that's the best my wingman wrenchie description.

hth