Hi folks,

A story caution and finally repairing it!
I've had a clunk for a while on my GV 2.8crd 2005, steering and going over bumps a crackle noise from the front driver (right) hand side. I've suspected the top mount was on it's way out, but persisted as it looked a tricky job, compressing the spring seems tricky (Two garages told me this in the past, short dumpy springs, most spring compressors don't work great on them, etc) so I left it.

Went on holiday in the Yorkshire Dales, many, many 20% and worse gradients, bumps, single track roads, etc, and of course what happened:



To compare to the other side:




Whoops! So limped the car home carefully and set about fixing it with my Pa this weekend. All in all it was around a 4hr job and that includes a very difficult bolt/nut that took us around 1hr to remove (the bottom of the two holding the strut to the hub) with lots of heat and heaving.

So the basic steps for the job (Sorry, no video or photos this time):

• Remove wiper tray plastic cover (6x star screws)
• Remove wiper tray (4 bolts to chassis, then a set of small nuts along top of the tray)
• Unplug water feed to wiper tray, and wiper motor cable (clip type, to the right when facing rear)
• Try to force/hold the strut up as high as you can. In our case we made a large metal washer, screwed that on the top of the strut so it held the stabiliser in a partially compressed state
• Wheel off
• Anti-roll top joint remove (Tricky as it spins, at the rear of it there is a slot for a spanner to hold it as you undo it)
• Lift the roll-bar joint up so takes pressure off and lets you release it
• Undo two large bolts holding the whole thing to the wheel hub
• Take out top 3 retaining nuts (from where wiper tray sat) so the thing drops out
• Remove it
• Compress the spring, we used 4 spring compressors and varied round the spring to get it as compressed as we could, as didn't know how far it should be compressed
• Remove top nut (hoped for the best we'd compressed it enough!)
• Remove old top mount and replace new one, screw on as far as possible
• Remove spring compressors
• Replace into mount, top 3 retaining nuts back in and put parts back in reverse order

I'm going to do the other side in a week or so (hopefully) so they're both done and a bit of peace of mind now we've done the procedure. Parts were from euro-car parts and are around £55 each (discount codes are all over so you can generally get some more money off).

 

Good job Andyb and practice makes perfection for other peoples Voyagers needing done. (Just joking). So do the top bearings need lubricating prior to fitting or anything.

 

Hi Goggs,

Aye, second bit of practice on passenger side coming up, will try and get some photos though, next best thing to offering a fitting service ;-)

And no, no lubrication needed, they sit on a plastic compression-bearing so just fit dry.

One other thing to note, I still have a slight 'creak' that I think is still driver side, so I think after eliminating this replacement that leaves the anti-rollbar bushes as the next culprit for that particular little noise that a lot of us get.

 

Just did the other side yesterday, this was a tough job. The two large bolts that hold the suspension to the wheel hub were stuck solid. Needed heat, and then finally had to cut them off and replace the bolts.

I've written it all up and included plenty photos which should help if anyone else is foolish enough to try this repair themselves! (It's a tough job, needing spring compressors, a few unusual tools and a lot of patience if the nuts/bolts are tough like on mine).

This DID solve the thuung that I got when turning the wheel (about every quarter turn I was getting a thunnk noise like a noise reverberating through the spring).
This did NOT solve the creaking noises going over bumps, uneven ground, so this must be something else.

Andy Brown's blog: Top suspension mount replacement - Chrysler Grand Voyager

A few photos of the job:

 

Another good job Andy with replacement repair manual. Just wondering if the bolt holes in the hub are slotted enough for adjusting the camber as if they are the suspension leg to hub refit will need to be in same position. Oh and I take it the Thuung is the spring slipping in the mount after winding up.

 

Hi Goggs,
On the bolt holes, the bolts were a tight fit, so no play on them, and as we didn't change the complete mcpherson strut there was no change to the camber, etc.
And yes, I reckon the Thuung was the spring (or damaged top washer/mounting) slipping. So it just shows, that noise that I've heard on both my last two GV's must have been this problem and just waiting to give way completely.

 

Found it thought it happened not too long ago. AndyB our savour. Doesn't look too bad a job with Andy on it.