Noise from all corners

[bill44ellis]

I just purchased a 1979 Spider 2000, three weeks ago, and have been driving it every day since. The car had been garaged for several years, and not driven very much, as far as I can tell. I have service records back to early 1990's, where the mileage show just over 100,000 and the car now shows 141,000 miles. The car handles very nicely and steering and brakes works as they should at this point. My questions is this, when crossing over bumps/pot holes, I am hearing a clunking sound from the corners of the car. Depending on which side the pot hole was on. I have looked underneath and do not see/feel anything that looks wrong. I have been thinking shocks, springs, or just suspension parts. The records show suspension parts replaced in 2007, bushings, ball joints, tie rod ends, with the mileage at about 139,000. Any ideas as to what to look for?

[v6spider]

Check the shock mounts at the top sounds like they may be loose... if that's not it then maybe link bushings in the rear. Front could be sway bar bushings...

Rob

[bill44ellis]

Found the problem over the weekend, passenger side sway bar bushing had come out of the holding bracket. Easy fix.

[bill44ellis]

OK, the major noise maker was repaired. However, I still have smaller sounds, creeks and etc. coming from what I assume is suspension related. If that is true, then it would seem logical to start replacing suspension bushings and so forth. I have some play in the steering, but the car seems to be pretty tight otherwise. Any thoughts on this will be appreciated.

[Daniel]

also check your brake calipers and the rod in the rear for the rear brake compensator if the bushing is missing the
keeps the rod from touch metal ( found this out the hard way ) it will create a rattling noise .

[ga.spyder]

I had similar creaks and groans when I got my car.Most of it was from old,worn shocks.I had to replace bushings and ball joints to get rid of all of it.If you think it feels tight now,wait until you replace those parts.Different car!

[bill44ellis]

Well yesterday I was making a left turn and heard a crunching sound like I had run over something, looked in the rearview and saw nothing. Straightened the car out and the steering wheel was not lined up correctly all of a sudden, off to the right side now. Got home and looked under the car. Right crossmember has broken lose completely from the body/frame, top bolt is in place with part of the crossmember and the two bottom have pulled right out. Guess now that was part of the noises that I was hearing. I see in the post the some have welded this back together, is this a good fix or do I need to replace/repair the crossmember?

[seabeelt]

Depends on the damage and your wallet and your preference of course. Can you post pictures?

If you decide on a new (used) one send me a pm. I think i have one stashed somewhere.
r/

[bill44ellis]

Cannot seem to post my pics, but I have found two local mechanics that have fixed this problem before. Both are aware of the welding issues, no flexibility afterwards. One method is to add two plates, one on top of the subframe and one below and drill holes and use longer bolts thorough both plates. The second and much more expenses was to add a pipe like pieces into the subframe and use that as the supporting part with shorter bolts in the bottom like before. Any thought on this as this is a major problem with this car and I want to do it right the first time. The crossmember has dropped to about an inch to and inch and a half below the subframe.

[azruss]

one of the issues with bolting thru is you can collapse the unibody tube. I have done this using angle iron rather than flat bar. This keeps the factory tube from collapsing.