Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

I have a 2001 Gen3 LWB. I have a knocking sound coming from somewhere on the front suspension? It sounds complete like a loose battery, not very loud but subdued and extremely irritating, it even happens on a smooth tar road with small bumps and corrugations. I have changed the front shocks, the stabilizer mounting rubbers as well as the stabilizer control links. I now suspect the upper and lower arm ball joints. The engine also seems very loose on its mountings, shakes violently sometimes when starting and stopping, could it be engine mountings, can they be changed without taking the engine out?

Any sugestions as I am clueless as to what the problem could be.

Have you checked for play on your front drive shafts where they go into the hub and front diff?

4epikanini had a bearing disintegrate in the shaft that disconnects out of the front diff, might be that?

Also check upper and lower strut(coil spring/shock assembly) mountings, I had some play on the one strut where the shock bolted through the upper mount, causing a terrible clunking when going over little bumps. Check for loose brake callipers, check that the anti rattle clips are fitted to the brake pads.

Good luck, I know how frustrating it is and you end up swapping parts till the noise goes away, which costs packet!

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Nick, I have Ironman suspension fitted and they replaced both front skocks and checked the complete installation about a year ago. I have checked everything you have mentioned except for the drive shafts. I drive this Pajero from day one and it has less than 160k kilos on the clock, never done any serious offraod or water crossing with it. I have replaced the front wheelbearing hubs about 40k kilos ago. I am afraid that replacing parts one by one seems to be the only cure. Met a guy at MM Brooklyn once and he was replacing the bottom ball joints on the front, the boots ruptured and water made a mess of them with lots of play. Mine still seems to be fine but difficult to check for play.

Sounds a bit like the bushes on the stabaliser bar.

This is what I'm referring to

I recall Duncan (Transkei Cowboy) had something similar, and it turned out to be the shock absorber bolts being just a fraction to small (diameter).

eloffmare wrote:Nick, I have Ironman suspension fitted and they replaced both front skocks and checked the complete installation about a year ago. I have checked everything you have mentioned except for the drive shafts.

The Ironman shocks do have a reputation for the shock mounting bushings failing / going soft. There are many posts about this from people who have had Ironman systems installed.

I would suggest that you check this and don't just assume that they are OK because they were only installed one year ago.

RleR, as per my original post, I have changed both the stabilizer bar bushes and links on Monday this week. Same noise.

4eP, I doubt very much that that would be the problem. When you fit the shock the tube that runs thru the rubber bush at the bottom of the shock actualy gets pinched between the mounting flanges on the bottom arm when the bolt is tightened so any play between the bolt and the mounting tube will have no effect. It is the friction between the tube and the flanges that keeps the shock in place, the bolt merely acts as a fastener.

AA, Initially we thought that the collapsed bottom bushes, as you mention, on the IM shocks were the culprits. IM replaced the bushes on both the shocks with the upgraded bushes but the problem persisted. They then replaced both shocks at their cost as well, that still did not fix the problem, the current new shocks have done about 6K kilos since then and the bushes are as new.

Still the problem persists and am I searching for a solution

A noise can be identified either by isolation or elimination.

Since you cannot isolate the noise, start eliminating possible sources.

• Remove the front shocks, and check if noise still exists.
• Disconnect the anti-sway bar, and check again

Unfortunately you cannot remove control arms and ball joints, but by the above method you can narrow your search down.

go to a dekra roadworthy station and ask them to put the car through the suspension stress test and have a look.