Hierarchy of suspension thuds, and knocks

Hi All,
The last couple of times out in the MG I’ve noticed the dreaded thud of what sounds suspiciously like the beginnings of a worn bush. Is there list of the usual suspects in ascending order of cost and ease of access for the front? ARBs, drops maybe?
It’s very timely as I’ve just finished this with the Freelander. That turned out to be a lower arm front bush bolt 3mm out from the arm ‘plate’ it should have been tight against.
Cheers,
Michael.

I suggest that you Jack the car up one corner at a time and using a pry bar check for any movement or soft bushes. I replaced every bush and ball joint during refurbishment and it was still very noisy, a second four wheel alignment vastly reduced the knocking noise. New polybushes for the engine mounts because the exhaust down pipe knocks the subframe on severe bumps.

Something you might consider looking at is the pinch bolt on the front lower ball joint.
These are not always replaced with the correct bolt, which are partially threaded, the cylindrical portion indexing with the machined indent in the stub.
These can be notoriously difficult to remove, accompanied by banging, thumping, expletive & in the last resort, the drill. The end result is a mangled mess, or swarf!
Replacements are sometimes fully threaded bolts which fail over time as the less resilient thread form disappears. This results in mysterious clunks from the car in general & not just from the from the front end.
This problem can also manifest itself as progressively worsening wandering in the steering.
It’s not bad practice to have a couple of proper replacements about you & to supply if you have suspension work done by a third party or to use yourself if the “shops are closed “.
M

Thanks to you both for your replies. As you can see below , I’ve got the rear end off the ground as part of my preparation for a replacement post cat O2 sensor coming this week, I thought I’d better get WD40ing the one installed. While having a good look round that area spotted this:





Both sides, rear ARB drop links. Not that I think these are the cause of the aforementioned thuds but obviously they’ll need attention and as the MOT is back end of next month I’d like to get them fixed beforehand. Got both bolts freed off but the lower bolt won’t come out due a certain brake disc being in the way. So, I presume the disc has got to come off, or if I chop/grind said bolt can the replacement be fitted from the back. I’m guessing no to that.
Seems I’ve got some work ahead of me, together with similar thuds from my Freelander plenty of experience changing drop links (they’re coming this week too).
Regards,
Michael.

Been getting some knocking from the front o/s for a while, got the dreaded grinding from the wheel bearing and as I had new discs all round ready to go and my usual specialist not being available decided to take the car off the road for a bit and do this work with the lad as a bit of learning.

Saw the drop link rubbers didn't look great so added them to the list and found the centre had 'welded' itself to the bolt as shown in the picture.

Currently trying to remove it but why is nothing ever as easy as it shoudl be :lol:

Hope your job is going smoother and would be interesting to hear what the root cause of yours was

Hi AJ,
Apologies for the late reply, not been able to access the site, apparently my IP address was supposedly on a scam database!
Regards the knocking etc, it seems to have disappeared. However my mind has been focused on a new cat and two O2 sensors to get it through the MOT, a cracked plastic rear screen and a zip that’s fallen apart. Never rains, just pours…..
Cheers,
Michael.