Minxy
LIFE MEMBER
- Aug 22, 2007
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- MH
- Carthago Compactline
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- Since 1996, had Elddis/Swift/Rapido/Rimor/Chausson MHs. Autocruise/Globecar PVCs/Compactline i-138
There appears to be a 'fault' with the front suspension on some of the current incarnation of Fiat/Citroen (and probably Peugeot) based motorhomes and PVCs.
Our 2012 reg Fiat based PVC developed a 'clunk' on the front offside whenever we went over a bump, pothole etc (even small ones) which sounded like it came from the suspension, however, we couldn't find anything obviously wrong so we took it in to Fiat to have a shuftie and they found that the bump stop was faulty. The bump stops are like large doughnuts which go over the suspension damper rod within the outer spring.
We took it into Fiat today to get it sorted but had had to wait over 2 weeks for the part to arrive from Italy!
With help from another forum I was able to establish what the actual 'fault' was beforehand so that when we picked it up it was confirmed by what the Fiat chap explained, namely that the bump stop was too loose on the R/H front suspension so the clunk noise we had been hearing was due to it being able to move around on the rod rather than it being held tightly at the top of it. Basically when we went over a pothole the bump stop, which was sitting at the base of the suspension rod was being pushed up by the suspension and the clunk was caused by it hitting the top plate. When we took it in I asked them to check the L/H one and it was much tighter so didn't drop down out of position, hence why we hadn't had a problem with it also.
The Fiat chap said they'd had 'one or two' of these, so it is a known problem by some garages (others seem to be unaware) and it makes me wonder why such a 'simple' part as a bump stop (possibly also known as a jounce bumper?) had to come all the way from Italy ... perhaps there are more vans affected that they're letting on and they ran out of the parts in this country, hence the need for the part to be sent from Italy. It was done under warranty however one chap who has a Citroen based PVC reg in April 2012 was told that it wasn't covered as it was a 'wear and tear' part even though he'd covered less than 6,000 miles! This was in the end paid for by his dealer but it should have been covered by Citroen's warranty as a faulty part.:Angry:
I'd advise anyone with a similar 'clunk' to get it seen to and also if you're van is going in for a service etc anyway, ask them to double check just to be safe - if this had happened whilst we were on holiday we'd have been stuck for a long time!!!
Our 2012 reg Fiat based PVC developed a 'clunk' on the front offside whenever we went over a bump, pothole etc (even small ones) which sounded like it came from the suspension, however, we couldn't find anything obviously wrong so we took it in to Fiat to have a shuftie and they found that the bump stop was faulty. The bump stops are like large doughnuts which go over the suspension damper rod within the outer spring.
We took it into Fiat today to get it sorted but had had to wait over 2 weeks for the part to arrive from Italy!
With help from another forum I was able to establish what the actual 'fault' was beforehand so that when we picked it up it was confirmed by what the Fiat chap explained, namely that the bump stop was too loose on the R/H front suspension so the clunk noise we had been hearing was due to it being able to move around on the rod rather than it being held tightly at the top of it. Basically when we went over a pothole the bump stop, which was sitting at the base of the suspension rod was being pushed up by the suspension and the clunk was caused by it hitting the top plate. When we took it in I asked them to check the L/H one and it was much tighter so didn't drop down out of position, hence why we hadn't had a problem with it also.
The Fiat chap said they'd had 'one or two' of these, so it is a known problem by some garages (others seem to be unaware) and it makes me wonder why such a 'simple' part as a bump stop (possibly also known as a jounce bumper?) had to come all the way from Italy ... perhaps there are more vans affected that they're letting on and they ran out of the parts in this country, hence the need for the part to be sent from Italy. It was done under warranty however one chap who has a Citroen based PVC reg in April 2012 was told that it wasn't covered as it was a 'wear and tear' part even though he'd covered less than 6,000 miles! This was in the end paid for by his dealer but it should have been covered by Citroen's warranty as a faulty part.:Angry:
I'd advise anyone with a similar 'clunk' to get it seen to and also if you're van is going in for a service etc anyway, ask them to double check just to be safe - if this had happened whilst we were on holiday we'd have been stuck for a long time!!!