Hey OmegaBaron just wondering if your just changing shocks for MOT or for a proper fix/repair. Just 'cause some oil weep from shocks is okay for mot so long as damping is not affected, i.e. bounce the corner if the car keeps on bouncing then its knackared, if goes up and down once or twicw then it should be a pass with advise, creaking top mounts same applies pass with advise, to check jack car up that corner,not to high a couple of inches, with suspension hanging free, on Vectras in fact most Vx there will some up and down movement when a lever bar is placed between tyre and ground and gentle up and down movement on bar to raise and lower strut assembly,also looking for lifting in bottom ball joint. if loads of movement down to experience of mot tester but should still be pass and advise. To check free movement raise both wheels off ground, grab one wheel at 3 and 9 o'clock and turn steering pushing at 3 o'clock and pulling at 9 o'clock then reverse action and turn steering fully the other way. If action is smooth but noisy then again pass and advise if jerky and feels like its catching check to make sure spring not broken, if okay disconnect track rod from strut and repeat steering action on the wheel. If jerkyness gone fault is in rack not strut mount.
If fault still there disconect a/roll bar drop link and repeat, if noise goes fault is in drop link and not top mount, if fault still there fault is in top mount.
Sounds long winded but doesn't take long.
But if your replacing struts anyway with that sort of mileage i would replace top mounts. If you still have castellated nuts and split pins worth replacing with nyloc nuts, that way you don't have to worry about getting old split pins out and can just crack nuts and break split pins.
Hope any of this helps m8te, i'm sure someone on this site will have more specific details for you about Veccy's
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Topic: Help required diagnosing steering noise (Read 1241 times)