1st Daft Question.

[Martin R]

I picked up my first Lotus on Saturday, an S1 111s. What can i say but It has however led to my first daft question. At low speed there is a light tapping when going over drain covers, potholes etc. This appears to be coming from the front suspention. It all but disapears at higher speeds I think i read some where this could be coming from a dryly assembled front roll bar. Is this true ? Your comments would be much appreciated. Ta in advance.

[Steve J]

I know S1 suspension can knock as dampers are not the best quality. Try a bit of WD40 (worked on my S2 dampers).

 

I'm sure an S1 owner will post other things soon.

 

Cheers

[Mark H]

Could be the brake pads moving in the calipers as well I guess, always used to get tapping on my 111s until I put some buffers on the pads to stop them moving about.

[Mark H]

Good test is to lightly press the brakes and see if the noise stops.

[ipanter]

I had a regular, tapping noise coming from my front end that disappeared when the wheels were turned, did my head in for months trying figure out what it was.

 

Then I took the car to Horizon to get the sqeaking anti-roll bar sorted, when i picked the car up from Mike he said to me that what he had done would also sort out the tapping noise, which i had actually forgotten to mention to him.

 

So there is a good chance, if i have interpreted your description of the noise correctly, that is what it is.

[ally]

Ian, if it were the roll bar wouldnt it tap at high speeds as well????

[ipanter]

it probably did, just couldn't hear it, as it was a fairly gentle knock.

[ally]

Thats what i love about Loti, if it starts making a niose just drive the car harder and you wont hear it any more, problem solved!

[steve]

It does sound like the suspension to me. Mine was the same - low speed sound like billiard balls knocking together. Sound familiar???

 

The only reason that its only at low speeds is that there are louder noises to hear when going faster. There is nothing wrong with them and if you can put up with the noise, they will be fine. Its probably a good idea to check out the above things first though.

 

There is no real fix apart from new suspension. I put some second hand S2 suspension on which was reasonable and a whole lot better than the original S1 stuff - not just removing the noise.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Steve

[ipanter]

I had those billiard ball cluncks too, but again after Horizon had worked their magic, all gone!

[Martin R]

Billard balls knocking together, sums it up to perfection. next stop Horizon, im only about 10 mins away, thanks all.

[Mark H]

Billiard ball noise deffo suspension

[Steve J]

I've heard that the S1 suspension is a little harsh but I didn't know they made your balls knock together like billiards

[GCCK]

You only hear them because S1 owners have bigger balls...

[Steve J]