Hi 

first post ! I picked up a new Fiat Bravo 120T-Jet Sport last week.Where I live there are alot of speed tables/ humps and I've noticed that when going over them relatively slowly there is a noticeable "clunk" from the front suspension. There is no noise on normal roads, just larger bumps/ depressions. Even saying, doesn't sound normal to me. Anyone else experienced this ? Took it back to the dealer and they couldn't identify anything noticeably wrong.

thanks

 

Is it the front suspension or the hump hitting the under carriage ?

Yes, sort of...it's not a proper knocking noise, but there is a noise (like a soft knocking/squidging sort of sound)...only happens when I go over speed bumps...sounds like the nose is just nudging the ground, but on closer inspection there is no evidence of the nose hitting the deck.

I thought it was my wheels - perhaps the nuts were loose - but nope.

There isn't any evidence of the underside of the car hitting the ground at all...can't tell what it is and I put it down to just a 'feature' of the suspension system.

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The Quest for Singletrack is Endless

that's exactly what it sounds like- it does sound as if the front end is touching the road but I also have checked and it isn't. I've also heard it whn hitting larger depressions on open road, albeit very infrequenty (as I try to avoid them). You may be right, it may be just a feature of the suspension system. I only had concern as I've not experienced it on other cars and it didn't sound normal. Think I'lll just put the radio up louder ! I do the like the car though.

Thanks

Interesting how its sport model people with this issue....

My car has the same noise, a 1.4 Tjet sport, and it happens when going over rough patches of tarmac (plenty of these in the glasgow area) or with speed bumps. The noise is a light clunk and is high on the passenger side. I guess it only affects the sport models with the harder suspension and I think the noise is actalluy from the strut top bush.  Ive been meaning to have a good look at it and maybe even jack the car up to see what it could be.  I think it is a design issue rather than something wrong with your particular car.  It could be a mismatched bush type to coil spring or something like that.

 The noise is not any worse 12000 miles later and that includes the worst pot hole hit I have ever encountered in a car in which the steering wheel got pulled out of my hands - luckily there was no damage done.

 This is the only irritation we have with our excellent car.

 FIAT customer services - do you have any comment - you must know of this problem!

I get the impression the noise is coming from the driver's wheel...also it isn't a clunk I'm hearing...it is much softer than that...I suspect it is the same thing, but it might be speed related i.e. the slower you go the softer the noise?

Not driven round Glasgow much in it, when in Weegieland, we tend to take the family bus so the Sport doesn't see much of Weegie or Auld Reekie...see plenty of countryside though!

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The Quest for Singletrack is Endless

it's strange as intially I thought that it was coing from the drivers side, but sometimes I think it's the passenger side. I can only conclude that it's both sides it's coming from. Strangely, I'm encouraged by the fact that others have experienced the same thing. Seems to indicate a design rather than build quality issue.

Just got my car back last night after getting the side skirt on the drivers side resprayed incidentally- was scratched when I collected it from the garage a coupleof weeks ago. Just going to check the match !

Hi there Sydney. Just read your query and a number of the responses you've had. Regarding the suspension clunk, I also had this on my November 2008 registered Bravo T-Jet Sport and to be honest, hadn't thought too much of it. Over the Christmas holidays I took the car to my local Fiat dealer, because the car has a fairly strong smell of fuel around the engine compartment. When I went to collect the car, although they hadn't been able to locate or fix the fuel smell problem, they did tell me that they'd replaced some of the suspension bushes. As I hadn't even mentioned the clunking to the dealer I thought it was great that they'd identified it and fixed it themselves. And since then I've not noticed any suspension clunk whatsoever. So it might be worth just having your car checked by your local dealer. With regards to the slight scraping noise when going over speed humps etc. Underneath the front bumper and about 20-30 cm back from the front of the car is a 'splitter' which is a piece of plastic which drops down about 4-5cm. It might be this that's causing this noise. I've caught this once and althought there's was a quite horrible sounding noise, there was no damage caused to it. Cheers, Jason 

Hi everyone, I have an 07 bravo sport T-Jet and low and behold I have the same knocking problem! I have had it since October 08, the dealer has had a look and says that 'nothing looks loose'! I saw the service history of the car and it has had all the recalls including the suspension recall that VOSA published. The funny thing with the garage 'inspection' after I got the car back the radio was quite loud (which I had turned off before leaving the car) so obviously they weren't doing a thorough job!

My 'knock' is on speed bumps, even if I go slow, on pot holes, dips in the road, and more recently when I turn a tight corner on unven (not bumpy) road surfaces. So this is obviosuly a problem with these cars, Fiat you need to look into this, feel free to come and inspect my car!!!! Take it away for a week if need be, just stop it from knocking!

 My car is coming up to 20K and when I take the car in for another service (next month) I will get them to look again, but I am not holding my breath...............  

I picked up my 2.0 Multijet Sport 165 a few weeks ago and have noticed a slight knocking noise of speed bumps. As it is only over speed bumps I'm not too worried and put it down to the bushes/bump stops etc reaching their maximum travel due to the harsh nature of the hump.

I have also caught that splitter thing a couple of times which is alarming. The front is so low, and front wheels set back so far it doesn't seem to be avoidable. I'm too scared to inspect the damage on a 3 week old car...!! I'm just saying to myself its not visibile so try and forget about any scrapes on it. I'm sure it won't be too hard to replace eventually too!

 

 

after the car being in the dealer now for a total of 9 days in 8 weeks for the problem, they finally appear to have rectified it (touch lots of wood !). 3 weeks ago, they had the car in for 3 days and replaced a good few parts which improved the situation but did not eradicate it. Back in this Wednesday and got the car back today (Saturday). They have replaced more parts (the whole front suspension must have been replaced by now !) and early indications are that the problem has been sorted, although I've only driven about 15 miles since picking it up.

Here's hoping that that's the end of it and I can start enjoying the car.  

I have to say that my exerience with the dealer has been aweful (I'm not talking about the time taken to rectify the problem, just their very poor customer service- I won't go into details as it would take too long), only saved by their senior Fiat technician who has personally been great in dealing with the problem.

All in all, it's been so frustrating- especialy since my Mitsubish trade-in was 5.5 years old, circa 80k on the clock and the only thing that ever went wrong with it in that time was a defective battery after 2 years which the dealer replaced immediately.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you too. 

Shelley

Hi Sydney, do you know what they changed? Could you let me know please? It gives me more ammunition for my trip to the dealer!

 

Cheers,

 Ian

Ian,

not entirely sure of everything as they are aweful at explaining it what they have done. I know that they have replaced the antiroll bar, struts, shock aborbers and bushes (is there much else ?!!). However, after all that, the problem is back, loud and clear !! In fact, it is worse than it was before it went in for 4 days the week before last.

I have now had the car at the dealers for 11 days since I got it 2 months ago (that's about 20% of the time I have owned it !) and it's still not fixed. I have written to the dealer now rejecting the car under the Sale of Good Act as they have had ample opportunity to sort it.

Good luck !

 Brian

Dear Sydney,

Thank you for contacting The Fiat Forum and making us aware of your concern.

Please call our Customer Relations Team on freephone 00800 3428 0000 to log your query and then we can look to assist you.

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Fiat Customer Relations