Something's fallen off!!

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sabrje
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Post Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:52 pm

Driving to work this morning I noticed a quiet knocking sound on my touring which increased in frequency as speed increased. It was coming from behind me somwhere. As my journey is only a few miles I thought I'd wait until I got to work to have a look. Anything above 40 mph drowned out the sound anyway.... :mad:

However, about a mile further on at 50 mph there was a clunk and a tinkling sound and I looked in my mirror to see a piece of debris just missing the following Merc :oops: whilst bouncing down the road. Needless to say, I stopped, checked under the car and the went back to see if I could find the debris - nada. Must be deep in the undergrowth :x

I drove carefully to work and couldn't feel or hear anything different. (Apart from the lack of knocking noise!!! :) I had another look underneath at lunchtime and still can't see anything obvious. I didn't jack it up though.

Does anyone have any idea what could have fallen off and whether its safe to drive home tonight??? My thoughts are - prop shaft centre mount or rear anti-roll bar clamp - but surely a lack of either of these would be obvious when driving.

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JOSEMI
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Post Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:00 pm

blimey fella, that IS quite worrying,

on top of my head things that may have fallen are the exhaust mounts, the oil filter, or any other parts from the engine although you said a noise from the rear part (unlikely but possible !), a badly welded patch, the exhaust cover (metal blanket between the exhaust and the car)...

Good luck in your haunt for the missing parts !

Jose
bigdek
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Post Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:03 pm

that happened to me years ago in an old 2.8 granada.

the bloody starter fell of on a dual carriageway 8O
JOSEMI
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Post Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:05 pm

bigdek wrote:that happened to me years ago in an old 2.8 granada.

the bloody starter fell of on a dual carriageway 8O
Lol sorry guys it does sounds funny, bits falling off the car while driving, what a moment of fear hey !!

Jose
Gwynleym10
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Post Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:06 pm

Might have been nothing to do with the car, just some bit of litter..tin can or something which had got stuck and finnaly got loose.

Likely to be an exhaust bracket or heat shield.

Wasn't a centre cap was it?
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sabrje
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Post Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:18 pm

Gwynleym10 wrote:
Wasn't a centre cap was it?
Nah - that was my first thought. I also thought about litter as well. From what I could tell from a small item dissappearing behind me at 50 mph it looked like flat plate about 5-10 long and I think it had a hole in it.

Blimey, my eyesight is good! Either that or it terribly bad and it was infact a large rodent!!
Last edited by sabrje on Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Steviec
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Post Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:18 pm

I had something similar on my MK1 Astra GTE, I saw the item bounce across the road! It turned out to be the horn. It got quite some height aswell!!