Club 80-90 Forums

I have just brought a 1983 devon pop top 1.9 WBX 5 speed with 98,000 on the clock. It has developed a loud knocking sound from the rear drivers side wheel, it only happens when under acceleration and drops off when you dip the clutch. It came on over night and sounds quite bad at times, so i have taken it to my local garage. I thought it could be the CV joints and have asked for both on either side to be done as well as the gearbox oil to be changed. The garage has not got back to me yet and i am now begining to worry. Anyone know of a honest VW specialist near colchester/maldon in essex. Help anyone Karl

Hi and welcome Sounds like cv joint to me....

Make sure the garage get the right ones.. .available from GSF with 10% club discount

easy to change, could you not do it your self?

start by regreasing you may get another 10000 miles out of them

karl40 wrote:Anyone know of a honest VW specialist near colchester/maldon in essex. Help anyone Karl

John Austin - look him/them up

[quote="karl40"]I have just brought a 1983 devon pop top 1.9 WBX 5 speed with 98,000 on the clock. It has developed a loud knocking sound from the rear drivers side wheel, it only happens when under acceleration and drops off when you dip the clutch. It came on over night and sounds quite bad at times, so i have taken it to my local garage. I thought it could be the CV joints and have asked for both on either side to be done as well as the gearbox oil to be changed. The garage has not got back to me yet and i am now begining to worry. Anyone know of a honest VW specialist near colchester/maldon in essex. Help anyone Karl

Thanks everyone for getting back so soon, its nice to know i am not alone. I did have a last edition beetle which i did most of the work on, but was worried she might have to have a new gear box. I would like to do the smaller jobs myself if possible, but wanted a tried and trusted mechanic to fall back on if all else fails.

The garage called me and they stated that when they took it for a test drive the loud knocking had stopped. I went down there and the noise had gone, we drove for over 15 mins and as quite as a mouse. They were looking at me as if i was mad, the knocking was louder as the van climbed up hills and accelerated from standing. As the van pulled away it would get faster as the speed incressed, but now nothing. I have asked for the gearbox oil to be changed and the vans having a full service along with the upper wishbone bushes to be changed. What do you think would be a fair price for the above work and what could the mystery knocking be, as cv joints would be a constant problem heard all the time. Cheers Karl.

Hi--just a suggestion I had a knocking sound from rear drivers side also loss of power -turned out to be 2 fouled spark plugs on drivers side of engine cleaned them off and away she went only did it/does it (sometimes) when first starting probably my fault to generous with the 'auto' choke !! Jack

There was no loss of power with me. The van pulled ok but made this awful metalic knocking sound inkeeping with the pace of the engine. When stationary no knocking as soon as you moved off bang...bang....bang and so on. The strange thing as soon as i got her to the garage it stopped, but she had been standing for nearly two days before the mechanic got to look at her. Thanks for the advice everyone, if we get to the bottom of it i will let you know.

Its more common than you might think to have noises that are either untraceable or just vanish of their own accord. Part of the problem is unless you have a pal hanging underneath, finding the source can be a pain. A stripped out van with an assistant moving around inside to help locate it is sometimes the only way. In my case if I strip interior (or at least lighten load), the noise will be actually be back. With normal weight on its silent so have left it at that. I can only assume that because mine was a Caravelle, it had springs fitted that suited the standard weight of all the seats but it does sit significantly higher than any other T25s I've seen - not disimmilar to a syncro. I actually fitted 15" steel merc wheels just so it looked right with such a massive space above wheels in arches. I presume it only looked right with all seats in and bums on seats!

I feel it is somehow related to shocks or the angle of the driveshafts when light. Even Merc Doctor couldn't find it. We just gave up and I keep weight on.

In your case, try packing CVs with grease and see if that quietens it down. A common cause is indeed one or more worn CV joints and if it happens when you're going along, pull over and move the drivehafts in and out and see if it shuts up when you pull away again. If it does, worn CV joints are probably the cause.

The garage called me and they stated that when they took it for a test drive the loud knocking had stopped. I went down there and the noise had gone, we drove for over 15 mins and as quite as a mouse. They were looking at me as if i was mad, the knocking was louder as the van climbed up hills and accelerated from standing. As the van pulled away it would get faster as the speed incressed, but now nothing. I have asked for the gearbox oil to be changed and the vans having a full service along with the upper wishbone bushes to be changed. What do you think would be a fair price for the above work and what could the mystery knocking be, as cv joints would be a constant problem heard all the time. Cheers Karl

As i already said regrease them, why change the gearbox oil? that will cost you a fortune.

if my van has been standing a while it knocks until the grease has recirculated again, sometimes simply pumping the cv boots and moving the driveshaft in and out a couple of times sorts it out.