Hi all,

I recently bought a 2011 Cooper S and now I'm noticing this noise coming from the rear end of the car.
After going to my local garage they change the rear sway bar bushings. It's possible that it has eliminated some of the noises I was earing but this one is still there and is very noticeable in bumpy roads at low speed.
I'm reproducing the sound by steering the car left and right continuously.
What do I need to replace more? I don't know if I should continue to trust this garage since they didn't fix the problem.

Thanks!

 

How many miles on the car?

 

Around 80.000 miles.

 

Have you changed the sway bar end links at all? Also does the noise come from both sides of the car or just one side?

 

The only thing that was changed was the sway bar bushings. The end links are still the same (probably never changed since the car was bought by the previous owner).

About the noise coming from a specific side, I asked my wife to try to pinpoint the noise from the backseat and she told me that it sounds like it’s coming from both sides but she can’t be sure. But when I steer the car from left to right I can hear the sound coming from both sides when it compresses on the left and then on the right.

What I notice is that the sound is much more audible at low speed on bumpy roads. When I drive faster it’s difficult to notice.

Do you think this is related with end links or something else?

 

Ya, people have asked about a clunk in the rear when driving and its normally either the sway bar bushings or the endlinks.

 

The oem endlink innards are plastic, I replaced mine with moogs, beefier and you can add grease if needed. Make sure you install them with the grease fittings facing where you can reach them later, since the endlinks can be installed more than one way.

 

Thanks for the tips. I'll try to order 2 end links for the rear and do the change by myself. It doesn't look too hard. Does it make sense to go to the dealer to get the parts or aftermarket ones are equally good? I'm based in Europe and most of what I've seen is available on eBay.

 

The oem ones seem to last 80k so it's up to you. The moogs were $40 US for the pair just for reference.

 

Maybe I'll go with the Moog. What is your experience so far? How many KM's have you put on them?I found a pair in UK around the price you mentioned: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123461811...YAAOSw6Tdb2cR9

 

I installed them 4/21/18 and put 34k km (21k miles) on them. No issues so far, if you don't look you wouldn't even know I changed them out. My oem endlinks only lasted ~70k km (43k miles) and these are way sturdier. The part number I installed is K750556 which don't show the grease fitting in online pictures but they are on there.

 

The ones I linked are different from the K750556 you mention. Do you know if they make the same part in different models? By the way, did you install them yourself? Any hiccup during installation or was it just jack the car on one side, remove wheel, remove stock link, install new one, put the wheel back in place and repeat for the other side?

 

The one in the ebay link seem to be plastic innards like the stock links. If you haven't upgraded the sway bar you might get another 80k out of them. I installed them myself, you want both sides in the air or else the sway bar is under load.