Well she's off the road for a bit. Knocking is the nearside front shock, likely spring mount. All a bit wobbly on the mounting. Got a decent set of spring compressors to borrow from a workmate, but with work in the way it's going to be a couple of weeks until it gets fixed. So for now I'll be wafting along in the 240 :-)

The usual issue with rubbish headlights, so after removing the reflectors and finding the chrome all gone, scrubbed them down and 'fixed' with self adhesive chrome craft stuff. Makes an huge difference, and with the glass lenses on looks fine. My lad is a dab hand at airbrush work, and has some good chrome paints so maybe I'll get him to try one of them in the future. Either that or a set of projectors, but these things can wait whilst I get the mechanicals sorted.

What a fun afternoon. Go the front end up on stands, wheels off and with a bit of convincing and PlusGas the drop links came off. A bit floppy, and given they had the torx centre they are either originals or OEM replacement, nothing in the history suggests they have been replaced. I tried to get some movement in the ARB, but TBH the bushes, after a clean, look fine and no slop, so I'll leave alone. In a similar fashion, no movement at all on the struts, so maybe my rattle was the drop links? A drive will soon show that, but I can't drive yet. The OSF brake disc is wobbling around, and I found the locating/retaining pin sheared off. So caliper off, disc off and I'm having the battle removing the remnants of the stud. Soaking now, I'll have a go tomorrow, worst case I'll drill it and EasiOut.
My oil leak mystery continues, rear of the sump is wet again, but no obvious cause. I have the turbo return gasket and o ring seal, so as soon as I have some new crush washers for the coolant banjo connection I'll change them. In the meantime she can stay with her nose up.
On a positive note, the rear exhaust mounting has been removed, both parts cleaned up and sprayed, then back on with a proper hanger for the exhaust back box, not a piece of 8mm studding fashioned to suit.

Sounds fun!
I hope you find you have cured the sound! (I am still searching for me rear clunk).
I have a similar oil stain - it has dried up a bit since I fixed the slight leak in the coolant turbo return pipe that runs along the back of the block. I know it's not that likely but might be worth a check if struggling to locate the source?

Tuning
 

Are you thinking of tuning it. I bought v70R FWD manual with the purest intention of keeping it standard but it bored me to tears I'd don't all the stage 0 stuff but compared to more modern stuff ie Golf R or Mazda 3 MPS even BMW 330d I found it to feel lazy and ridiculous on fuel compared with performance. I thought that the boost window was to small for such a large engine it felt more like a big tourer than a commemoration to a race car. I ended up putting steel con rods bigger injectors 19t different CAT and exhaust plus lot's other stuff and then had it tuned it was like opening pandoras box once I started I just went the whole way. And I think it made it the car it was meant to be ( just my opinion) I loved it I kept it longer than any other car I've owned but I got a great deal on a scrappage scheme and fancied something newer.

Not really, it's a decent dog lugger and to be honest, a modern plaything. I have my toy, a 1986 Capri, which once I've cut all the rust out will be my modified car, I'd like to drop a V8 in, just need to chose the right one...

How mads that a friend of mine has an old ford Capri John player special the original engine was seized so he bought a Audi RS4 4.2 engine code CFSA and manual transmission it's set up for rear wheel drive not sure if he used the Audi gearbox but it's in running and driving and he's got it running off the Audi engine management system so starts and drives great I remember him having a nightmare with the exhaust manifolds. I think he had them fabricated he also fitted an LSD the car looks very standard from the outside other than having twin rear silencers and tail pipes I think these where purchased from a ford Mustang parts supplier in the US

What a fun afternoon! Remove turbo oil return pipe securing bolts, easy. Disconnect 17mm turbo cooling banjo to allow removal of turbo oil return, what a sod of a job. I ended up removing what seems to be a heat shield mounted on the steering rack to enable me to get some leverage, once that was done it was pretty straightforward. The old seal into the sump was very loose.
New seal and gasket fitted, new copper washers on the coolant banjo and back on the wheels.
A test drive has shown the knocking to be gone, so that was the drop links. The oil leaking will take time to show itself, though having said that I de-greased the sump etc and it was wet again within 30 miles or so, I will check once I've driven a bit.
Tyres all round next, the ones fitted are the wrong size and the fronts are both damaged.
And, tonight Matthew I will be.......an upholsterer! The replacement seat base arrived from Latvia so I will be stripping the fabric and putting the R stuff on it.

Bugger.
Wasn't the drop links, quiet as a mouse last night, this morning the same noise back, so ho hum.
New tyres all round tomorrow, the current mish mash of whatever was cheapest doesn't work for me, more so with a healthy cut on the sidewall of one which was worthy of note on the MOT, and a decent lump out of another sidewall.
On the plus side, stripping the seat covering was easy, and I moved the foam padding also since mine was in great condition. So at least now my seats are all good. And I found 10p under the passenger seat, along with a plastic spoon. Happy days :-):regular_smile:

Well some pennies later and we have new shoes. Set of 215/45/17 Falken all round, sensible price tag from my local independent tyre place.
Quick wash too, and needs some focus in that respect. Didn't get driven much during lockdowns and was clearly parked under some trees, so quite a bit of moss and lichen to get rid of.