V50 Brakes : Loud bang under hard braking

[HadiK]

Car: V50 2.0 DSE Manual 2005

When braking hard on an uneven surface, I sometimes get a very loud bang from the front of the car.

I'm pretty sure it's not EBA, as it doesn't increase the braking power and I don't get a softening of the pedal, etc.

Interestingly, I get exactly the same sound when accelerating up hill on a slightly damp road over rippled tarmac (hard to explain, as it only happens in on a specific bit of road near us!). As the wheels begin to spin, a huge bang occurs. I can't believe the dstc would create such a sound.

Anyone else experienced this or have any ideas?

TIA

Hadi

[GraemeS]

Suspension mount or control arm bush reaching the upper and lower limits of normal travel, then popping?

[HadiK]

Thanks Graeme - I'll get the local garage to stick it on a lift and check the mounts and bushes.

I just wondered whether this was normal behaviour - perhaps not!

[Guru]

Could be the brake calipers sticking to the disks and not repelling back to position, i used to get a similar loud bang in winter due to the rear brake pads sticking on the disk and not returning after releasing the hand brake.

Just a wild guess...

[7050man]

It coud be drive train of course, but had a similar noise on an old Fiesta a few years back. Fault became more apparant as time went on, but it took two years to find.

Jacking car and rocking/shaking wheels joints didn't find anything obvious,mainly because everything is still under a degree of tension.

Finally found that front lower suspension arm ball joint had failed. Not obvious because it's sealed, but in the end bouncing the front wing up and down induced a mild graunching sound. When I removed the old part it was obvious that water ahd got in and rusted the joint.

Incidently the car passed two mots under this condition!

[Clan]

most likely the large rubber bushes on the rear of the wishbones , they arent usualy a problem but i know a crazy driver wore both out in 8000 miles on a C70 D5 .. ( not that you are a crazy driver ! )

[HadiK]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

The car's been up on a ramp and the mechanics can't find anything untoward with bushes, ball-joints, etc., although they were able to replicate the sound when losing traction uphill on a greasy road.

Think I'll just have to live with it...