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My 2005 Diesel Smart has in the past months started having some clicking/clunking, particularly on the passenger side. The previous year I replaced both springs and brakes have been recently done. I'm also experiencing some wobble when braking. I'm wondering if this could be a bearing issue?

Any other idears? Common issues?

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Jack the front up and spin the wheels...? Bad bearings are easy to feel or hear, or you can try and wiggle the wheel top to bottom...?
Caliper come loose?

Shock, another broken spring?

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What are the odds...?  Stake your bet folks.....lol.....

All good guesses.....Hmmmmm.....????

I am now finding my beater is wanting to wiggle around on a flat road so I am in the same boat maybe?    Hmmmmm.....?


IF you don't deal with it, it may start eating a tire....?

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Have the front end of the ground and playing with the wheels. They seem to spin okay with the usual sllght brake noise, no bearing noise. No up and down wobble but some side to side before starting to actually turn. More on the drivers side than the left. wher eth tie rods attach can be moved around a little. The strut on eth right side seems to move a little too though the springs still look intact(new from last year.) a bit symied right now

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Sounds to me like you need to start replacing those worn parts with some fresh ones. Either good old stock or new. Good luck. The parts aren't that expensive from what i remember when I replaced all mine. I used MW-Smart in germany. Good people and have good prices, shipping was quick and not bad price wise. 

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  • 9 months later...

First I will shamefacedly admit to neglecting this problem. I was looking for tie rod ends etc. and was having no luck. Poor little Smart.

 

Now I have a wobbly front end and what's worse the steering gets really tough once you get into turn and resists recovering from it. THe car frankly feels unsafe to drive though I get interesting vibrato effects vocally while driving.

 

So I have the front end of the car up and the wheels are off. There is some side to side play in the wheels. I would say approx. 1/4" travel back and forth. DOesn't feel crazy. I can't feel any vertical play.

On the drivers side maybe a hint more side to side with a bit of a clank coming from below and behind the wheel.  I have to get out there with a flashlight. The rain is coming down in biblical flood proportions here right now which for my family is traditional working on the car weather..however I am being soft on myself and not waiting for dark as per usual tradition.

 

The wheels require some strength to turn them, It feels like more than it should though the wheels are off.

The brakes seem free, the usual free spinning with a little shhh noise. The brakes have relatively new pads with lots of pad left.

The tires though getting low on tread are not showing any strange lumps though I will give them more of a look over.

 

This feels like it may be a steering issue

 

I live at the bottom of a 12 min long windy forest road, the last bit is single lane with tight switch backs etc. I will admit that it's the sort of road that inspires a european rally driver feeling! I suspect this is NOT easy on the steering.

 

 

 

 

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Sorry that ws an exaggeration, probably more like a 1/16 however I understand thst anything above barely perceptible is too much and i am currently not driving the vehicle.

I don't take cars to dealers, nor to specialists as I can't afford it and generally don't trust them so I will be checking it out myself

I'm going to look into bearings and see if I can discover where the play is, Probably also get the tire balance checked.

Does anyone know of inexpensive source of  tie rod components ball joints etc. for 2005 smart fortwos ?

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Hmmm....check RockAuto for parts.....replace all tie-rod ends and ball joints, What ever you want to call them, they are cheap.   Change them all....then think about steering rack but I'll bet it'll be the cheap part first!   Same with bearings....if you are concerned, change them....OR clean them out and repack them....but none is a big job.

I know the exhange isn't great if you are forced to go below the border....Canadian Tire also used to have bearings....? At least my local did. 

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Thanks very much! I will check rock auto and Mercedes. With my 300D sometimes they would have the cheapest part. If nothing I smaybe can get part numbers off them. Often the out tire rod ends seem to be sold without the ball joints. THE steering dampener unit (looks like what is commonly called a shock absorber) which these are said to have is also something which causes stiff steering return. But I will do all the tie rod components first. I guess that includes the iner tie rod ends too (which don't look like they have ball joints from the pictures I've seen.  I didn't want to take the car to a dealer because then you have to know when to hold 'em,  know when to fold em , know when to walk away etc. etc, So complicated and expensive.

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oops another question are the ball joints on the wishbone/control arm the same as the ones on the tie rod outer ends? On the car they look similar and there's only one type available that I can see

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I doubt they're the same.

 

I just had the Nanaimo dealer do the once-over on our smart: new lower A-arms, new ball joints for the A-arms (I'm nearly certain that  they're different for the tie rods), shocks, wheel bearings, engine mounts, thermostat and more. Yeah, not cheap but the car's a keeper, either for me or the family. It's especially not cheap because when I was paying the bill, we got interested in a new Mercedes, which will be coming in soon...

 

Anyway, in our car with 185,000 km, the worn items in the front end were shock absorbers/struts, ball joints (lots of play) and I had a new set of A-Arms from 2012 that I had them install in case the old ones - which I kept - were getting punky.

 

It should be possible to get in there and determine exactly where the play is coming from. It's not likely it's all the things you're suggesting. My guess would be maybe front bearings and possibly lower ball joints.

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They look pretty well identical on the car.  Not taking the car to the dealer. Mercedes Burnaby said they couldn't even get tie rod ends, control arms or ball joints anymore. Humourously 6 or 7 years ago I could still get any parts from a 1980 300D from them.  

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That is a tie rod end wth a ball joint already in it and no mine do not look like that at all. Here's what my tie rod ends look like. They need a ball joint which looks like hte ones pictured above. which has a little rubber boot and a square(rubber?) mounts with two bolts. See below for an actual picture of my car.

image.thumb.jpeg.36d9f8f1d4faaa0d626b2bd434914d85.jpeg

 

image.thumb.jpeg.41aa58643b47ee41cdd5372fa7ec6846.jpeg

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Posted (edited)

and a picture of the one on the wishbone/control arm (hard to see on the bottom left corner) same square top and 2 mounting bolts, same rubber boot. I will check again before ordering. Which begs the question Willys or Stickman007 do I need to buy the sway bar link (center) and all the bushings for the control arm

image.thumb.jpeg.f84e90f60b95cb2c7bbe839205e55526.jpeg

Edited by Toxophilite
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Well It would be great if everything had a BJ built in but life just isn't like that, sadly.

 

Looking at the tie rod and and ball joint being separate units begs te question, what wears out in the tie rod end? My brother  (very mechanically inclined, rebuilds cars etc.) 

As most tie rod end seem to incorporate a ball joint, it's the usually ball joint that wears out, but you the whole thing as they are one part.

 

-If they're separate parts doesn't it make sense to just buy the ball joint and re-use the tie rod end?

 

-Does it make it a lot easier to do the job if you buy both?

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