Rear Trailing Arm- Solved

[discodavieuk]

Hi Everyone,
Just reporting back on my cure for rear "rattling noise" in case it helps anyone else diagnose the problem.
Rattle (banging) noise came from rear drivers side whenever i drove over rough ground or speed bumps but only at speeds up to 20mph. The noise never occurred when driving faster than this.

The only exception was when I drove over cats eyes on the motorway, then the sound would occur.

Turns out it was the rear trailing arm. Part cost £60 new from ebay, £30 to fit.
In the end I now have the sweet sound of the flat 6 to listen to and no rattles :-)

Hope this helps someone. It took me ages to diagnose the problem.

Cheers

[Pdwight]

Did mine a while back, painted them Red to match the calipers and clear coated....you did change both....right ??

[husker boxster]

Were you having trouble keeping toe in proper specs?

I'm going to be changing mine out soon and all the literature I seen says to use a Porsche ball joint extracting tool. Will a standard pickle fork work?

Thanks.

[Timco]

This is the arm in front of the wheel, and the track arm is behind the wheel?

[husker boxster]

My bad. The rear trailing arm is the one that goes ahead of the rear suspension. I will be changing the toe control arm. So does anyone know if a pickle fork will work for dislodging ball joints?

[woodsman]

Originally Posted by husker boxster

My bad. The rear trailing arm is the one that goes ahead of the rear suspension. I will be changing the toe control arm. So does anyone know if a pickle fork will work for dislodging ball joints?

Yes but it COULD damage the boots whereas a 2- jaw puller won't.

[Pdwight]

My rear trailing arms required no pickle fork, only a120 foot pounds of torque to brake loose....are we talking about the same thing here ?

Pelican Parts - Product Information: 986-331-043-07-M80

Porsche Rebuilt Control Arm - Rear Track Arm: Steering and Suspension &amp Control Arms and Related Parts

[husker boxster]

I assume discodavie is talking about #1 in my pic.

I will be changing out the toe control arm (#3). Guess it probably doesn't matter if I damage the ball joint or not since I'll be replacing the arm. I'm also going to replace the bushing in the lower control arm (#2) and I hope I can do that w/o taking the entire lca off. Might be wishful thinking.

[RHeimlick]

I just purchased a used 2001 Boxster S and replaced the trailing arm control arm rods to get rid of the road bott noises. Read most of the forum notes, but I think this might be helpful for DIY. I removed the arms by jacking up both sides of the car and supported the rear of the car with jack stands at the rear of the diagonal braces. Check this forum and service manual for proper jack stand placements. I then removed the two jack(s) to leave the car on the two jack stands (besure to block the two front tires before jacking the car). I proceeded to remove the rear tires, forward tire well liners and bottom plastic cover at each side (no need to remove the whole cover). I removed the bolt at the fork arm end (18mm socket and 21mm wrench or vise grip). For the bushing end I used an 18mm deep socket and a 3” extension on a ½” socket wrench. Pulled the underneath plastic cover down slightly to reach in to loosen the 18mm bushing bolt. The upper bushing nut sits into a sleeve and there was no need to put a wrench on top to hold it. Once both bolts were out, I removed the arm and checked bushing condition. My arms had 60,000 miles on them (original) and the bushings were flexible and loose in the arm. I bought TRW rubber replacements and they fit perfectly and the bushings were tight with no movement; however, to put the new one’s in, I needed to compress the strut (used a scissor jack to jack up the wheel hub far enough to set the new bushing end with the bolt). I lowered the scissor jack until the fork end was aligned with the holes on the control arm. Installed the fork bolt and nut and tightened per porsche specifications. Reinstalled other removed items in reverse order. All clink noises disappeared. Cost $255 for parts and about two to three hours of time. I did not see any need for an alignment with just the trailing arm being replaced, since no other control arms were removed.

[Pdwight]

I did the same thing recently...easy peasy job