Odd noise at road humps

[Opifex 13]

Hi All,

I have  a late-2013 Yaris Hybrid which makes an odd noise when I go over road humps, but only under specific conditions.

There is one particular section of road that I travel regularly which involves stopping for a junction, turning right into a 20mph zone,  a short acceleration up a hill before reaching the first road hump, the sort with a flat top about the length of the car. As the front wheels rise onto the hump there is a clonk sort of noise followed by another one when the front wheels go down the other side.  Continue up the hill and the same happens again at the next hump, but there is no noise from later humps as the road reaches the brow of the hill and goes down the other side.

The noise is consistent and reproducible at this spot but hardly ever occurs anywhere else. 

Does this story sound familiar to anyone?

Graham.

[Cyker 388]

Suspensions clonk when going over a bump in a Yaris is most commonly caused by the Anti-Roll Bar drop-links (A complicated way to describ!e the thingies that connect the ARB to the suspension arms) becoming perished.

It's quite common on the Mk1 Yaris as they apparently used grape jelly instead of rubber and they often wore out within a couple of years if the car was driven anywhere but smooth asphalt (I replaced mine with polyurethane ones - Never had to change them again!)

I've not heard it to be anywhere near as common an issue for the Mk2 or Mk3 Yaris tho' so it may not be the same problem.

You should be able to turn the wheels full-lock to one side and inspect them visually to see if they're shagged or not. They'll be a vertical bar (Probably quite short) with 4 rubber bits - 2 sandwiching the anti-roll bar and 2 sandwiching the suspension arm, connecting them together.