Alfa 147 creaks

[Hughsie]

 Thanks to those who replied about the 147 Camshaft actuator. Still think that it might be a slightly loose tappet.
Anyway I need some advice on another problem.
On bumpy streets my 147 emits a reasonably loud creak that doesn't seem to be coming from the suspension front or back. Rather it seem to be right under the middle of the car. The creak can be on either side depending on the part of the road the bump is.
I have had the car on a hoist and can't see anything obvious. Any ideas? The car is missing the front undertray which might indicate that it has had an accident at some stage in its life. It has 120,000 km on the clock.

[Hughsie]

So no one has any experience with these mysterious noises from under my car. I guess that I will have to have a more intensive inspection on a hoist again. Too bloody old to lie underneath 'cause I can't get up again.
Great to see the Touring Cars in Australia again with an Alfa at the pointy end of the grid.

[Citroënbender]

I'd consider the front anti-roll bar as a likely culprit.

[Craig_m67]

It could literally be anything

[Citroënbender]

Not really. I doubt it was something the neighbour's dog ate. 

Unless the subframe is loose, scratch that. And Bazz concurs with me, that the rack mounting bolts are so tight sometimes they will wind the thread out of the rack itself.  Upper wishbones are more likely to clunk or jiggle depending on speed or manoeuvre. Lower balljoints; knocking.  Sliding calipers and flogged out drop links rattle, not unlike outer steering joints. Strut fork bushings knock when failing. lower wishbone bushes usually have a feel of "snapping/tipping into" a turn as it tightens, but less so than with McStrut cars.

[Craig_m67]

Okay, so we have "loud creak"..

Let's work through this

Wooden creak (ships timbers, dull sound - rubber bushes)?
Metallic creek (sharp sound, has treble - metal on metal)?

Is the frequency of the creak constant, or does it vary dependant upon speed, size of bump?
Is the creak inside the car (dashboard/doors/sunroof) or outside?

OP mentions that the creak seems to always come from the middle of the car, but then states it comes from the side that the bump was on - which is it??

Has it always done this?
Has the creaking increased as the weather has become cooler?

If the creak is outside the car, I would grab a can of silicon lubricant spray from SuperCheap and then methodically lubricate one component at a time, driving in between over bumps.. to see which component stops squeaking.

Starting with;

the anti roll bar bushes, then drive
then the drop links
(actually, you could speed this up by simply disconnecting one drop link and driving carefully)

the upper wishbone bushes.. drive
then the lower wishbone bushes.. drive

Subframe mount points
Centre gear stick frame (under car)
Rear suspension points
.... literally everything (is the dog in the car?)


The lack of undertray doesn't necessarily denote accident damage,  to me it suggests somebody actually serviced the car

[GTVeloce]

Have any bushes been replaced with poly at some stage? If so I would probably start there as they can easily creak if dry. However, I don't know 147 suspensions so maybe poly isn't used.

[Hughsie]

Thank you all for your sage advice. Unfortunately I am unable to get under the car so I will have to prevail on my local mechanic; just have to pick a day when he is on a good mood.
I have pretty good senses when it comes to noises in cars but never experienced a sound like this. I described it as a creak because it sounds like ships timber as suggested by Craig. It is most obvious when the car is cold. Hit a bump on the driver's side and it creaks. Hit a bump on the passengers side and again it creaks on that side. It really sounds like it's right under the front seats but not in the cabin. I will the links with silicone spray(which I have) and see what happens.
I have only had the car for six months and drove it home to Parkes from Sydney. Not a sound! Has only developed since January.

[Citroënbender]

Hughsie, see if the owner of Petbarn will take it for a drive and offer his two bob. Assuming it's still the bloke with the parrot.

[Hughsie]

 That's good advice. Maybe a bag of bird seed will do the trick. I don't think that it's a parrot, they talk, and it could tell me what the problem is! Then again it's more like the sound of the bird cage door that the bird itself.

[Citroënbender]

The fellow does know a little about cars.