I've got a constant dull metallic rattle/vibration that seems to be coming from around the NS front footwell. It all but disappears when I've got a front passenger in the seat so my plan to have a listen whilst getting someone else to drive and sitting over there is no good.

Just done the tie rod ends, which were knackered, so it's not that. Got a bit of play in the NS inner tie rod, which will be replaced next, but I don;t think it's that.

Drop links are Meyle HD and maybe two years old. I'll be checking those next. On the one had it'd be great if they are the culprit as it's an easy fix, but equally will be disappointing given their reputation.

I've a horrible feeling it's the strut top mount bearing. This was replaced a few months back with a bearing and spring seat from Nordic. Annoyingly I went the cheap route as the plan was to sell the car soon after and it wasn't worth throwing money at. Had I made the decision to keep it a bit earlier I would have spent the extra on Volvo parts instead. The noise was evident within a few days after this was done but I couldn't tell if it was a new noise or pre-existing as there were that many rattles and clunks beforehand due to the knackered parts!

The point of this post is not so much what do you think the culprit may be, but rather, what's the best/easiest way to determine if the noise is coming from the top mount? Obviously I really don't want to have to strip the strut down again to check it, but if it's not the drop links and there's no other easy way to check then I guess I may have to.

I've not checked the suspension arm BJ yet. I suppose that could be a candidate too.