For the past ~20,000 miles my legacy has had an annoying, but frustratingly minor issue with the all too common front clunk. I've narrowed it down to the most likely culprit, the front sway bar. To give you a bit of context:
'05 GT wagon, 85K miles, Cobb swaybars front and rear, stock endlinks
The swaybar was on the car when I bought it, and from looking at the records it appears that the endlinks are original and the swaybar has been on there since those bars came out.
In my quest to solve this issue I've added lateral locks, which seemed to help a little bit. In reading through every post I can find and talking to other owners it seems I have the following options:
- Stock Swaybar- Lose some handling, but most likely to cure the clunk
- Aftermarket Solid Endlinks- Might fix it, but might not
- New swaybar/endlink setup- Might still have the clunk, and also a rather spendy proposition
- Deal with it- No longer an option...
Since my commute has increased to a minimum of 60 miles a day on western washington roads the noise has now gone past annoyance and has to be dealt with. The end links aren't too expensive, but if it isn't going to get rid of the problem it seems like a waste of time. Several other owners have reported a clunk even with new endlinks on aftermarket bars. On the other hand I hate to give up the handling of the larger sway bars, though to be fair I've never driven a stock setup so I don't know how much of a difference it is.
Opinions?