Jump to content
LegacyGT.com

Elusive Front End Clunk


pcr5946

Recommended Posts

Sorry if this became a little long winded, but I appreciate you guys looking through this.

 

So for a while now I've noticed a "clunking" noise coming from what sounds like the driver's side front end. It's most noticeable at typical surface road speeds (30-45 mph or so) over longer stretches of broken pavement, sort of small jarring bumps that don't really cause the suspension to articulate but just kind of bump it around (or going over railroad tracks, that sort of thing). At its worst I feel like I can also feel it rattling a little through the floor under the dead pedal.

 

The roads in New York are an absolute disaster, and so I thought I might have snapped an end link (they're still factory). So when I took it to the dealer for the most recent oil change I briefly described the sound to the service manager who wrote me up, and asked if the tech could just take a look and see if anything was obviously broken. When I got the car back, the service writer told me the tech had found a "broken front stabilizer linkage" which I took to mean the factory end link. They [obviously] offered to fix for me before I left, but I declined, as the car was going to an independent Subaru shop soon for its 60k service and I thought I'd just have them fix it instead with better aftermarket parts.

 

However, when I did take the car to the independent shop for service I mentioned this to them when they started work. When the tech came in to talk to me a little while later, he told me that he had looked over the front suspension while the car was on the lift and couldn't find anything broken or any torn bushings or damage to the struts that might cause the noise. They took it around the block and over some broken pavement and couldn't hear the noise at all. Now I trust these guys, so if they say nothing was broken I believe them (and wouldn't put it past my dealership to try to sell me on fixing something that wasn't broken) and when I left the shop I couldn't really hear they clunking anymore either. I heard it very faintly a few times on my way home, but it seemed much quieter and less frequent than before. But over the next several days I began hearing it again as it was before, and though its not a constant sound it's back to almost constant as it was before my 60k.

 

So my question is, any idea where to go from here? I'm inclined, like I said, to take the word of my independent shop's techs that nothing was broken, but something definitely isn't functioning properly under there. They said they were more than happy to take another look if it got worse again, but if I bring it back I'd like to be able to give them something more to go on. I was interested in upgrading my sways and end links anyway, but I don't want to do any upgrades that might exacerbate the problem before I figure out what's going on.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had two front end clunks and both exhibited the same phenomenon as yours... They would diminish for a period of time after the car was raised in the air. Anyway, one was a worn sway bar bushing, common. The other was a bad front ball joint. Third noise which didn't go away until fixed was a broken ball joint fixing bolt on the steering knuckle. That was a bitch to diagnose because there was no measurable play when the suspension was loaded. A local mechanic finally saw the broken bolt and replaced the knuckle for me.

 

Other culprits could be worn inner or outer tie rods, torn lower control arm bushings, or worn front strut top hats.

 

Anyway, good luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hear you on the NY roads OP... they suck. Thats why I try to stick to the gravel as much as possible;).

Anyway, had the exact same front end clunk as you that just kept getting worse over the past few months, and indeed as almost everyone else in this thread has already indicated, the endlinks were the culprit.

Had a pair of RalliTek's on there that lasted maybe 30k and they were shot.. but then again why should a company called "RALLITEK" actually produce sb links that are capable of standing up to some loose surface spirited driving:rolleyes:. The amount of play that developed in the ball joints was astounding.

This is their (joke of a) claim:

We are so sure these endlinks will stand up to the punnsihment of rally racing, RalliTEK HD Front Endlinks come with a 5 year limited warranty!

 

stunned that theyre already toast.. working on putting together a warraty claim as we speak

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Had same problem, RF sway bar bushing was toast. Not surprising with 133k on the chassis and likely the original known-to-clunk bushings. RF was visibly mushroomed and nearly cracked in half when I replaced them both today.

 

BTW I could re-position the endlink and "change" the clunk like the OP mentioned.

 

Put OEM bushes in, $7ea, and noticed they are the uprated models with the slit/split located at the 400 o'clock position instead of 600. Link here for good pics: http://perrya.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Repair-the-Clunking-Sound-in-Subaru-Tribeca-B9-SUV

 

What a difference, OB stays much flatter in turns now. And of course no clunky LOL.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
mine was a loose main strut nut.

 

How did that come loose?? In my experience, it does sound like a bad strut/mount, but I'm hoping its not. A replacement Bilstein is $250. I would gladly do the work myself, but I wonder if this is covered under the 30 day warranty from the dealership. I did cut them a nice fat check for this car, but they are not a Subaru dealer. Hmm..maybe I can just get them to give me the parts :lol: Wishful thinking!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

mine was a loose main strut nut.

 

Mine was a loose main strut nut too.

 

I had very similar symptoms to the OP, although mine was more apparent at lower speeds, say 15-30mph. I thought it was probably an endlink, but they all seemed pretty solid. While it was jacked up I really pulled on the strut and noticed it moving, so I popped the hood and took off the rubber plug thingy on top of the strut - sure enough the bolt was loose. In fact, I took it off with my fingers...

 

I didn't have a pass-through wrench, so I just tightened it as much as I could without spinning the hex bolt (this was not very tight.) Note that even this completely stopped the clunk, although I'll bet the strut was still moving.

 

When I borrowed a pass-through wrench I tightened it completely. Interestingly it got very tight fairly soon, but I thought it needed a bit more (can't figure out how to use a torque wrench with a pass-through) so I kept going, and it got easier for a while! I probably got about 3 more complete turns out of it. The threads were probably worn enough at the earlier spot to make it feel tight.

 

I suspect that whoever installed the Swift springs I have had stopped at that tight spot and called it a day, as I have no idea how else that nut would come loose.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mine is definitely coming from the strut and/or mount. I jounced on it earlier and put one hand on the mount and felt the clunk noise. The suspension is stiff and I had a hard time doing both at the same time. The nut was not finger loose, but I forgot to check the driver side to see if there were the same amount of threads.

 

While underneath, I noticed the strut has a nut and some sort of screw on the bottom...Does anyone know what this is?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I took off both of the top caps to the struts and did find that nut to be loose on the passenger side. In all of my years in this field, I have never come across a car with a loose strut nut like that. Very odd, but thanks for the help everyone!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

For future reference, I was getting a clunk out of both front struts, the passenger's side more than the driver's side. It turns out it was a combination of worn out spherical bearings on my pillow ball mounts (both sides) and the passenger's side ball joint being COMPLETELY shot.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

I was getting a clunk after upgrading to Epics/Konis.

 

- Replaced my LCA bushings, clunk still present.

- Replaced my endlinks, clunk still present.

- Retorqued all the nuts and bolts, clunk still present.

- Replaced my FSB bushings and the ball joints, clunk went away.

 

 

And for anyone who hasn't had the pleasure of dealing with our shitty ball joints, this tool made popping them out of the LCAs EXTREMELY easy and fast:

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/tie-rod-and-pitman-arm-puller-1752.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I watched this last night [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scFbb43fwqk]How To Find Suspension Noises 101 - EricTheCarGuy - YouTube[/ame]

 

planning to do it tomorrow morning, as I have a new clunk and it's definitely not broken endlinks that I had before.

 

Interesting that the conclusion of the video was that the clunk was not suspension, but a broken engine mount.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Great thread! I think I found my clunk. I have the Koni/Eibach combo and some fairly recently installed Hotchkis sways/Kartboy endlinks. Anyway, I checked the nuts on top of the struts and found the right one was showing fewer threads. I couldn't get my fingers on it but a standard 19 mm socket found how loose it was. I'll be heading to Sears for a longer socket in a few minutes. I hope this does the trick. ;)

 

Thanks all!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll be heading to Sears for a longer socket in a few minutes.

 

If you haven't bought one yet, I just wanted to remind you that you will need something that will allow you to pass thru and hold the strut stud with an Allen key. I bought mine at sears - it was a single, deep-offset wrench like one from this set:

 

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-10-pc-full-polish-deep-offset-wrench-set/p-00987641000P

 

Eric

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use