LarryS

I've just about narrowed down the source of my clunking noise to be the A arms. I don't want to replace them with factory for obvious reasons. Has anybody tried the new BMR? Looks like the bend in the tube at the back might be a weak point under hard braking. From their pics it also looks like only the rear bushing has a lube fitting. What about the front bushing?

wolfey2k

Hi, regarding the clunking noise you hear.
Do you hear it during normal driving over small bumps coming from the right front mostly?
When the suspension is getting a 'normal' workout over larger bumps and dips in the road, there's no clunking noise.
Obviously the motion of the shock is slow and long enough for the damping system to work correctly during jounce and rebound.
However, when I hit tiny sharp bumps in the road at slow to moderate speeds I hear this anoying clunking noise. Would drive me nuts if I let it.
I had the dealer install new strut assemblies at 1200 miles under warranty including strut bearings to see if that got rid of it. Noise is still there.
It's definately something moving around that shouldn't be but not a danger in any way.
My Stang is an 07 4.0 with the GT Pony package. Pretty schueet!
Thanks!
Wolfey

LarryS

It's a clunking noise when going over small bumps or unlevel surfaces at slow speeds. Never hear it on the freeway or speeds over about 30 mph. I took it to the dealer too and they replaced the struts. Did not fix the problem. I recently replaced the upper strut bearings myself. Did not fix it. Only thing left that moves is the A arms.

I believe I hear the noise from both front sides. It would drive me nuts too if I let it. Just don't think a new car should have a clunking sound. Never had this before with other cars.

Maybe it's the design of the factory struts?

wolfey2k

Exactly! That's exactly when it makes the clunking noise. Good! I'm glad I found someone else with the same 'mysterious' problem.
I have posted two times under "07 Mustang Suspension Clunking Noise" and haven't gotten a peep out of anybody till you wrote your problem up.

I wonder if people are just deaf or afraid to admit or just don't want to hear about that noise being a problem.
Your right. Most people don't buy a car and expect to hear strange clunking noises coming from their front end then have the factor/dealer tell them it's normal or the nature of the beast.

Speaking of nature of the beast, it could be. I was thinking that due to the car having the GT like handling package, they very well could have installed tougher bushings at the A arm to frame connections.
This would tend to transmit more suspension noise to the body.

But, I drove a few GT's and they didnt' make the noise nearly as loud as mine does. However, mind didn't make that noise at first before I baught it during my test drives.
I tried 3 other 4.0 pony's and they all make the same noise but it's less evidently until you put some miles on it and the suspension losens up so to speak. Then, thunk,,,thuthuthuthunk,,,,AHHHHHHHHHHH!

You can hear the suspension when it's being worked hard on ripples in the road at low speeds. Try driving in downtown D.C. and you'll really get an ear full. kuhkuhkuhkuhthunk, thunk thunk thunk,.....it's got me thunkin sumpin is fuggin wrong!

I haven't driven any plan jane premims yet though. I did drive a rental months ago, an 05 Mustang plane jane. Don't recall hearing any thunking noises. Interesting.

So do you intend to replace the bushings or the entire A Arm assemly on both sides?
It's probably easier to replace the busings? But what do you replace them with?

I know or have read that if you install the nylon racing type bushings, you'll tighten things up but you'll also hear every sound that comes from the suspension.
Are you going to use softer ones?
If so, what material are they made out of.

Anyway, let me know what your results are.
If you get it fixed, you'd cause a real landslide of customers to head to their suspension shops and demand replacements! ;-). That's what I'm talkin bout!
Could become a TSB! Good!

Wolfey

LarryS

I don't know of any available replacement bushings for our factory A arms. I can't imagine being able to replace that back one. I would be willing to try just the front if they were available. Anything would be better than what we have. I would take a little vibration over this clunking. Before I switch to the BMR I would just like to hear from someone with them.

I did drive a new GT at the dealer and it made our noise but not near as bad. I think a few miles may have something to do with it. It's just ashamed to have a new car and it feels like an old clunker!

wolfey2k

Right, well if you look on the net you can find such parts for the stangs.
Lots of ways to tighten things up if your throwing tons of HP down on the road and or doing a lot of twisty road driving.
That's a bit harsh man, 'clunker'? Come on. If you hated it that much you'd get rid of it. It's a retro pony man, A REAL MUSTANG, not the wanna be's with Mustang embossed on them I've been having to look at for years! Those are not Mustangs in my mind. Why? Because I'm old school. If Ford hadn't retro'd and done as nice of a job as they had, I wouldn't have ever given them another thought! Just cringed every time I saw a Fox body piece of crap on the road like I still do ;-p.

Anyway, I didn't address your question about the strut bearing. We've both replaced them and the clunk is still there. That noise is extremely similar to the noise I'd hear in customers cars when it was time to replace the strut assemblies. I'm a retired pro-mechanic by the way. That noise is the same noise I'd hear when the strut 'mount' or 'bearing' was worn out. The noise comes from, in this case, vertical play in the lower bearing plate of the unit. It's essentially a simple 3 piece unit, an upper plate that mounts to the body, a bearing with a race or guide and a lower plate. The shock rod, the threaded end, runs up through a steel bushing that is has rubber fused to it which is part of the lower strut plate. That's all that's holding the rod and bushing in there. Majorly glued or fused rubber to steel. Anyway, in the Ford strut bearing, there is 1mm to 2mm vertical play when you inspect a new unit that has not yet been installed.
The theory that this could not be the problem is that the spring pressure alone 'after the shock is installed and the bearing is bolted on', is sufficient to keep the bottom plate tight up against the bearing race in the top piece. Effectively this sandwiches the bearing and soaks up that slack and keeps it from vibrating during minor / or major jouncing and rebouding.

The amount of pressure against the bearing, I believe, is not sufficient enough to make the engineers and arguing mechanics correct in their assumptions or theory's. regardless of spring pressure and vehicle weight which compresses the entire assembly alone by a few inches at least, is not sufficient enough to keep that little bit of slack in the bearing to plate clearance from moving. When it moves during jounce or rebound it clunks! That's what I think it is. I am still not convinced that it could be otherwise.

The A Arm bushings are tight. Try moving them with your hand or a crow bar and you'll see what I mean. They are snug *** tight against the shaft of the A Arm that sticks through it. I mean they are tighter than a well diggers sphincter ;-D where side to side motion goes. Of course they are allowed to rotate but only slightly under normal conditions.

I have been thinking of trying to find aftermarket bearings and see if they have any such play in them. I have installed hundreds of strust assemblies in my years and I have never encountered a problem like this before. A new car with a Thunk / Clunk!

However, I am willing to be incorrect about this and find out that you have solved the problem by replaceing the A Arms with aftermarket units. I'm sort of counting on you to figure it out because I am not interested in tinkering with my front end just now. I have other things that need doing and honestly the idea of tearing the front end apart bores the crap out of me anymore :[.

If I did look into the problem thoroughtly, I'd do it imperically. I would enlist someone to allow me to use their vibration table / system and simulate road conditions on the front suspension under load, play, listen, watch, and find the BUG! Then and only then would I jump in and fix it because I'd know exactly what it is.

There is also the minor possibility that there is something in the body doing the Thunking. Maybe something in one of the body cavities underneath. Nah, probably not. Would be great to take the car to Z-bart, get some insulation goop shot into all the crevices and so forth and have the Thunk go away! Oh well, Dream on ;-)..

Oh, one other thing. I tried disconnecting the right front anti-sway link, I drove it and the Thunk was still there. I didn't however go the trouble of disconnecting the driverse side and trying it too. It occured to me later though that the thunking may be coming from the anti-sway bar and not just the passengers side link. Maybe I'll try disconnecting both of them next time, tie up the anti-sway bar so it doesn't move around much less drag on the road and see if the Thunking noise goes away.
If the noise does go away then it boils down to figuring out if it's the ball joints on the links or the anti-sway bar bushings.

Do you want to try this? Let me know. I'd be very interested to hear what you found out.

Wolfey

LarryS

I have no front sway bar at all. Not the problem. I have removed it and replaced it with the Granatilli radiator support for weight reduction. With the factory radiator support it had the clunk.

One individual made a post and said he replaced the A arms and his clunk went away. That's what steered me towards the A arms having replaced the strut bearings to no avail. After reading your post I am almost of the assumption that maybe it is the strut and design of the strut. True, I don't see how it could be the A arms. They are tight like you describe. I would assume that having both struts replaced that possibility was eliminated but perhaps not so. I even had the BMR K member at one time so that eliminates the K member. Took it off because of mega vibration at idle.

Might take an aftermarket strut to fix the problem? Are they designed differently? Never had this problem with struts on other cars I've owned.

Yea, I probably was being a little harsh calling it a clunker. But driving the car would be a much more pleasant experience if I could get rid of the clunk.

wolfey2k

Right, I ain't drivin no $23K clunker ;-).
I don't know re: your question about 'maybe replacing the struts with aftermarkets will do the trick?', my friend, I have no bloody idea, honestly. It just makes sense to me not to have ANY slop whatsoever in the bearing regardless of preloading against it via the spring and vehicle dead loading.

Like I said, I would approach the problem scientifically/imperically. Systematically. I'd simulate the frequency of tiny ripples in the road, very slight jouncing and make sure I am causing the clunk, then while it's clunking I'd look around, use accelerometers, mics and so forth to isolate the cause and nail it. Then I'd do the repair, if there is one to be had.

The suspension is noisy under any in town /slow driving. Even if you go over small tiny bumps at high speeds you can hear the front suspension rattling/clunking etc. I double checked tonight while I was out doing errands.
It's just bloody noisy.

One reason I am feel it's the strut bearings is that they have 1 to 2mm vertical play in them. Another reason is the clunk only happens during extremely limited jouncing and rebounding in the suspension. The bearing is acting as a shock absorber at this moment. When the jounce/rebound is well less than an inch. Maybe less than a half inch. I don't think they designed the strut assemblies right or the shock absorber itself is not designed to DAMP the motion until it's moving x inch/per/sec. or moves x stroke. The damping valve in the piston inside the shock is not reacting fast enough and it's allowing undamped movement during tiny jounce/rebound periods.

So to answer your question, yes, an aftermarket strut system may do the trick. Maybe the play in the bearing doesn't matter at all or the slop in it is causing the shock to work as if it is undamped or not damping at all during that tiny stroke jounce/rebound period / frequency.
I dont' think it's really frequency though. Seems to do it no matter how slow or fast. Only when the front end suspension is hardly moving up and down and not really having to damp anything. They didn't engineer it correctly. That's obvious! Otherwise you and I wouldnt' be having this conversation.

I still wonder, why isn't everyone else complaining about this thunking noise? Have you heard anyone else complain about it?

I dont' understand what you mean about replacing the radiator mount with a lighter one and making the thunk go away. What exactly are you discribing to me?

Later on!
Wolfey

moosestang

Have ya'll checked to make sure nothings loose in the engine compartment? Do either of you have a JLT intake? My intake filter was banging on my inner fender. It could also be the springs themselves making noise. I don't have any noises in the front.

LarryS

The upper strut bearing play is zero when the spring loads the bearing via the weight of the car. Not sure how would move once it's loaded with the weight of the car. Here's the assembly: http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forum...3&d=1114813360 The strut perhaps but the bearing? Downward movement of the car only puts more load on the bearing. I had this thought before replacing the bearing but it was an inexpensive guess so went ahead and replaced it.

Why not go ahead and use your scientific approach and let me know the real problem before I spend any more money. I really think for now I'm just going to drive the car and forget the noise. It gets expensive replacing parts that don't eliminate the problem.

I don't understand why others aren't complaing too. As I said the GT at the Ford dealer had the noise but not as bad as mine as far as I could tell.

The radiator support eliminates the heavy front anti-sway bar mounting bracket. That piece is somewhat heavy. This is done for weight reduction.