I'm just gonna throw this in here... I've had a front end clunk for the last... 30? thousand miles. I occasionally have tried to track it down, and have thrown a couple parts at it, that people have said wer definitely the cause of all clunks. Thought maybe it'd be the strut mounts, and I changed those... No dice. Thought maybe it was the end links, that I couldn't tighten them properly, changed to the new design... No dice. While I was doing that I re-torqued all the connectors for the sway bar, no change from that either. Checked the ball joints for play, doesn't seem to be there.

Anyway, was just under the car today to do an oil change, and decided to look over the front end a little more, and actually looked at the sway bar bushings. They're both split. In a couple places. Completely trashed. I'm sure that isn't helping things any. If your biggest concern is getting rid of your clunk... try to isolate what's causing the clunk. Just throwing parts at it isn't necessarily the best way to go at it. I will say, with the parts I've thrown at my problem, the car certainly feels better, but it's still plenty noisy.

 

I'm not sure I'd categorize a resonance as being a 'clunk'. A 'clunk' tells me that a clearance somewhere is being taken up, which implies that something is slightly loose or damaged (even if it's not exactly broken). One 'clunk' only as the clearance takes up in each direction, so the 'clunking' of a really loose part might be a rattle. Proper tightening or replacement of the part at fault usually cures this.

A low frequence resonance would be more of a 'drumming' sound and more sustained.

On various cars, I've had endlinks clunk, sta-bar attachments that didn't use endlinks rattle, and strut center nuts loosen and go from quiet to clunk to rattle. So far, eliminating the looseness that shouldn't exist has always managed to shut the noise up.


I don't think we are using a wide enough range of terms here to clearly describe these various noises. I had a list of industry terms somewhere.


Norm

 

I definitely agree. I'd love to see these terms. Sometimes I gets especially difficult for me to describe the sound or noise as English is not my native language.

The clunk I've been referring in this thread is not a clear cut metallic kind of clunk which would imply loose bolt, nor it is a drumming or humming sound of pure resonance. The best description I could find comes from the mentioned TSB: loose lumber.

Here's the part of the TSB:
'Some 2005-2007 Mustang Coupe vehicles equipped with 4.0L or 4.6L (excludes GT 500 and convertibles) may exhibit a “loose lumber”, rattle, or chuckle sound from the front end over bumps and rough roads'

You can see that it specifically mentions coupes and gives specific conditions. The reasoning behind the resonance is that exactly the same suspension components installed for example in verts don't make the sound any more. As an additional note, I can tell you that I can hear my car clunking only at slow speeds over bumps and small potholes. I disappears with increased speed.

 

I know I have a list around here somewhere. The problem will be all about finding it, as I don't even remember if it was in an electronic file or on a piece of paper.


Norm

 

did you check the upper strut mount?

 

I had the clunk as well, and I still have it to some degree. I'll say this I got the black stud strut mounts and it fixed the popping noise and a little of the clunk, but then the tie rods started clanging around under there as well. I would recommend having you inner and outer tie rods checked. Got mine fixed and it helped significantly. The sound is still there, but it has lessened. That's the thing though since everything is hooked together, if you buy an upgraded part of some kind, then the problem can migrate.

 

they recommend replacing bushings every year