Robertatl123

Hello Everyone,

I got done with all of the changes to my car last month. You can see what I did in my sig. Anyway, I'm now hearing a clunking noise up front. The annoying part is that it hasn't been consistent. For example, I ran the car in an autocross two weeks ago and the front made a lot of noise during the first two runs, but made no noise on the second two. It was cold and wet out so I was not able to look at anything until last weekend. The clunk will also sound off occationally over bumps, but not consistently.

I pulled the wheels off last weekend and double checked my work to see if anything came loose and could not find anything wrong. The noise came up after I installed my Strano front bar so I'm leaning to the notion that the OEM endlinks may not be up to the task.

Is there something else I could be missing? I just don't want to throw parts/money at the problem only to find out it was something else.

Regards,

heslekrants

Did you upgrade your strut mounts? I had a random cluck sound coming from the driver's side & found a broken strut mount with only 30K miles on my stock car.

These arrived about 10 minutes ago so I'm getting ready to get busy.

Robertatl123

Whoops! I forgot to add that to my list, but I also installed the MM Camber/Caster plates when I installed my struts. So I don't believe that is the culprit.

gmoran1469

Lift the front two tires and rack the steering back and forth. Try that on the ground also. If it's making a popping noise it's the front end links. Get yourself a set of Stranos or UMI's (they are basically the same thing) with the spherical bearings.

Robertatl123

Thanks for the advise gmoran. So far I was able to do the "easy" check with the car on the ground and should have time this weekend to lift the car. I did hear a small, consistent clunk when I moved the wheels lock-to-lock. I will order the new endlinks if I get the same results when the front is lifted.

Regards,

Robert

RWHEELS

Robert, I had a similar issue with mine, although it was very loud, I had to leave the autocross after 2 runs because I thought something was broke, it ended up being the front swaybar mount bolts, even though I tightened them, I guess the shop said they needed to be tightened under load, not jacked up. Sounded iffy, but its been a day since they tightened them and no noise.

Norm Peterson

It should have been possible to tighten the front bar's chassis bracket nuts regardless of whether the car's weight was on the wheels as long as you could get the bracket to go over the bolts.

That said, it appears to be possible for them to loosen (been there). Particularly if you've replaced the OE front bar with an aftermarket one (yup).


Norm

cruisin5268d

A tsb has been out on this issue for a while. I believe the trouble comes from a hydrobushing on the LCAs.

My 2013 was in the shop for this last week for replacement of both lower control arms.

Robertatl123

I checked mounts, collars, and moved the bar to full stiff yesterday. The clunk came up while I was taking a hard turn. The noise comes up on the opposite side that I am turning. So basically the left side will make a noise when I turn right.

I will be checking everything again, but I will put the car on ramps so that I can check the fittings while the suspension is compressed. I will also check the clearance between the sway bar and the LCA's in case the two are hitting.

I checked for a TSB for the 2014 models, but could not find anything on the LCA. I'm not sure if it is the LCA's anyway since the noise did not come about until immediately after I changed the sway bars.

Norm Peterson

I don't know if it's possible to install this bar upside down, but it'd be worth checking to be sure that it isn't.




Norm