I've been trying to track this down for a while. While turning right at 15-20mph and going over somewhat bumpy road, I get some pretty nasty clunking coming from the front right wheel well or possibly further underneath the car. I recently did my struts all around as well as many other things and I'm a little frustrated that I haven't found the source yet. The problem is I haven't been able to duplicate the noise when the car isn't moving which makes diagnosis a little tricky.

so here's the list of things that I've replaced and most of these needed to be done anyway so I haven't just been throwing tons of money at tracking down this noise:

-Struts and related bushings
-strut mounts
-strut bearings
-sway bar end links
-sway bar bracket bushings
-control arm bushings
-both axles (new on the driver's side, rebuilt on the passenger's side)
-ball joint

This ONLY happens when the road is bumpy. If it's smooth and I'm taking a hard right turn there is no noise. which makes me think it's not the wheel bearing.
Any ideas?

I should really try and record the sound and post that...

 

i actually did everything that you listed today + inner tierods + amsoil atf + fresh tires. i get a sort of plasticky clunking noise. the only person I would let touch my suspension, took a drive in my car and said there could be play in the brakepads. I forget what he said exactly, but I think it was the metal clips? made sense, but now im too tired to remember exactly what he said. but the sound i get is even when going straight. :shrug:

 

i'm having this problem too... I'll take a vid and post it up. See if its the same as as the sound you're getting...

 

i had sometin like this right after installing my blues. I looked at the strut and the rubber bushing that the spring seats into was cocked therefore the spring was knocking against the round steel plate deal, im not sure wut its called.

 

if it's only on right turns. it actually may be a badly setup suspension on the right side. if you're strut bearings are new oem, the "hat" of the mount may be installed incorrectly. there should be letters that say OUT. When that was installed poorly on my car I got my spring binding on me

 

cool. that would be really helpful.

 

yea i guess thats wut it can be called, the "hat", makes sense. My rubber bushing hat gotten pushed to the side therefore the spring was rubbing on the "hat". Made kinda a popping sound/clunk. Real easy to diagnose, just pull the tire and look at the top of the strut.

 

right, I think it's called the spring seat. I'll check it out today. Thanks.

 

ok here's the VIDEO. Does it Sound like this?!

 

i'm doing about 18-20 mph. regular turns. My axles have been replaced so those aren't the ones. I need to get rid of that sound! What is it?

 

anyone?!!!!

 

did you talk to jason?

 

206Maxima,

I might have missunderstood the video, so give me a little leeway here:

You say it happens when turning right, only in the video all I saw was you turning left.

Is it as simple as something on the left side of your suspension, when all along mechanics have been looking at the right?

Just a girly question, so forgive me if I missed something!

 

there was quite some noise i couldn't detect. does it make clunking noise when the car sits still? I have strut bearing problem too. when the car move slowly or sits still, it makes noise everytime i turn my steering wheel. the problem has been diagnosed by a mechanic as strut bearing problem.

 

206maxima,
Thanks for posting the video. That not the same noise that I'm getting. Mine is much sharper sounding, something like pipes clanging together.
I had a similar sound to that before I did my struts, strut mounts, and mount bearings. Do you get the same noise when going straight over bumps or only when turning?

I had some time yesterday so I pulled the wheel off and poked around a bit, the spring seat is slightly askew in one spot but not enough to let the spring hit any metal. I don't know... the problem is that everything looks okay and I can't duplicate the noise at all when the car is sitting still.

I'm going to try and record the sound tonight.

 

I had what could be similar noise...only when making left turns and excellerating hard or it happened when going over a hill quickly.....I had previously the axles replaced on both sides...After a month or so with noise I checked the axle nut torque...the driver side was not up to Torque specs!!! I retightened to specs....noise GONE!...it is worth a check with a torque wrench.

 

I was only turning left the whole time going up a parking garage. The sound comes from the RIGHT SIDE. ONLY...

 

I don't it doesn't make noise when i turn the wheel when parked. but the rear suspension makes noise when you get in and out of the car. So i don't know what that is neither.

 

I don't have a torque wrench...

I'll check it out today though.

 

The sound is also present when i go over a bump or sometimes going straight... could it be the strut mounts and bearings?

I'll try to take a better video because i only used my w810 on that one. So I'll take another one today before i take the wheel off.

I'll take videos of what my suspension looks like.

 

dont forget the little hat that the cotter pins goes through to prevent the nut from moving even if it is not tight enough. Most cars i have seen no longer have them on it.

 

jremignanti; can you change the title of the thread? Like indicate that we have video and pics?

Anyway here's the new video. Its rainy (seattle)... just turn your speakers up.




Not my neighborhood... they even called cops on me! Whehehe... but i explained that i was just trying to get a video to get help on what was going on with the car. So he let me off.

 

When I got home, I took off the wheel here's what i found.









Look on this one... I think everythings' ok... just dirty... But if you see anything that looks like its f'd up, let me know.

 

I checked this too but its fine...

 

jremignanti, is that what yours sound like? I mean in the 2nd video?

 

i see grease on the dustboot. i see grease on the lower control arm, sway bar bushing, tie rod and axle boot. is the axle boot still in tact? is the strut still good?

 

that's water. it was raining... strut is still good. and my axle was recently replaced.

 

i hope that's water. check your sway endlinks and make sure when they reassembled everything they torqued it well. just tighten it as much as you can while keeping the link straight

 

Dude, does everyone in your town live on a cul de sac? If anyone was watching you they must have thought you were nuts. did someone really call the cops?

mine doesn't really sound like the same thing. Here's video of my noise, the noise is the clunk clunk that comes in 8 seconds or so into the video. It didn't come out that well. I need to get a minidisc recorder or something. I tried using my digital camera but the sound is pretty crappy on there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS-_yYso7ec

btw, I tried to change the title of the thread but I don't think you can. That or I didn't try hard enough.

 

I tried to listen so close but i couldn't hear it... hmmm

yea they called a cop on me. Haha...

But yea what do you think mine is?

if you want to edit the title, click edit and then click advanced.

 

I have the same noise in my car... strut mount on the drivers side... that should be it... that's what it was on my car... still need to be replaced...

 

Yeah that recording was bad. hopefully someone will get me a minidisc recorder for christmas and I'll get a better take of it.
I did have a similar noise to yours that seemed to be fixed when I replaced my strut mounts and strut bearings. So that might be worth doing. Not too expensive either.

 

are you sure? I'll get my car checked on friday to see what it is. I'll let you guys know.

jremignanti, If you can send me a new video, i can put it on my psp and show my mechanic... and thanks dude, I'll get my strut mounts and bearings checked.

206maxima@gmail.com

 

My car is doing the same thing and yesterday it got worst. Now its making that noise whenever i'm moving.

 

get it checked. Did you check you axle If its leaking?

 

Just because your axle was just changed and doesn't have a cracked boot doesn't mean it's not bad. To me it sounds like a cv joint binding.

 

hummm i kinda had the same problem
but it went away

sounded like a diff clanking when i turned the wheel left only tho

went away

humm

 

any good way to test that short of replacing the axle? Here's a short sound clip of the noise, is that what cv joint binding sounds like? Would it make sense to one get the noise when going over bumps?

http://www.sourceaudio.net/audio/clunk.wav

 

I had front end clunks for a few years on my '95 GLE. I replaced darn near everything in the front end and still it was there.

It ended up being the rack. Until I took it to a shop that did nothing but racks, it was never found.

Since that was fixed, the front end is as solid as new.

YMMV

 

What was it tho?