I have had this problem for a little while now....So when I shift the wheels from left to right or vice versa I hear a clunk sound, just once, and only when I switch directions, and not at low speed or low g situations either. But still during some normal day turns I can feel/hear the noise and its getting annoying. Im thinking it could be the steering rack bushings? What do you guys think? My steering is otherwise very tight and has no other issues. I tried searching for how to's on the bushings but not a lot was to be found, aside from a few dead links and pics...If anyone knows how involved of a job this is and whats needed to be removed to do the bushings if they are indeed the culprit that would be very helpful. Thanks in advance.

 

It could be a LCA bushing, especially if you have a power steering hose leaking.
Or it could be the strut bearing on the top. Open the hood and look at the top nut of the strut. It should be dead center in the rubber mount. If you try to "shake" the car side to side and you see the nut move, that's a problem.

 

I thought about an LCA bushing too but i figured that would cause me to have some excess play in the steering which i dont have. I dont have any leaks either.. Ill check the things you mention though hopefully tomorrow if its not in the single digits... thanks.

 

the LCA went out on my 3rd gen but I didn't notice any play in the steering. I did have clunking and the car pulled to the side under hard acceleration. Both upper strut bearings have gone out on my 97, at different times of course, and all I had was clunking.

 

i'm gonna say control arms too.
they are done exactly yhe same as the third gens arms

 

I have the same issue on the right side only. Mine started after I had the tokico hp kit installed. I don't think that it's the strut bearing since I had new ones Installed with the new strut mounts.

 

It could be the LCA bushings as stated.
I know I had a strange little clunk, I haven't gotten around to diag'ing yet
I'm thinking maybe an inner tie rod or rack bushings.

 

This thud is starting to happen more and more and its getting annoying so I put my car on a friends lift everything seems to check out okay, altho my lca bushing are hard to judge This noise doesnt seem to be from them. This thud is distinct and feels more direct than something that would come from anywhere but the rack.. Does anyone know how to find and check if the rack bushings are bad? I tried looking around but I didnt know where to really start. Thanks.

 

grab the rack housing and see if it moves.

 

Hey maxi man. I got a same prob, how did you fix it? plz Im bugging out