I originally thought that my strut mount bearing was bad in my left front strut mount, causing the spring-shifting and subsequent clunking noise that would occur whenever I turned the wheel or hit a bump. While the new mounts caused my steering to feel much nicer thanks to brand-new bearings, my spring-shifting and clunking has not improved in any way.
I found out that I can actually grab ahold of the left front spring, while the car is on the ground, and shake it around inside the strut ever-so-slightly. This is the only corner of the car that I can do this on, every other one will not budge. So I have a couple theories for this:
1) My first theory is that this spring has somehow lost its rigidity, and is no longer holding up 100% of that corner's weight. It is actually transferring a slight amount of weight to the strut itself, and that allows it to move slightly inside the strut.
2) My second theory is plausible but holds much less water. I have no bottom rubber spring seats on any of my struts. The spring is sitting directly on the metal strut seat itself. This is exactly as they were on my old struts, I have never seen the original seats if there were any, and if there were, I can't find them listed in my parts catalogs, my FSM's, or anywhere else.
So, the question arises. Should I look into a new set of OEM springs to replace these old, tired ones? Or should I try to somehow find the bottom rubber spring seats that seem to have never existed?
What do you all think the problem is?
