Suspension clunk

[Legacy777]

I just recently noticed a clunking. It is more prevelant when making left turns. It's not there while driving straight, and if I go down the road and do quick left right turns, it's not there either.

Only seems to be there when turning from a stop or making a 90 degree turn.

I know my CV axles have been making some noise.....should've replaced them instead of rebuilding......but not sure if they could be causing the noise. I've taken off the bushings for both front and rear anti-sway bars, and they are fine. I have whiteline end links front and rear.....as well as a whiteline 20-24mm bar with HD links.

I need to take a buddy in the car to try and isolate what corner of the car it's coming from.

I've shaken everything under the car and everything seems fine.....

It's a little un-nerving hearing this clunk and not being able to figure out where it's coming from.....

Any ideas....

[georryan]

Is it a continuous clunk like the a bad cv joint, or is it a single clunk? I just changed my front passenger side half axle. The axle was bad. The inner boot was torn and most of the ball bearings were gone. I'd never seen an inner boot so bad. That quieted the noise on turns down a bit, but it still makes it. I really hear it on tighter slower turns (probably just coincedence), like out of my driveway. Like you it is only on left turns not right ones. I find it odd that cvaxles.com would send me a bad half axle, but I'm not sure what else it could be. It sounds just like a cv joint going bad.

-Ryan

[vrg3]

Have you checked the strut top nuts?

It's a long shot, since in all likeliness other symptoms would have showed up too, but have you tried taking off the wheels and examining the brakes?

[Slick1100]

My car makes a definite clunk at slow speeds when turning at slow speed on the right. I have a badly worn upper strut mount on the right front, which I didn't find until I had the car up on a lift. The nut is tight, but the strut shakes in the mount. I also got a vibration during braking. New struts and mounts are on the way for me! No lowering though... I got stuck in the snow last winter because of the car being too low!

[Legacy777]

CV axles are a possibility, but I don't think they are causing this noise. The clunk I'm talking about is more of a one time deal, however it almost seems as if turning left I get a clunk, and then whenever I make a right it clunks again.......I have jacked the car up......didn't see anything obvious, but I didn't really look at the strut top nuts. I'll have to try and do that tonight if I have time.

The noise is drivin me nuts

[entirelyturbo]

Josh, during what period in your left turn does the noise happen? The instant you turn the wheel? When you are turning and then get on the gas? When stopped and then go turning left?

It sounds like a loose nut somewhere to me; something is shifting when your turn left and then shifting back when you turn right...

[georryan]

Have you checked the castle nut or whatever it is called ont he end of your wheel? I'm assuming that you've always torqued that down, but if that isn't tight enough it will allow your wheel bearing to slide around. I had that problem once.

-Ryan

[entirelyturbo]

Josh, another thought I had. Check your balljoints. I'm guessing that Subaru balljoints don't like getting old, as both my Subies have at least one new balljoint on them. My Legacy has a new passenger's, and my XT has a new driver's. Both of those fixed a clunk of sorts...

[Legacy777]

See the noise does happen at random times too. I had to go home today during lunch and I heard the noise when pulling up to the stop sign slowly. I heard it twice, the only correlation was it seemed to happen when the front and rear wheels went over this seam.

I checked the strut top bolts in the front, they are fine. On saturday I had the car in the air wiggled all four wheels, and all felt fine. The right rear had just the slightest of play in it...nothing that I would consider to be causing the noise.

I wiggled around the ball joints as well, and they didn't feel super sloppy

Ryan, do you mean the main nut that holds the axle to the hub? assuming the cotter pin isn't broken, that thing shouldn't have loosened up.....plus like I mentioned the wheels weren't wobbling around.

I'm going to probably pull the rear seat out and padding and check the rear struts and stb. I checked it from the trunk, and it seemed fine.

I'm also going to double check the struts and springs, to make sure they're seated correctly.

I know I could probably use new ball joints, and new cv axles.....but unless I can contribute them to to the noise I'm hearing, they'll probably have to wait for a tad bit.

damn car......it can't just work right....always got to be screwin around......that and I need to fix the damn hvac controls.

[evolutionmovement]

Mine clunked at random intervals from bad antiroll bar bushings.

Steve

[Legacy777]

Well I did some more playing today, and observations.

When leaving from work I noticed the noise. I was on flat ground and just turning slowly around the corner.

I really thought it was the CV joints. I played with them on the front of the car and they seemed ok.

Well I took the rear seat out and all the insulation as well, also took out my box, everything in the trunk, rear tray....EVERYTHING!!!

Still made the noise, but it did sound like it was coming from the rear of the car.

I checked all the struts, top mounts, bolts, etc, they were fine.

I then proceeded onto pretty much the last option the rear anti-sway bar. I had just removed the brackets that hold the bushings onto the car, so they were fine. However I tightened up the bolts that held the endlinks to the lower lateral links, and the ones holding the links to the bar. I drove it, and the noise has seemed to go away. I don't know which ones tightening actually helped. I have the older links.

I haven't been real impressed with whitelines or mrt's stuff.....always so chinsey.....I think there should be some washers on the bolts that go between the bar and links......so I'm goin to try and pick some up, which may help prevent this in the future.

When I have more time and the washers, I'll take the endlinks completely off and make sure they are holding up ok.

Hopefully this is the fix....simple and easy.

With all the stuff out the back, I can hear a lot more noises and sloshing around of fuel.....

I think i could use new bushings on some of the componants......hell I should just get sti links front and rear