odonnell

When I'm moving slowly over uneven ground, sometimes I get a light clunk that's only noticeable with the windows down. This NA used to be a track/DE car so over the years I've replaced a lot of suspension parts, including (from front suspension): control arms, ALL bushings, wheel bearings, ball joints, upper strut mounts, and all the hardware for everything even remotely important.

Here is my question: what is the most reasonable explanation for why the 2 strut nuts aren't threaded on equally? In the pics you will see one has a few more threads through the nut. Edit: just to add, these are Bilstein coilovers, not the stock struts and etc.







The most obvious thing to me was one was looser. Over the years they have worked their way loose and I've always re-tightened them, it's just part of my maintenance regime. When I took those pics, they were torqued equally gutentight using an offset wrench and an allen bit. I have new nylock nuts on order to make sure they stay that way. I originally wrote this off as an issue where 1 strut upper mount was collapsed more on the driver side...maybe a fat dude used to own this car, idk. But since replacing them last year I noticed they're still like that.


So, now I'm trying to figure out if this is my smoking gun for the clunking. All four wheels have absolutely no play up and down. There is a very very slight amount of play in the steering plane of the front wheels, which is making me add tie rods to my to-do list (they're visibly fine) but maybe that's ok.

NoRush993/951

Check the motor mounts. That was the source of my clunk.

odonnell

Bolts were loose? Or they were just crappy? I know mine are on the way out, the OEM ones a PO put in had a nice 10 year run.

arthropraxis

Or swaybar mounts. Mine has a clunk looked under there this weekend and one mount was broken.

odonnell

I checked mine, all is well. Nothing under the car visually jumps out to me. I even retorqued the crossmember to chassis bolts just to be sure.

thomasmryan

Does the sound go away when the steering is off center?

V2Rocket

Inner swaybar bushings have any oil on them?
Are the springs seated fully...

bw993

Since you have coilovers, have you ever had the car corner balanced?

odonnell

Installed the new nylocs and they torqued down to the same heights as the old ones. Bonus achievement, the allen key drive on the driver side shock stripped. So I guess it's rattle gun from here on out for that side, as long as I have that shock.

I'm not sure, I usually notice it when I'm crawling along and about to stop at a stop sign or something.

The springs are indeed fully seated, checked again last night. And the swaybar is 100% proper, the bushings are the correct size for the bar and they're less than a year old.

No, I got the car with them already installed and have never messed with them. The car sits level so I never adjusted anything. Flawed decision?

V2Rocket

maybe i just can't see it in your photo but there is supposed to be a big rubber O-ring type thing beneath the top strut plate (between the dome and the "mega cone washer" that the nut tightens against)

not a huge thick donut like the late model cars but a thinner i dunno 1/4-3/8" thick ring.

odonnell

It's hard to tell in the pictures, but they're both present. I ordered new ones earlier this week just to eliminate them from the equation (they were cheap) as well as the foam isolators that go between the upper strut mounts and the chassis.

Squid924

I have a similar situation with my car. I tend to hear a clunk at slow speeds, however mine is only present on the drivers side. I have been through this suspension several times over the past 20 years and most of the parts are low mileage. I can replicate the sound by pushing down and pulling up the fender. I thought for sure it was a strut mount as they are original, ordered new ones and replaced, noise still present! Swapped the passenger side mount to the drivers side, and the noise is still present.

Bearings, ball joints, etc all check out as being ok.

With the springs off, the drivers side strut insert is definitely binding (?) this may not be the proper term. But the initial movement takes more effort. My car sat for a while with ground-control coil-overs that were fairly low, and I am wondering if that had an impact.

When my car gets back from having some paint work done I plan to get back into the suspension.