Jake951

My car has developed a knocking noise on one side of the front end of the car. It gets triggered over even relatively small bumps on the road. It's a very sharp rapping or knocking noise that's fairly loud. The car has 52,000+ miles now, including a lot of track miles.

Every component in the front end has been looked over many times and checked for looseness but nothing is loose or amiss. Otherwise the car drives and handles absolutely normally, included on the track. I've concluded it has to be the front shock on that side.

Has anyone else experienced something like this that turned out to be a shock?

motopix

Is there a consistent rattle while driving down the road or only on bumps?

First thought would be worn top plate. Could also be the internal bushings in the shock. For the internal bushings, mine came and went at first then became an almost constant rattle. Top plate knock/thunk, in my limited experience, happens only going over bumps.

Jake951

Right now it's only over bumps but it's getting worse. Recently I would get it only over the bigger bumps and potholes, but now it's occurring on smaller bumps as well. The front camber plates were replaced a while back with Tarett monoball units. Those are still tight and have no play in them at all. The whole shock assembly still feels tight from the outside but it could be internal bushings as you say.

motopix

One other thing I noticed as mine developed their death rattle was that they got worse up to a certain point after driving a bit. That's to say, I'd pull out first thing in the a.m. and they'd be quiet, after 5 minutes they start to rattle a bit then get to a constant rattle a little while later. I suppose the movement was heating up the shock internals.

Bilsteins can be rebuilt and their tech guy said it would be cheap to replace bushings (this was on B16 Damptronics) but I never followed up. I will at some point but I just put new shocks in. Their customer service can be very slow and unresponsive from what I've heard but the tech guy was great. Maybe given them a call.

oldskews4

Check your sway bar links.

Jake951

They are rock solid. I even tried disconnecting them and doing a road test with the front swaybar not attached. It made no difference.

oldskews4

It almost certainly has to be a loose nut or a bad bushing/joint somewhere. A bad shock typically won't produce a knocking noise. Good luck with your search. Let us know if you find the culprit.