I've been looking around the forums trying to figure out what this clunking is that's going on in my undercarriage. So far I've seen people mention LCAB's and SBEL's...neither of which I think I'd be able to remedy. But, I need something to tell my mechanic (he's being treated for depression and doesn't have time to listen to my bby).





I hear this clunking whenever I'm moving around over small bumps or gaps in the road up to I'd say 30 MPH. I couldn't tell if it was coming from one side of the car or the other, but it was definitely from the front half of my car.

 

I'd check the sway bar links first, They are annoying as **** when they start to wear.

 

I had a clunking going over bumps as well. The most common is sway bar end links and control arm bushings, I replaced both and didn't solve my problem. I upgraded to tc struts and replace the passenger side strut mount and the clunking went away.

 

Can you visibly see the wear on sway bar links?

 

Had the same issue with clunking on the passanger side going over road cracks and small bumps and it was the sway bar end links and only going slow as well.

 

Generally are these things covered under a powertrain warranty? Just curious.

 

Welp, I had the bushings replaced to no avail. My mechanic decided after listening to it again and having me shake the chassis a bit that it's actually the sway bar links. Wish me luck. This noise is driving me nuts.

 

Im in the middle of that problem now, replaced both swaybar endlinks with moog units, replaced the cabs with powell units, and replaced the strut mounts with oem units and STILL have clunking. goodluck! lol

 

Hmmm.....tie rod ends, ball joint, the strut itself?

 

The strut itself is newer aftermarket unit.
The others maybe

 

The sway bar bushings themselves do go bad sometimes. Cheap fix

 

The bushings usually dont SHOW wear.

 

Okay my mechanic quoted me $135 to replace both sway bar end links. This seems kind of high to me. So, I think I'm going to try installing new ones on my own...

 

Well I bought the moogs and started going at the top bolt. Of course I got it right to the end of the thread and the bolt is STUCK. :| now what.

 

Tie rod fork

 

Tell your mechanic he needs to learn how to check a balljoint style sway bar link.
Get your vehicle off the ground, from underneath grab the end of the sway bar and pull up and down.
You will feel the click - movement - in the sway bar link joint. If you dont, its fine assuming you are capable of doing this task.

You take the 2 nuts off and the link comes out.

yea or a grenade launcher

 

subd! something in my front end is starting to go all clankity clacky on my too. if i figure out what it is ill post up!

 

Whiz tool and cut it off . I did that all the time when the bolts got stuck. Might make a little bit of a mess but its better than playing with it for hours on end

 

Problem solved! The knocking is gone and my handling is as tight as ever. I'm so happy.
I ended up going over to my friend's house who's a bit more mechanically inclined than I. He had a ball joint remover and that handled the job quite well.
I just have one more question: How do I go about greasing these new Moogs? I need to buy a grease gun but what kind of grease do I use and how much do I put in the zerks? I'm guessing I put some in the top and bottom zerks as well, right? How often should I grease them? (That's 3 questions I guess lol)

 

I was told grease them once a year, or once in spring, once in fall