Clunk on passenger front tires - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

liqourish · 06-02-2008, 01:47 AM

my 90 camry rides good, though when i hit a average(5inches~) speed bump at like 5mph or more the passenger front makes a clunk as its going up. the left side doesnt do it. is this bad? is there a cure lol?

Kep · 06-03-2008, 12:09 PM

Inspect the strut mount. When these begin to fail you get that sort of noise. Mine got so bad that the strut was loose in the tower, when I jacked up that wheel the wheel dropped down another 6" or so. When I looked at the mount from the engine compartment side the rubber looked all cracked and torn.

It could just as well be some other point of the suspension wearing out. Look at all of the rubber bearings and the ball joints.

Kep

TBayToyotaBoy · 06-03-2008, 01:11 PM

Kep's right--inspect all suspension components for wear. If the ball joint or the tie rod end have cracks in the boot, replace them. My money is on a cracked coil spring--inspect it closely, especially where it sits in the upper and lower seats.

liqourish · 06-03-2008, 10:03 PM

any one got pics of what your talking about lol. i know the rubber part is all torn up. thats about it. and is it normal to have the back of the car lower then the front? it seems my car has been riding lower in the back for like a year now. :/

thanks for the help btw

TBayToyotaBoy · 06-04-2008, 01:49 PM

No pics handy, but can you be more specific about which rubber part is torn? Do you mean the dust cover that hangs down around the strut cylinder (inside the coil spring)?

As for front-to-rear height, the rear always looks slightly lower than the front (measuring from the top of the tire to the edge of the wheel well). However, if the rear is really sagging then the gas charge in your rear struts has begun to leak out and you'll have to replace them soon.

liqourish · 06-04-2008, 07:11 PM

ya the coil covers are ripped. and just about how many inches of sagyness we talkin is bad?

TBayToyotaBoy · 06-05-2008, 11:18 AM

Stand about 20 feet away from the car, looking at it from either the driver's or pass's side. Is the top of the rear tire hidden by the wheel well? Or is there almost no gap between the top of the tire and the wheel well? You should have close to one inch of space there. If not, the struts and/or springs are sagging--more likely the struts. The springs only tend to go bad after the struts have been bad for awhile.