Front suspension making a knocking noise on rough roads

[FireLikeIYA]

Hello, I am hoping someone can help me out. I am about to purchase new struts for my car but I am not sure if they are the problem. I have an '02 Camry I4 LE with 178K miles on it. It has all original suspension components. When I drive on dirt or really rough paved roads that make the car kind of bounce from side to side I can hear a loud knocking sound coming from the front suspension. It sounds like something is loose and is more of a clunk clunk type of noise. Normally I never hear any noises its just on that rare occasion when I go fishing up in the mountains I come across these types of roads. The struts seem fine otherwise. Any ideas? They pass the bounce test and the car rides smooth...

[GT-R]

Grease your springs.

[Frodo65]

Originally Posted by FireLikeIYA

Hello, I am hoping someone can help me out. I am about to purchase new struts for my car but I am not sure if they are the problem. I have an '02 Camry I4 LE with 178K miles on it. It has all original suspension components. When I drive on dirt or really rough paved roads that make the car kind of bounce from side to side I can hear a loud knocking sound coming from the front suspension. It sounds like something is loose and is more of a clunk clunk type of noise. Normally I never hear any noises its just on that rare occasion when I go fishing up in the mountains I come across these types of roads. The struts seem fine otherwise. Any ideas? They pass the bounce test and the car rides smooth...

Could be a number of things, but the most likely suspects are the strut top bearing and the sway bar links.

With those kind of miles, I'd go over the whole front suspension, including bushings and ball joints, as well as the steering rack bushings and inner and outer tie rod ends. Inspect everything closely, replace parts that are out of spec.

[schott1984]

Have an altima with 196k that was doing the same thing but in the rear... Was sway bar endlinks, $25 on ebay and it was fixed.

[ebumdude]

Originally Posted by Frodo65

Could be a number of things, but the most likely suspects are the strut top bearing and the sway bar links.

With those kind of miles, I'd go over the whole front suspension, including bushings and ball joints, as well as the steering rack bushings and inner and outer tie rod ends. Inspect everything closely, replace parts that are out of spec.

+1.

I am almost willing to bet that it is your bearings OR your nuts on the top of the strut tower are not torqued to specs.