Front Suspension Noise Fix

[kfss]

1995 Camry Right Front Suspension Creaking and/or Clunking Noise - Fixed!





I bought my 1995 Camry Wagon on 12 April, 2005. It had a creaking noise and/or a clunking noise whenever I would accelerate or decelerate coming from around the right front wheel area. It also would clunk on uphill inclines and sometimes during turns.



I took the vehicle to the Toyota dealership and they told me they wanted to replace the front struts & mounts ($850), the power steering rack ($1600) and 3 motor mounts ($900). I quickly grabbed my keys and drove out of there.

I started reading articles online and I read through all of the forums on this site that I could find on this subject which brought me to the conclusion the problem was probably my RH front strut mount. Even though I knew my struts were good, I had them replaced along with both front strut mounts since I was going to be paying for the labor anyways and the new ones come with a lifetime warranty. Sears had a sale on the struts and a 30% discount on the labor too, so I got it done for around $500. My first drive after this, I heard the sound again. I went in and talked with the mechanic who was there, who has been a car mechanic for 30 years and he said he had heard it too. He said it was probably a “body bushing”, and that he had put some lube on the “body bushing” was confident it would get quieter within a day or so. He also said he had tightened some bolts.




After a few days of driving, praying and feeling awful because of my costly flawed troubleshooting, I jacked up the car and noticed a loose front bumper bolt, the forward bolt on the lower control arm was loose, and the front suspension-to-body rear mounting bolt (which is what I believe the mechanic at Sears referred to as a “body bushing” was loose also. After I tightened up these bolts, the vehicle just made more clunking noises and I could definitely feel it in the floorboard when it did, but the creaking almost completely disappeared.




I went and looked thru the factory repair manual and I noticed in the Maintenance section that the Front Suspension-to-Body Bolts are supposed to be torqued to a whopping 134 ft lbs and I had only torqued it to 65 ft lbs while it was jacked up. I quickly got the 19mm socket and torque wrench and went to the rear bolt and I was able to turn the bolt at least 5-6 full turns before I got it torqued.





Thank God this fixed it!!! No more noise at all!!!




Now my concern about this is the vehicle only had 1 owner before me and she always had it serviced at Toyota, so why didn’t they perform the “Tighten Bolts and Nuts on Chassis and Body” service which is due every 24,000 miles? As much as I read about suspension noise all over the internet and printed reviews, I bet a lot of it could be prevented just by doing this scheduled service.




But what do I know? I’m only an aircraft mechanic pretending to be a car mechanic.

[noofa]

EDIT THIS AND PUT THE FONT BACK TO NORMAL

then you will recieve a response worth reading

[skewe]

if the font get any smaller, i might need a microscope.
nobody is going to read this or help you with your prob w/ such a small font.

[REAPER STRAIN]

i experienced a problem of that clunking noise after I upgraded my struts and springs but I had someone use a air wrench (compressor) to tighten all 4 nuts. Actually, i havent heard any popping in the last 2 weeks so maybe it was the springs settling as people have suggested.

[toysarefun]

Screw those guys who gave the original poster a hard time. This is a great post.

This same thing occured to my car after I let Toyota mechanics replace my rack & pinion.