Clunk in front suspension

[baldmountain]

I searched previous posts and can't seem to find a solution.

I have a clunk noise in the front suspension of my 2000 Corolla on the driver's side and it is driving me nuts. It only happens when I go over bumps between about 10 and 40 mph, only the driver's side. I replaced the front struts with Bilstein struts, replaced the ball joint (which was needed, the rubber boot was ripped), and the noise is still there. I had a look at the sway/stabilizer bushings and they looks ok. Does anyone else have an idea
what my be causing my clunk?

[danbarr6]

Did you change the antiroll bar links? they are the small links going from the suspension to the antiroll bar dats wat it sounds lik to me neway they tend to go fairly often

[Bitter]

is the inboard CV joint and boot in good shape on that side?

[baldmountain]

The CV boot on that side looks fine. Not sure about the joint itself but the clunk only happens on bumps and is a clunk not a clicking noise so I think the CV joints are OK.

I had a look at the antiroll links and they look OK but I can't see inside the joint at each end so I could be wrong. The rubber around the joint looks fine.

Diagnosing suspension noises is a pain. You think you have it solved and it turns out to be something else. Grrrrr.

[danbarr6]

id still reckon its that i was drivin round 4 ages with that noise just too lazy to replace it, same story going over speed bumps

[Bitter]

Originally Posted by baldmountain

The CV boot on that side looks fine. Not sure about the joint itself but the clunk only happens on bumps and is a clunk not a clicking noise so I think the CV joints are OK.

2 types of CV joint on each axle. the inboard ONLY moves in and out in a socket and allows the axle to change length as the wheel goes over bumps in the road. the 2nd kind is the outboard which allows the wheel to turn side to side during turning, basically bending the powerflow through the axle.

a bad inboard joing will make clunks and clicks ONLY over bumps, as it gets worse the inboard joint will also make clunks when you tap the brakes, acclerate, or change vehicle directions.

[ghost_ryder35]

Originally Posted by baldmountain

I searched previous posts and can't seem to find a solution.

I have a clunk noise in the front suspension of my 2000 Corolla on the driver's side and it is driving me nuts. It only happens when I go over bumps between about 10 and 40 mph, only the driver's side. I replaced the front struts with Bilstein struts, replaced the ball joint (which was needed, the rubber boot was ripped), and the noise is still there. I had a look at the sway/stabilizer bushings and they looks ok. Does anyone else have an idea
what my be causing my clunk?

did you install the strusts right? check to make sure they are all torqued down to spec. also double check the ball joint on both driver and passanger sides for play. clunks on bumps in my experience are usually related to either bad struts or bad strut installs

[modestobulldog]

What about motor mounts?

[baldmountain]

Originally Posted by ghost_ryder35

did you install the strusts right? check to make sure they are all torqued down to spec. also double check the ball joint on both driver and passanger sides for play. clunks on bumps in my experience are usually related to either bad struts or bad strut installs

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I installed them OK. IIRC I had the clunk before the strut change.

Based on what I can see I'm thinking that the CV joint is looking like the best bet. At this point I think I may just let it go and see if it gets worse. (It's starting to get too cold here to work on cars. Especially a good sized job like a CV replacement.)

[baldmountain]

Originally Posted by danbarr6

Did you change the antiroll bar links? they are the small links going from the suspension to the antiroll bar dats wat it sounds lik to me neway they tend to go fairly often

I finally got around to changing the sway bar link on the side that was making the noise. That was it. Now it is gone...