Still have clunking suspension after repair please advice!

[dandxg]

I have read every possible post already, I believe, on this very helpful site regarding struts and suspension so here goes.

I just replaced the front struts and front strut mounts on my 1996 Corolla DX. The original parts had 160,000 miles on them. I had been hearing a clunking sound coming from the right front side for some time so I was advised to replace the strut mounts along with the struts which I did.

Now I hear the clunking sound coming from both sides, although it is quieter. Ihave now driven about 400 miles since the repair with the "newer" quieter clunking sound. The mechaninc whom did my alignment suggested I may have gotten bad strut mounts. Some questions, please don't laugh at me too hard as this was my first "major" car repair.

1. When re-installing the spring does it matter if pink marking goes up or down? The springs have a pink and blue mark on spring. It appears the spring is now seated correctly as it looks like the picture in the Haynes manual. I had a professional mechanic put the "strut assembly" back together as I was having the challenges getting the spring to seat correctly with a vice and professional spring compressor.

2. What is the correct torque setting for the lower strut assembly bolts. I have seen conflicting info on this one. Anywere from 105 lbs to 205 in the Haynes manual. I set it at 105 lbs which is what the strut manufacturer recommended.

3. I was also told that it could be other suspension parts ie. bushings and hardware making this noise, that haven't been replaced? Okay fine, but if that is the case, why couldn't I hear this sound before?

4. If the new strut mounts are bad, how would I know? If I have to replace them how do I handle the fact that I had to drill out larger holes for the bolts than stock? Would any future strut mounts fit loose because the previous "new ones" required a larger mounting hole than OEM's?

Please help and advise I am frustrated! It almost sounds worse/more often than before. I appreciate all help and advice.

[wormhole]

check you sway bars. I had the same problem on my camry and it ended up being that my rear sway bar was lose and after it got tighten the problem was gone. So check that.

[tashirosgt]

Car noises are perplexing. I've often been tempted to tape microphones at various places on the frame and hook them up to some headphones. I wonder if anyone has ever resorted to that? Would the wireless kind work around a metal car frame?

My attempt to enumerate the places where you could get noise:

The center member and cross member hold up the engine and transmission. They rarely get loose, due to ordinary driving but if you've had major work on the engine or transmission, check the bolts that hold these. I find that when you remove these bolts they look as if they are stripped a little when the car is assembled at the factory and some of them ARE likely to be stripped when you reassemble it after major repairs. The center member, which supports the engine, is hollow and has nuts welded inside it to hold some of the bolts that go through the cross member. These nuts can break lose.

Some suspension noises can be isolated by jacking a wheel up on a jackstand and then rig up a kind of see-saw arrangement with a board under the wheel so you can bounce the wheel up and down.
I can't quite duplicate a good bump in the road with this setup but it sometimes the noises appear.

If the top of the strut rod is not completely seated in the strut mount, you will get a rather loud noise as bumps cause it to seat and unseat itself and the nut on the top of the rod will move up and down and strike the mount. If you can find an example of a car with your kind of struts correctly mounted, not e how far down on the top of the strut rod the nut is and compare it to yours.

Check if the coil spring is smacking against the side of the car. You can temporarily tape some cloth or car board around it and see if the clunk sounds different.

Check the tie rod ends.

Beyond the above, I don't know a good way to check the rest of the suspension without doing a little disassembly. You can disconnect the lower ball joint from the wheel assembly. I find ball joints very un-intuitive. They aren't supposed to be easily flexed. But they aren't supposed to be "frozen" either. If you can get your hands on a new one, play with it a little and you will understand what a good one feels like.

With the ball joint disconnected you can try moving the control arm. It pivots on two bushings. I haven't encounted any arms with bad bushings so I can't tell what that situation looks like. At least you will be able to tell if you hear metal on metal.

[SR5_4WD]

Ahhhh....I believe the problem is your CV joints. My car had the same problem

[dandxg]

I will probably just check to see that all is tight underneath the car on the suspension. I don't think it is the CV Joints as I only hear the noise when going over bumps or potholes. It appears that even if I took it to the stealership for diagnostic/troubleshooting they would go through the same process of elimination testing which I can do. Thanks for the advice. I will let you know how it goes.

Dan

[dandxg]

I just went underneath and tightened all bolts, and broke off the rear bolt that holds the center member to cross member, I believe that is correct. Damn it! I thought the torque specs is 116 ft bs torque, am I wrong?

Is it safe to drive it to the auto parts store to get a replacement bolt. I think it is 14mm head?

I have read that I can drill into the bolt and pound a srew driver in and unscrew it, also something about ez out device? Any thoughts people.

I still hear the freakin clunking sound like before too. Could I have not lubbed it up enough before putting back in? Here is what I did...........I lubbed the inside of bearing where the strut mount is with white lithium grease and tha's it, did I miss something that needs lube when replacing struts and strut mounts?

I appreciate all help. Really I have done some repairs before and I was actually sucessful, lol

[tashirosgt]

I think your lube is correct.

I'll have to look at a service manual this evening about the bolt toque. There may be at least two other bolts holding things together near the one that broke. If so, I think you can drive to the store.
The head size of the replacement bolt doesn't matter, match the diameter of the shaft, the length and the thread pitch.

Extracting bolts by drilling into them with an ordinary drill bit and unscrewing them by using something that grabs the hole you drill is a standard procedure. I've never tried the idea of just using a screwdriver. It might work. The "easy outs" are like drill bits except they grip harder when you turn them counterclockwise instead of unscrewing themselves. A set of them is not expensive but they are very brittle and easy to break. From the point of drilling the initial hole, it is most convenient to use the smallest diameter easy out, but in my experience the smaller sizes snap off too easily. What happens to me is that I start with a small hole, snap off the easy out. Drill a bigger hole, use a bigger easy out and snap it off. Finally I get to a feasible size. The only thing I ever have handy to turn the easy out is a crescent wrench. I think you are supposed to used the T handles that machinsts use.

[tashirosgt]

Here is what autozone thinks about the torques:

https://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiB...3d8016a093.jsp

[dandxg]

Thanks tashirosgt , I would appreciate you getting back to me with the torque specs.

I feel defeated, damn it, maybe I will just live with the noise, once I get the bolt replaced

[tashirosgt]

Maybe the clunk will be something coming from the rear struts and you'll be happier with your work on the front ones. Just hope it doesn't turn out to be the lug wrench clanking around in the trunk!

[dandxg]

Thank you for your help tashirosgt. I am glad to see you have a sense of humor too. Now looking at the autozone specs, I am surprised I didn't snap off all of them. The others must be atleast 90lbs! Should I back them off, or leave them alone for the fear of the heads snapping off the others if I try to back them off?

[tashirosgt]

I would back them off - gently. What I have is the 1996 Prizm Manual, which shows, near the center of the crossmember, 3 nuts and slightly off to the side of them another nut and 1 bolt. The torque for each of these is 45 ft lbs. As I recall that's slightly more than the autozone data.

[edphighlader04]

I'd go back to the sway bar. There are several rubber bushings that could wear out that hold the swaybar. They will "clunk" if they are worn out. If you turn the wheel while you are parked and don't hear it, it is probably that. If you are driving and hear it is probably one of the struts. Did you replace the struts yourself? There are often small metal spacers in the top of the struts, holding the spring to the strut, that could shatter if you torque them too much (sounds like you like to tighten things quite a bit) and that would lead to a clunking noise. Either way it is not that big of a deal... suspension noises are tricky.

[good_old_geo]

is that a clunk on acceleration and deceleration? if it is then its the inner cv. Im having the same problem now. mine started as a clunk but now its a thumping noise when accelerating.

[ice_d_mugg]

Originally Posted by tashirosgt

Car noises are perplexing. I've often been tempted to tape microphones at various places on the frame and hook them up to some headphones. I wonder if anyone has ever resorted to that?

yes thas called a Chassis Ear they're the coolest thing for suspension noises, i have one.