[Toyota_JP]

How much trouble is it to replace all the rubber parts in the anti-sway bars and such that begin klunking and bumping in high mileage cars? I had the front and back struts replaced relatively recently and the front outer tie rods have been replaced once but none of the rubber bushings in the suspension and none of the engine mounts have been replaced. I know for as fact that the dogbone engine mount is bad but most of my noise is coming from the rear of the car. It's a 2000 V6 Solara, 415,000 miles. I'm not experiencing any uneven tire wear and the car tracks straight so is it anything more than an auditory bother?

 

[BMR]

When the struts were replaced, were the upper mounts replaced? If not, it's probably those, if the clunking sounds like it's inside the car.

 

[Toyota_JP]

BMR, I have no idea but I did notice one of the new clunks right after I had the struts replaced. I actually took out the rear seat to make sure they had installed the struts tightly. I'll see about googling up the upper mounts because the sound is clear enough to be like you describe...as in the car.

 

[mcgowaw]

did they use quick struts (in which case the mounts were replaced too) or did they keep your orig springs and parts and just change the shock/strut? if you can find that out from the work order, that'd be helpful.
while you were checking the torque on the rear strut mounting bolts, did you also torque the main center bolt to 55ft/lbs?
the fsm sez somewhere around 30 but, at least on monroe's, they correct it to be 55. i did that on all 4 of mine cause i had the 2 front center bolts cause clunking over bumps before on a similar car.
might try some lube spray up inside the spring to get rid of some of the sound if you don't want to pull the struts out, pull them apart with a spring compressor and then put on new mounts.
tony

 

[speedkar9]

The easiest way to start isolating the sound is to disconnect the sway bar end links. That removes the sway bar bushings and end links from the equation completely. Drive the car over a bumpy surface and see if the noise is still there.

 

[Toyota_JP]

Excellent pointers! Much appreciated....sounds like I have some work ahead taking out that back seat again.

 

[Artbuc1]

The easiest way to start isolating the sound is to disconnect the sway bar end links. That removes the sway bar bushings and end links from the equation completely. Drive the car over a bumpy surface and see if the noise is still there.

+1. This is how I recently pinpointed problem with rear sway bar bushings on my 99 Avy. Bushings looked great but I learned that even a slightly loose bushing can cause a big thump under certain conditions.

 

[M in KC]

If it does end up being your sway bar bushings they are not that hard to change. Soak the retaining bolts down a day in advance with the penetrating oil of your choice to aid in easy removal. I did the rear sway bar busing on my '95 earlier this year and used Moog's Problem Solver bushing my rear clunk is gone. Now I need to do the fronts along with the connecting links.